Lutherans generally treat the doctrine of mystical union anthropologically, and therefore conceive of it as established by faith. Hence, they naturally take it up in a later point in their soteriology. But this method fails to do justice to the idea of our union with Christ, since it loses sight of the eternal basis of the union, and of its objective realization in Christ and deals exclusively with the subjective realization of it in our lives. And even so, only with our personal conscious entrance into this union. Reformed theology, on the other hand, deals with the union of believers with Christ, theologically, and as such, does far greater justice to this important subject. In doing so, it employs the term "mystical union" in a broad sense, as a designation not only of the subject of the union of Christ and believers, but also of the union that lies back of it, that is basic to it, and of which, it is only the culminating expression, namely; the federal union of Christ and those who are His in the council of redemption, the mystical union ideally established in that eternal council, and the union as it is objectively affected In the Incarnation and the redemptive work of Christ." - Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology
Posted on: Tue, 30 Jul 2013 02:58:41 +0000
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