Union with Christ: The Way to Know and Enjoy God

by Rankin Wilbourne

So I’ll conclude this chapter with my favorite image for union with Christ. It’s from Ephesians 4, where Paul says our union with Christ is a reality we grow up into. We are to grow up “to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children … We are to grow up in every way into [Christ]” (vv. 13–15). The metaphor makes clear that we are already in Christ, definitively and objectively. And now, we are to grow up into him, experientially and subjectively. Imagine a little boy wearing his father’s dress shirt. He is already fully clothed, you could say, but he’s still just a little boy. He’ll have to grow up into this new covering until it fits him. In the same way, we are already completely clothed in Christ and his righteousness, but life in Christ is one of growing up into this new reality until it fits us. You are not striving to attain it. You are striving to lay hold of what is already yours. You are growing up into it.