Get your own Free Home Page In the 4th and 5th century, the church
pay much attention to discuss the deity and the humanity of
Christ, of course they had many discussions on how the two
natures join and work together. After many discussions, both
eastern and western churches had mutual understanding and finally
signed an agreement that is Chalcedon creed. Until now, we still
use Chalcedon creed in classifying orthodoxy on Christology.
During the 4th and 5th century's painful
arguments, fathers listed out all the possibilities on
Christology and seek the best solution as far as human being
could arrive.
The model of Christology is important because it is the
foundation of what/who we believe. If we miss the point, our
whole belief system that build upon it will collapse. During the
discussions, one important assumption had been made along some
important fathers, e.g. Athanasius, Chrysostom, Gregory of Nyssa,
Theodore of Mopsuestia, Cyril of Alexandria, etc., this
assumption can even be traced back from 2nd century's
Irenaeus and Paul, which is believers participating a mystic
union with Christ. This hidden agenda make father's frequently
repeating motif 'Word became man that man may became God' valid.
In Roman 5:12 - 21, Paul used Adam in parallel with Christ.
First he affirmed that all human have linkage with Adam, when
Adam sinned, we all sinned in Adam. Accompany with Adam's sin,
death inherits to us too. He clearly said that Adam 'is a type of
Him who was to come', then he stated that Jesus Christ is a new
Adam, through him we have new lives. If we have mystic linkage
with Adam that we inherent sin and death, then the only way to
inherent grace and life is breaking the sinful linkage in Adam
and connecting a new linkage in Christ. This is the reason Paul
stated Christ is a new Adam. We had linkage with Adam that we
participated in Adam's sins and disobedience, as a result we were
condemned. Now having a new linkage with Christ, his
righteousness and obedience transfers to us, as a result we are
justified.
Paul further elaborated this truth in 6:1-11. He clearly said
that the source of overcoming sin as well as obtaining new life
results from uniting with Christ in baptism. This baptism symbols
Christ's death and resurrection. While believers perform baptism,
it symbolizes their union with Christ. This symbol points to a
spiritual reality. As a result, they participate in Christ's
death and resurrection in baptism. With his death, 'our old self
crucified with him', then the power of sin no longer reign within
us. With his resurrection, 'we alive to God in Christ Jesus' that
we have a new breath to live for God.
The concept of mystic union with Christ clearly stated in
other Pauline epistles. Previously Rom. 5:12 - 6:11 is just an
outstanding example. As we all known, Paul used phases like 'with
Christ', 'in Christ' everywhere. Although there are different
opinions on the phases, one direct implication we can make is
when we unit with Christ, our whole life (including mind,
emotion, will) are living with Christ or in Christ. Such life
therefore is a Christ center and God pleasing life. Moreover,
such life fills with God's fullness and grace, as God pleases to
dwell all his fullness in Christ. Then believers can boldly claim
'it is no longer I who live, but Christ in me' or 'to live is
Christ'.
Next to Paul, Irenaeus fully elaborated the concept of union
with Christ. Because the ancestor and descendants has a mystic
linkage, after Adam's fall, we all sinned in Adam and lost the
likeness of God. The situation liked Levi pay tithes in the loin
of Abraham to Melchizedek. According to Irenaeus, the theme of
salvation is 'we fall in the union with Adam, then we are saved
by uniting with Christ' His main idea was borrowed from Ephesians
1:10 that the plan of God is to make all things gather together
as one in Christ. Christ is the new Adam, which is contrary to
the first Adam. Owning to fall is the result of disobedience,
therefore Christ replayed every steps of human life in obedient
way. Because of uniting with Christ, Christ's obedience will
purify all our disobedient. The righteousness of Christ transfers
to believers because they united altogether. Further, Christ
showed the climax of obedience in the cross that all our
disobedience was cured, consequently, redemption completed.
As we all known Athanasius is the hero of settling the
controversy of two natures of Christ. His major concern when
protesting against heresy is soteriology. He said that 'Word
became flesh has two purposes, the first is he may die, and the
second is humanity could have a share in him in order that
humanity can be deify'. Athanasius adopt Plato's realist idea
that humanity like a real object and all human share humanity.
The effect of Christ's incarnation is to deify humanity, so every
member shares his deity. Keeping this line of thought, some may
further imply that since Christ deifies humanity, all people no
matter they believe or not would obtain salvation. However, for
the sack of maintaining the central message of Christianity,
Athanasius clarify that only those who have faith in Christ can
share this deify effect, because this deify effect only affects
those who have close relationship with him.
