OF THE ETERNAL UNION
OF THE ELECT
OF GOD UNTO
HIM
John Gill
The union of God's elect unto him,
their adoption by him, justification before him, and acceptance with him, being
eternal, internal, and immanent acts in God; I know not
where better to place them, and take them into consideration, than next to the
decrees of God, and particularly the decree of election; since as that flows
from the love of God, and is in Christ from everlasting, there must of course
be an union to him so early; and since predestination to the adoption of
children, and acceptance in the beloved, are parts and branches of it, #Eph
1:4-6 they must be of the same date. I shall begin with the
union of God's elect in Christ.
I shall not here treat of any
time acts of union; as of our nature to the Son of God by his incarnation, when
he became our brother, our near kinsman, flesh of our flesh, and bone of our
bone; and we and he were of one, that is, of one nature, #Heb 2:11,14,16
nor of the vital union of our persons to him in regeneration, when we are
quickened by the power and grace of God, Christ is formed in our hearts, and we
become new creatures in him, and are in him as living fruitful branches in him,
the living vine; which is our open being in Christ, in consequence of a secret
being in him from everlasting by electing grace; see #Ro 16:7 2Co 5:17 12:2.
Nor of the more open and manifest union of the saints to God
hereafter; who being once in Christ, are always found in him; die in union to
him, rise from the dead by virtue of that union; and who will then, in soul and
body, be one in God, Father, Son, and Spirit; as the Father is in the Son, and
the Son in the Father; whose union to one another is the pattern and exemplar
of theirs; and for the open manifestation of which Christ prays,
#Joh 17:21,23.
But I shall consider the union
of the elect to God, as it is in its original, and as an eternal immanent act
in God; and which is no other than the going forth of his heart in love to
them, and thereby uniting them to himself; which love, as it is from everlasting, #Jer 31:3 #Joh 17:23,24 so it is of a cementing
and uniting nature; and, indeed, is the bond of union between God and his
chosen people, or that by which he has taken them into near union with himself:
love is the bond of union among men, of friendship one to another; it was this
which knit the soul of Jonathan to the soul of David, so that he loved him as
his own soul; it is the bond of the saints union to each
other; their hearts are "knit together in love": hence
"charity", or love, is called, "the bond of perfectness",
or the perfect bond, which joins and keeps them together, #Col 2:7 3:14. It was
love which so closely cemented the hearts of the first Christians to one
another, insomuch that the multitude of them were "of one heart and of one
soul", #Ac 4:32. And now love must operate infinitely more strongly in the heart of God, attracting and uniting the objects of it to
himself, giving them such a nearness and union to him which cannot be
dissolved; nothing can "separate from the love of God"; not the fall
of God's elect in Adam; nor their actual sins and transgressions in a state of
unregeneracy; nor their revoltings and backslidings after conversion, #Ro
8:38,39 Eph 2:3,4 Ho 14:4. This bond of union is indissoluble by the joint power of men and devils. In virtue of this, the people of
God become a part of himself, a near, dear, and tender part, even as the apple
of his eye; have a place in his heart, are engraven on the palms of his hands,
and ever on his thoughts; the desires and affections of his soul are always
towards them, and he is ever devising and forming schemes for their welfare;
how great is his goodness which he has laid up and wrought
for them! #Zec 2:8 Ps 139:17 So 7:10 Isa 59:16 Ps 31:19.
