1. “Abide in Him” (1 John 2:27, 28; see also John 15:4-7).
When we were saved, God put us into Christ and brought us into union with Christ. Therefore, after we are saved, we should abide in Christ to remain in the experience of our union with Him. When we were saved, we entered into union with Christ by getting into Christ. After we are saved, we need to remain in our union with Christ by abiding in Him. Abiding in Christ is to practically enjoy Christ by taking Him as our life and everything. This is related to the experience of our union with Christ in our living after we are saved.
2. “Your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3).
When we are saved, we obtain Christ as life and enter into union with Him. After we are saved, we take Christ as our life and continue in our union with Him through His life. This life is hidden with Christ in God, so in this life, we are in union with Him in God. Our spiritual living should be in the life of Christ and in our living in union with Christ in God.
1. “When Christ our life is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory” (Col. 3:4).
After we are saved, we should live in Christ as our life, continuously experiencing our union with Him until He is manifested in His return. Then we will be manifested with Him in glory and experience a complete and full union with Him. At that time we will not only experience our union in His life but also our union in His glory. Our union with Him will be to such an extent that we will know both His life and His glory experientially. We will flow out His life and His glory.
2. “The heavens, from which also we eagerly await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transfigure the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of His glory, according to His operation by which He is able even to subject all things to Himself” (Phil. 3:20-21).
Our union with Christ begins in our spirit, spreads throughout our soul, and consummates in our body. When we were saved, our spirit received the life of Christ and was joined to Him. The element of Christ should saturate our soul until the day of His return. When He returns, our body will be so saturated with His element that our body will be transfigured to be conformed to the body of His glory. Thus, our union with Him will involve every part of our being—our spirit and soul and body. From the inside to the outside, our whole being will be saturated with His element and completely in union with Him in His life and glory. Oh, what a union that will be! What a complete union! What a glorious union! May this be our desire.
3. “If He is manifested, we will be like Him because we will see Him even as He is” (1 John 3:2).
When the Lord is manifested, He will transfigure our bodies, saturating our whole being from the inside to the outside with His element, causing us to be completely in union with Him. Then we will be like Him. We will be in union with Him to the extent that we will be just like Him. When we are thus joined to Him, we will be fully one with Him.
1. “The bride, the wife of the Lamb...the holy city, Jerusalem” (Rev. 21:9-10, see also vv. 1-2).
In eternity future, we will be the holy city, the New Jerusalem, which is the wife of the Lamb, Christ. We will be in union with Him forever, just as a husband and wife are one flesh (Eph. 5:31-32). In the garden of Eden, Eve was joined to Adam, and the two became one flesh. In the same way, the redeemed ones throughout the ages will be in union with Christ for eternity, and we will be a glorious entity that can never be separated (Matt. 19:6).
God, in His salvation, wants to work on us to such an extent that Christ becomes one with us and we become one with Christ so that Christ and we, we and Christ, would be in complete union. We must see this in order to know the high goal of God’s salvation. This is so glorious! God desires that we would be joined to Christ not only in His life and nature but also in His glory. In life, nature, and glory, we and Christ will be completely one in union with each other for eternity.