Gregory of Nazianzus wrote, 'He united with me as well as all
my weakness, as a result, he stood in the position of human in
order to destroy evil. Like fire melts candles, sun vaporizes
water, because of union with Christ, I can share his blessing.'
Gregory of Nyssa claimed, 'whole humanity is a living existing,
therefore some members' experience can be experienced by all
members. Since Christ became one of our members, all humanity
shares the resurrection with Christ.'
There is one possible dangerous raise by critics regarding the
concept of mystic union with Christ, which is the foundation of
redemption will shift from crucifixion to incarnation. This
possible dangerous noticed by some early fathers, therefore
Athanasius emphasized not all people can share the fruit of
redemption automatically by incarnation, only those believe in
Christ's crucifixion can share. Moreover, incarnation or
crucifixion is not a 'either or' choice. Redemption is completed
by both incarnation and crucifixion, missing one of them is
impossible. We believe both.
Although above query is invalid, it let us consider the
importance of incarnation in uniting with Christ. Indeed,
incarnation is the necessary condition to make uniting possible.
Before incarnation, Christ cannot unit with us because mortal and
immortal are total different and incompatible. In incarnation,
Word became flesh, then Christ has both the God and man natures
from that time onwards. As author of Hebrews said, 'since then
the children share I flesh and blood, He himself likewise also
partook of the same'. In summary, His human nature is the ground
of uniting between him and us.
As argued by Athanasius, the two natures of Christ promises
the effectiveness of redemption, sinners are impossible to be
saved if missing either one. Human is mortal, eternal is the
quality only attributes to God. Therefore eternal life is a life
of God-nature, in Peter's words we are 'participants of the
divine nature'. On the one hand, if Christ is anything less than
God, redemption is impossible, because a creature less than God
cannot make us God. On the other hand, because all mankind share
humanity from Adam, if Christ is not human, he cannot unit with
us. Furthermore, he cannot act as our representation, to win the
battle which Adam lost in the paradise. If he does not share the
actually humanity as our, he cannot deify our humanity and share
his victory with us. Accordingly, even after incarnation, he must
be still true God and true man. Owning to both two natures of
Christ have crucial contributions in redemption, Chalcedon creed
emphasized these two natures are not confusable and not
changeable in Christ
'God shares humanity, that his deity can deify our humanity,
then humanity can be God-like' is the motif of mystic union with
Christ in redemption. Christ's role is a mediator to bridge over
God and mankind . The two natures of Christ is the key
in connecting both Deity and humanity. As a gap in between, there
are two ends, one end is Deity and the other is humanity. One the
one hand, Christ takes humanity and united with mankind. One the
other hand, Christ is the eternal Son that is the very God
himself and united with Father always. Christ's hypostatic union
as the bridge for connecting both ends perfectly. If the two
natures are separate and function independently, he still cannot
connect the two incompatible ends. If the two natures are not
harmony in hypostatic union, no matter how close the two natures
are, there must be a gap, which is between mortal and immortal,
then mortal could have no hope in sharing immortal, consequently,
the whole redemption fails. In conclusion, hypostatic union is
important, it directly affect the validity of Christ's
redemption.
Crucifixion is a crucial event in redemption. We can reason it
in two different aspects, and both of them directly link to the
concept of mystic union.
Since we unit with Christ, the acts of Christ will be same as
our own. As mentioned by Irenaeus, Christ as second Adam went
through every steps of human life submissively, and in the final
step, he died on the cross in perfect obedient. As a result,
Christ's obedience as our obedience to fulfill God's requirement,
Christ's righteousness is our righteousness.
On the other hand, due to the payment of sin is death,
Christ's death as our death on the cross to bear our penalties,
Christ's penalty is our penalty, then we no longer are condemned.
