Union With Christ

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 117
• Hymn — From All That Dwell Below the Skies
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Sin
• Assurance of Pardon — Psalm 103:11-13
• Scripture Reading — Ruth 4:1-12
• Hymn — There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Prayer of Dedication
• Hymn — Marvelous Grace of Our Loving Lord
• Sermon
• Hymn — Amazing Grace
• Benediction — 2 Corinthians 13:14

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Sermon Title: Union With Christ

Scripture: Philippians 3:4-11

I. Union with Christ and Justification

A. Paul's impeccable credentials as an Israelite (Philippians 3:4-6)

1. Circumcised on the eighth day; of the tribe of Benjamin; a Hebrew of Hebrews
2. A Pharisee — the strictest sect in Judaism
3. Zealous to the point of persecuting the church; blameless under the law

B. The monumental reversal: all gain counted as loss (Philippians 3:7-8)

1. Paul's religious achievements were like a growing bank account of righteousness — but when he met Christ he discovered he was actually bankrupt before a holy God
2. He counts everything as rubbish (dung) not to gain heaven or eternal life as abstract concepts, but to gain the person of Christ

C. Justification flows from union with Christ (Philippians 3:9)

1. "Being found in him" — not a righteousness of one's own from the law, but the righteousness from God through faith
2. Christ's righteousness is imputed and reckoned to the believer's account — we become co-heirs with him (Romans 8:17)
3. The benefits of salvation are never to be separated from the Benefactor — salvation is a person, Jesus Christ

II. Union with Christ and Sanctification

A. The paradox of resurrection and death (Philippians 3:10)

1. Paul appears to reverse the expected order — resurrection first, then suffering and death — because the risen Christ empowers the believer to die to self
2. "[W]hoever loses his life will keep it" (Luke 17:33) — you get busy living by getting busy dying

B. The meaning of koinonia — sharing in his sufferings

1. The Greek word translated "fellowship" conveys an organic, vital union — like a limb to a body — not mere metaphor
2. It is spirit-wrought connection: the very same Spirit that empowered Christ to go to the cross now indwells and empowers the believer

C. Sanctification is Christ's sanctification imparted to us

1. Christ does not merely declare us rich and depart — he takes us with him, trains us in righteousness, and imparts his Holy Spirit
2. Daily dying to self and living unto God is possible only through union and communion with Jesus Christ

III. Union with Christ and Glorification

A. Paul's vision of the good life is bodily resurrection (Philippians 3:11)

1. Christ is not a bodiless spirit — he is raised body and soul, seated at the right hand of the Father; Paul is united to this Christ
2. Paul's goal is not land, possessions, or even heaven in the abstract — it is to be raised like Christ, body and soul, at the last day

B. The mishandling of 1 Corinthians 15:54-55

1. Death still stings until the day of resurrection — a grieving spouse knows this; the pastor must not deny it
2. What turned the disciples' sadness to joy was not a feeling or a cliché but the physical, risen Christ — hands, feet, wounds that Thomas could touch

C. Glorification is already secured in our union with the risen Christ

1. Christ raised is the firstfruits guaranteeing the full harvest of resurrection for all united to him
2. Romans 8:30 — "Those whom he justified he also glorified" — spoken as a settled fact because our glorification is in the already-risen Christ
3. Therefore believers can die to self with joy, knowing they share fellowship with the ascended Christ today and will one day be made like him, body and soul