Kofi Adu-Boahen: Union with Christ

And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption â€” 1 Corinthians 1:30

Kofi Adu-Boahen is a blogger at Fiery Logic, and member at Gracelife London. In his theological studies, he has been digging into the doctrine of Union with Christ. He believes that this simple doctrine is the key to rightly understanding so many other doctrines, and proper understanding of it will answer many of the theological questions we all have. He joins me to discuss Union with Christ, and how it affects our theology and our lives as Christians.

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Outline of the Discussion

Kofi came across the doctrine of Union with Christ in his personal theological studies, and has really come to hold it near to his heart. It's an important topic, but not one that we hear a lot of conversation about. Kofi wants to do his part to change that.
Quoting John Murray's book Redemption Accomplished and Applied, Kofi says: “It's [the doctrine of Union with Christ] not a step in the application of redemption, but it underlies every step of the application of redemption.” Sactification, Justification, and Redemption all have their root in our Union with Christ.
Defining Union with Christ, we're talking about the relationship of the regenerate soul with Christ, that the believer is in Christ, and Christ is in the believer, and all of this by faith.
Marriage is a model of our Union with Christ, and demonstrates that while we are distinct and unique, we are also united.
Recently (the last year or two), there has arisen a controversy over sanctification that began with a book called “Jesus + Nothing = Everything” by Tullian Tchividjian. It erupted into an online debate between Tchividjian and Kevin DeYoung. Kofi quickly noticed that one side of that discussion kept going back to Union with Christ, while the other never mentioned it (Kofi opts not to “poison the well” by revealing which side he's referring to). Instead, the counter argument was that Sanctification is merely the living-out of our Justification. This makes Justification the center of things, and everything else the “bike spokes,” instead of our Union with Christ being the center and our Justification, Sanctification, and Redemption being the “bike spokes.”
In regard to the Ordo Solutus, the logical events relating to our salvation flow out from our Union with Christ.
We had much discussion on how the Union with Christ is to manifest itself in our daily lives, centered around Colossians 3. We “put off” the old self (with a list of vices), and “put on” the new self (with a list of virtues), by way of our Union with Christ.
By extension, our Union with Christ brings us into Union with each other.
As Baptists (generically speaking, not denominationally), we view the issue of Baptism through the lens of Union with Christ as a sacrament intended for those who are united with Christ, as is manifest in a profession of faith.