In Romans 7:1-6, Paul used a marriage example to illustrate
that death is the only way to break requirements of the law. Then
he elaborated this on the sinful law in the flesh. He understood
our flesh indebted to the sinful law inherited from Adam. Like
the example of marriage, he pointed out that the only way to be
freed from that law is death. Therefore in order to free from the
bondage of sin, he exhorted readers to consider themselves died
with Christ in the cross. There are two important conclusions can
be drawn on the passage. First, Christ's death is not only to
substitute our penalties and fulfill God's justice requirement,
it also has direct effects on believers daily live. Second, we
need to realize and consider ourselves dying with Christ on the
cross in order the make it effective. Mystic union with Christ is
a good starting in understanding these truth. As we unit with
Christ, Christ's death on the cross is our death, so we can
proudly claim 'I have been crucified with Christ', and all the
sinful passions within are crucified with Christ on the cross
too. When we mortify our sinful nature everyday, we are affirming
our position of union with Christ in faith.
Resurrection is the climax of redemption. In resurrection,
Christ exalted in the highest and inherited a name above all
names. Resurrection demonstrates the power of God over sin, death
as well as devil. In the light of union with Christ, we share all
the blessing of resurrection with Christ.
Resurrection of Christ means God approved Christ's life and
all he did. As we unit with Christ, God approves our life too, in
theological term, we are justified. Christ righteousness
transfers to all believers, so we are as righteousness as Christ
in God's sign, which is justification.
One of Jesus' main ministry on earth is to proclaim the coming
of the kingdom of God. Jesus even equaled himself with the
kingdom of God in some occasions. He said that his own coming is
the kingdom of God visiting. The kingdom of God promised to come
at the last time in the Old Testament's prophecies. Jesus'
resurrection rightly marks the start of the last time. After
resurrection, although his body was no longer presence, the
kingdom of God still presents but revealed in another form - that
is the church.
In Pauline epistles, church is not just a visible
administrative organization, which is a living organ of Christ.
Church is the body and Christ is the head. They united together
to form a living existence.
In Romans. 1:4 '(Christ) who was declared the Son of God with
power by the resurrection from the dead'. The power of
resurrection made all creatures recognize he really is the Son of
God. As we uniting and resurrecting with Christ, we are sons of
God too. Calvin said that 'Christ is son by nature, and we are
sons by grace.' After resurrection, God exalts Christ above every
name. After receiving the name of sons, we are adopted and hired
the blessing and majesties with the exalted Christ. In the last
time, God will submit all things under Christ's feet and we will
reign with him too.
Christ took humanity in incarnation. And his deity deify the
humanity. Resurrection not only reviving his soul, his flesh and
blood body revived together. The resurrecting body is the same
human body that he took in incarnation. Hence, our corrupted
bodies will some day be resurrected as he did. Paul called he is
the firstfruit of resurrection. The majestic body he dressed
after resurrection foreshadows our future bodily resurrection.
Holy Spirit is the activator that make the mystic union
effective. There are two major areas he works.
In the beginning of incarnation, the Spirit dwelt in Mary's
womb, so 'that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy
Spirit'. One implication is the Holy Spirit participates in the
process of the eternal Word taking humanity.
In regeneration, the Spirit gives new lives to believers in
order that we can partake in the 'nature of God'. The Spirit not
only works outwardly but he dwells forever in believers, he is
the 'pledge' until the day of redemption. In incarnation, Christ
takes up human nature and has two natures afterward. Likewise,
after regeneration, there are two natures within us. First is a
corrupted sinful nature naturally inherited from Adam, second is
the immortal divine nature inherited from Christ. According to
this prospective, regeneration is repeating incarnation in us.
The Holy Spirit plays important role in both incarnation and
regeneration.
In summary, mystic union with Christ has two consequences. On
the one hand, what Christ did directly transfer to believers. On
the other hand, what believers experience are owning to the works
of Christ. There are two major contributions can be drawn from
the perspective of understanding redemption in mystic union.
There are two important categories of theological topics. The
first category is who Christ is, that includes incarnation, two
natures of Christ and hypostatic union. The second is what
redemption promises to believers, that includes atonement,
justification, regeneration, adoption, sanctification, bodily
resurrection and natures of church. As demonstrated here, the
first contribution of understanding redemption in mystic union
gives us a firm ground to link up these two categories of
theological topics together.
As commented by some writers, today's Christianity misses the realism perspective in interpreting religious experience. As a result, theology became manipulation of abstract ideas. Christianity lost it's distinctiveness when comparing with other religions. Belief at best only changes our attitudes, at worst, it is playing word game, borrowing from Barton's words 'we gain salvation by hermeneutic'. Therefore, the other important contribution of focusing mystic union is giving us a realism perspective in understanding salvation that can relate to our religious experiences.
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