In this magisterial work by the Puritan, John Owen, he gives us great insight and encouragement regarding Union with Christ.
“Man being made in the image of God, was fit and able to glorify him as God. But whereas whatever perfection God had communicated unto our nature, he had not united it unto himself in a personal union, the fabric of it quickly fell unto the ground. Want of this foundation made it obnoxious unto ruin. God manifested herein, that no gracious relation between him and our nature could be stable and permanent, unless our nature was assumed into personal union and subsistence with himself. This is the only Rock and assured foundation of the relation of the church unto God, which now can never utterly fail. Our nature is eternally secured in that union, and we ourselves, as we shall see thereby.”[i]
In the first man, the image of God in sinless innocence was able to glorify God. Of all the perfections God had bestowed upon the first Man, He had not united him to His Being. So the integrity of innocence soon became undone. What we learn from this is that no abiding, perfection could be sustained by Man unless he was brought into a personal union with Christ. As union with Christ is the foundational condition of the Church we know see that believing Mankind can ever finally fall. “Our nature is eternally secure in Christ.
[i]Owen, John, THE PERSON OF CHRIST, Declaring a Glorious Mystery – God and Man, Christian Focus Publications, 2015, p90
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