UNION WITH GOD IS THE RESULT OF REGENERATION-PART 1

The effect of The Spirit's Work in Regeneration is Union With God.
Union with God is a great and impenetrable mystery.

When and How, does this union take place/
Now, to say it occurs at the point of faith, is not, the whole truth.

There are 5 stages of this union;
1. This union was planned in God's eternal decree with His Son.
Thus, a relationship was established between the Father and those given unto Christ, in the
Covenant of Redemption--Hebrews 13;20-21--[Turn].

2. The provision of this union was initiated When Christ, in The Incarnation, passed from purpose, into actual existence.
Christ, in the flesh, carried all whom, the Father gave Him, in the loins of His Grace.

When Jesus Christ ''died and rose'', We died and rose, WITH and IN HIM.

3. This union is actually effected, when the elect are regenerated.
Union takes place, when, in the time of love, the Spirit implants the principle of life, in the souls of
those, for whom Christ died.
Until Regeneration, the mystic union was hidden in God's Eternal Purpose.

4. The Consciousness of the union of the regenerated comes through the exercise of faith.
Consciousness of this union, must be distinguished from Regeneration.

The faculty of faith implanted in Regeneration, may not immediately manifest itself in a conscious faith and conversion.
For example; A child possesses its mother from the 1st moment of existence, but a conscious enjoyment of this possession, is awakened and increased, AFTER BIRTH.

Therefore, the conscious enjoyment of our union with Christ, comes after the New Birth-The subjective union starts at Regeneration.

5. The last stage of Union does not attain its fullest unveiling, until believers see Jesus Christ,
face to face--I John 3;2-3-[Turn].

Union of Christ and His people has a nature, peculiar to itself, and the realization of the mystical union drives the elect from themselves to God, for an answer to the mystery, which cannot be explained by other unions.

The answer is made known by the Holy Spirit--Romans 8;15-17-[Turn].

As believers cannot understand the union of 2 natures in Christ's Person, so, we cannot comprehend the mystical union of Christ and believers.

Men are not at liberty, to interpret this union, according to their own opinions.

Finite men Are not expected to be able, to comprehend the infinite, but, What they can't comprehend, they apprehend by faith.

Now, I want you to beware of a very subtle teaching about our union with Christ. It begins with the antithesis [contrast] existing between God and man, and says;

''God is the Creator; man is the creature. God is infinite; Man is finite. God dwells in the eternal;
man lives in the temporal. God is holy; man is unholy''--

Now, so far, there is absolutely nothing wrong--but, Let's look at the next statement--

''In the first place, there is God; This is the Thesis [proposition]. Opposed to this thesis in God, the antithesis [contrasts] appears in men.
Thus, The Thesis and the Antithesis find their reconciliation [synthesis] in the mediator, who is both infinite and finite.''

Now, Let's see the subtleness of the heresy; ''Christ is Mediator equally between Jews and Gentiles, God and man, spirit and body, Heaven and Hell, and time and eternity''.

Finally, the climax of this teaching is damnable--''The Reconciliation causes all contrasts to disappear''.
But, the contrasts between God and man, Heaven and Hell, shall never disappear.

A Reconciliation must be brought about for the sinner;
but, this reconciliation does not destroy the contrast between God and man, neither between
Heaven and Hell.

Nature's best illustration of Regeneration is the Art of Grafting. The Trunk, into which, the good branch is grafted, is absolutely wild.

By Nature, the wild trunk sucks the sap, and forces it throughout the tree. But, the graft, has the wonderful power of converting the sap, and vital forces of the wild trunk, into something good, causing the tree, to bear good fruit.

Now, this does not mean, that the good branch has no opposition from the old trunk. The wild tree vigorously resists the good branch, by forming wild shoots, below the graft.

In this manner, the old trunk seeks to prevent the sap from flowing through the good branch, to the bud. Therefore the wild shoots below the graft, must be cut off.

Depraved man, by nature, is compared with Ishmael. Ishmael, a wild ass, was sinful by nature.
All his works were motivated by his deceitful heart.

Ishmael, the man after the flesh, can never become Isaac. Isaac, the son of promise, represents the work of Regeneration.

Now, as Ishmael represents man, born of the flesh, so Isaac typifies man, born of the Spirit.

Nicodemus, the un-regenerated ruler of the Jews, is compared with Ishmael. As Ishmael had observed the ordinances, so, Nicodemus, was one, who followed the vain traditions of his fathers-
I Peter 1;18--[Turn].

But, the natural seed of the Jews with whom, Nicodemus was affiliated, could not produce spiritual life.
By nature, Nicodemus couldn't produce The New Birth, any more than, the wild trunk of a tree, could produce good fruit.

Thus, as Isaac came in, solely by the promise and the power of God, so Nicodemus must be born of The Spirit.

We will continue on our next blog.