So pictures are exactly what the Bible gives us. Union with Christ—what is it? It’s like marriage (Eph. 5). It’s like the relationship of a human body to its head (1 Cor. 12) or stones to a building (1 Pet. 2). Even Jesus uses an extended metaphor of vine and branches to describe our union with him (John 15). The number of metaphors tells us how important this is; the variety tells us how far reaching. But the fact that metaphors must be used at all tells us there is no way to describe or explain union with Christ directly.
