Christ and Your Soul

A portion of Sinclair Ferguson’s discussion of John 15 at the Banner of Truth Ministers’ Conference:

There is nothing between the person of the Lord Jesus and the person of the believer as that union and communion develops and grows. . . . The union with Christ we have is not that we somehow or another share His grace. Because—follow me carefully—there actually is no ‘thing’ as grace.

That actually is a Medieval Roman Catholic teaching. There is a ‘thing’ called grace that can be separated from the person of Jesus Christ. It is something Jesus Christ won on the Cross and He can bestow it on you. And there are at least seven ways it can be bestowed on you and they all, as it happens, turn out to be in the hands of the church. And you can have this kind of grace, and this kind of grace, and this kind of grace . . .

There is no such ‘thing’ as grace! Grace is not some appendage to His being. Nor is it some substance that flows from us: ‘Let me give you grace.’ All there is is the Lord Jesus Himself. And so when Jesus speaks about us abiding in Him and He abiding in us—however mysterious it may be, mystical in that sense—it is a personal union.

Do not let us fail because of the abuse of expressions. Do not let us fail to understand that, at the end of the day, actually Christianity is Christ because there isn’t anything else. There is no atonement that somehow can be detached from who the Lord Jesus is. There is no grace that can be attached to you transferred from Him. All there is is Christ and your soul.

Grace is something we often misunderstand. We ask for more grace to fight sin. We sing that “He giveth more” as our burdens grow. This phraseology can lead to an awkward concept of grace.

Like Ferguson so emphatically stated, grace is not a thing that we get, like money or new clothes. Grace is a person, a person who gave Himself to redeem us, buying for us victory over death and hell.

Being in Christ, then, we’re assured that we have more grace than we’ll ever need. Our acceptance before God does not hinge on our performance. By the blood of Christ, our standing is completely objective fact.

We can rest assured in the knowledge that He has given us everything we need—for life, and for godliness. Our goal is not to receive more grace, but to live in the fullness of our union with Christ.

HT: Shepherd’s Scrapbook

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