1. “Its lamp is the Lamb” (Rev. 21:23).
When we believed, Christ entered into us and entered into union with us. He will be in union with us for eternity in the new heaven and new earth after the millennial kingdom. In eternity future, in the eternity of the new heaven and new earth, Christ will be in union with us, and this union will attain to a most glorious peak. Revelation 21 says that the Lamb, Christ, will be the lamp of the city, the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem will be a marvelous entity, composed of God and all the saved ones throughout the ages. As the lamp, Christ will be in union with His redeemed ones for eternity. God will be the light, and Christ will be the lamp, shining out the light of God through the believers in our union with Him. God will shine His light out through Christ, and Christ will shine His light out from us. This will be the highest peak of His glorious union with us. This union will be an eternal union that never ends.
We can be in union with Christ because He is in union with us. If Christ were not in union with us, we would have no way to be in union with Him. Since He is in union with us, we can enter into union with Him. There are seven aspects of our union with Him.
1. “Him who did not know sin He made sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21).
Christ, who did not know sin, was made sin by God on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Him who did not know sin refers to Christ, and sin refers to us. We are not simply sinners who commit sins, we are sin. From God’s point of view, we are sin. We became sin because sin entered into us. Thus, our sins and wickedness are the issue of the sin that dwells in us (Rom. 7:17-20). This can be compared to tea leaves being added to water. When tea leaves are added to hot water, the water turns into tea, and when a person drinks the water, he also drinks the tea. This is illustrated also by the experience of the children of Israel when they were bitten by poisonous serpents in the wilderness. When the poisonous element of the serpents entered them, they became serpents in God’s eyes. In His judgment of the situation, God commanded that a bronze serpent in the likeness of a serpent be hung upon a pole (Num. 21:6-9). Just as a bronze serpent was hung upon a pole to bear God’s judgment on the children of Israel, Christ became sin for us and was hung upon a tree to bear God’s judgment for us. Christ’s being made sin on the cross was His full identification with us since we are sin. In doing this, He entered into union with us sinners in order to bear our judgment so that we might enter into union with Him.
We are sin, but Christ is righteousness, even the righteousness of God. Therefore, just as Christ became sin by entering into union with us on the cross, we become righteousness by entering into union with Christ in His crucifixion. We have even become the righteousness of God in Christ. He entered into union with us and became sin for us, bearing God’s condemnation and judgment so that we could enter into union with Him and become the righteousness of God in Him, being justified by God and becoming pleasing to God. This is God’s way of salvation. God’s way of salvation is for Christ to be in union with us, to become us and even to become sin, so that we could enter into union with Christ to become the righteousness of God in Christ. This does not mean that we traded positions with Christ in God’s salvation, that is, that Christ became sin and that we became righteousness. If this were the case, Christ and we would not be in union—nor would we need to be in union—we would merely be in different positions with respect to righteousness and sin. This is not God’s way of salvation. His way of salvation is to join Christ to us so that we can be joined to Christ. To accomplish this, Christ entered into a union with us in order to receive God’s judgment for our sins. Furthermore, we entered into a union with Christ in order to receive God’s righteousness in Him. He entered into union with us in order for us to be in union with Him so that we could become one with Him. Since we are sin, He entered into a union with us on the cross when He was made sin on our behalf, and since He is the righteousness of God, we entered into union with Him in His crucifixion when we became the righteousness of God in Him.
Christ entered into union with us when He was made sin on our behalf, and we entered into union with Him by becoming the righteousness of God. These are the accomplishments of Christ related to the cross. Although His union with us began at His incarnation, our union with Him did not begin until after He bore our sins on the cross. His bearing of our sins was His full union with us. He entered into union with us first on the cross, and then we entered into union with Him. After He bore our sins, we were able to enter into union with Him, having been made the righteousness of God in Him, which caused us to be well accepted by God.
2. “I am crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20; see also 6:14).
This verse confirms that we were crucified with Christ. Therefore, we are in union with Christ in His crucifixion. Since we are in union with Him, His crucifixion is our crucifixion. When He was crucified, we were crucified.
3. “Our old man has been crucified with Him” (Rom. 6:6).
Our old man is the old I or our old self. When Christ was crucified, our old man, our old self, was crucified. We do not need to crucify ourselves; we have already been crucified with Christ. His crucifixion is our crucifixion because we are in union with Him. We were crucified with Him in His crucifixion.
4. “You died with Christ” (Col. 2:20).
Since we are in union with Christ and have been crucified with Him, we have died with Christ. When Christ died on the cross, we died on the cross with Him since we are in union with Him. According to the revelation of the Bible, our union with Christ began at His crucifixion. After Christ was crucified, we could enter into union with Him. His death is our death, and His dying is our dying.