Union with Christ: The Way to Know and Enjoy God

by Rankin Wilbourne

The doldrums train you to place your trust in God and not in your own frantic blowing.

like Pascal we must find ways to sew reminders into our lives—daily and habitually—of our union with Christ. We’ve emphasized over the course of this book that union with Christ means that you are united to the Savior in a living relationship.

“A small task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules.” 21 Trollope was saying that over the long run, the unglamorous habit of repetition sparks creativity and adds to productivity.

There are no gospel prodigies. There’s no one-and-done way to keep your union with Christ in front of you. You must draw the sail, repeatedly and habitually. Or you won’t move.

Christ is always faithful, even when we are not (2 Tim. 2:13). We change, but he never does. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8). One of the Puritan writers put it memorably, “Your heart is not the compass Christ saileth by.” 2

Owen says nothing grieves God more than our “hard thoughts” about him, that is, our unwillingness to believe that God really is this tender and kind toward us. Why does nothing grieve God more? Because he knows “how unwilling is a child to come into the presence of an angry father.” 3

what grieves him most is not our sin but our refusing to believe that he is so kind, and that he desires to be with us so much more than we do with him. If our soul only knew this, “it could not bear an hour’s absence from him; whereas now, perhaps, it cannot watch with him one hour.”

you are not alone, Christ is with you, in you, and you are hidden in him.

Union with Christ means you are in Christ and Christ is in you.

The Bible dares to say of Christ that “he learned obedience through what he suffered” (Heb. 5:8). If God’s own Son, who was perfect, had to learn obedience through what he suffered, how much more necessary must it be for us to learn to trust God through what we suffer? Jesus reminds us, “A servant is not greater than his master” (John 15:20).

In our pain, there is a temptation to prefer our own will above God’s will for us, which is a temptation even our Lord faced (Luke 22:42). In our bewilderment, there is a temptation to turn away, to try to hide, or to seal off places in our hearts from a God we might be inclined to think is frowning at us or punishing us.

Union with Christ means we are part of a larger family, a broader mission, a longer story, a bigger world, and a deeper love.