The love of Christ to the
elect, is as early as that of his Father's love to him and them, and which, it
seems, was a love of complacency and delight; for before the world was his
"delights were with the sons of men", #Joh 15:9 Pr 8:30,31 and this
is of the same cementing and uniting nature as his Father's;
it is this which causes him to stick closer than a brother to his people; and
nothing can separate from his love to them, any more than from the love of the
Father; having loved his own, he loves them to the end. This bond of union
remains firm and sure, and gives such a nearness to him the church wished for;
"Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon
thine arm", #So 8:6 Pr 18:24 #Ro 8:35. The same may be said of the love of
the Spirit; for it is the everlasting love of God, Father, Son, and Spirit,
which is the bond of the union of God's elect to the sacred three; they have
all three loved the elect with an everlasting love; and thereby have firmly and
everlastingly united them to themselves; and hence because of the Spirit's love
of them, and union to them, he, in time, becomes the Spirit
of life and grace in them, #Ro 15:30. Now of this love union there are several
branches, or which are so many illustrations and confirmations of it, and all
in eternity; as,
1. An election union in
Christ: this flows from the love of God, "electio praesupponit dilectionem", election presupposes love; see #2Th 2:13
particular persons are said to be chosen in Christ, as Rufus, #Ro 16:13 and the
apostle says of himself and others, that God had chosen them "in
Christ", and that before the foundation of the world, #Eph 1:4. Election
gives a being in Christ, a kind of subsistence in him; though not an "esse
actu", an actual being, yet at least an "esse representativum",
a representative being; even such an one as that they are
capable of having grants of grace made to them in Christ, and of being blessed
with all spiritual blessings in him, and that before the world began, #2Ti 1:9
Eph 1:3,4 and how they can be said to have a being in Christ, and yet have no
union to him, I cannot conceive. Besides, in election there is a near relation
commences between Christ and the elect; he is given to be an
head to them, and they are given as members to him; and as such they are chosen
together, he first in order of nature, as the head; and then they as members of
him; nothing is more common with sound divines than to express themselves in
this manner, when speaking of the election of Christ, and his people in him;
particularly, says Dr. Goodwin {1},
``as in the womb, head and
members are not conceived apart, but together, as having relation to each
other; so were we and Christ (as making up one mystical body to God) formed
together in the eternal womb of election.''
And in the
same place he says,
``Jesus Christ was the head of
election, and of the elect of God; and so in order of nature elected first,
though in order of time we were elected together; in the womb of election he,
the head, came out first, and then we, the members.''
Now what relation can well be
thought of nearer, or more expressive of a close union, than this of head and
members? Christ is the chosen head of
the church, the church the chosen body of Christ, the fulness of him that fills
all in all, #Eph 1:22, 23 hence is the safety and security of the saints, being
in Christ through electing grace, and united to him; and
therefore said to be "preserved in" him; herein and hereby put into
his hand, made the sheep of his hand, out of whose hands none can pluck them,
nor they ever fall, #Jude 1:1.
2. There is a conjugal union
between Christ and the elect, which also flows from love,
and commenced in eternity. By the institution of natural marriage, the persons
between whom it is contracted become one flesh, as did Adam and Eve: and a
nearer union than this cannot well be conceived of; whose marriage was a shadow
and representation of that between Christ and his church; whom, having
espoused, he nourishes and cherishes as his own flesh; and they become one, and
have one and the same name, Christ, that is, Christ
mystical, #Eph 5:29-32 1Co 12:12. Now though the open marriage relation between
Christ and particular persons takes place at conversion, which is the day of
their espousals to him, #Jer 2:2 and the more public notification of it will be
when all the elect of God are gathered in, and shall in one body be as a bride
adorned for her husband, and the marriage of the Lamb shall
be come; and this declared in the most open manner, and the nuptials solemnized
most magnificently, #Re 21:2. Yet the secret act of betrothing was in eternity,
when Christ, being in love with the chosen ones, asked them of his Father to be
his spouse and bride; and being given to him, he betrothed them to himself in
lovingkindness, and from thenceforward looked on them as standing in such a relation to him; and which is the foundation of all other
after acts of grace unto them: hence, because of his marriage relation to his
church, he became her surety, and gave himself for her, shed his precious blood
to sanctify and cleanse her from all the impurities of the fall, and other
transgressions; that he might present her to himself a glorious church without
spot or wrinkle or any such thing; even just such a church,
and in such glory he had viewed her in, when he first betrothed her, #Eph
5:25-27. So with the Jews there was a private betrothing before open marriage,
and the consummation of it; at which betrothing the relation of husband and
wife commenced, #De 22:23,24 and so Christ is said to be the husband of the
Gentile church before she was in actual being, #Isa 54:5.
3. There is a federal union
between Christ and the elect, and they have a covenant subsistence in him as
their head and representative. The covenant flows from, and is the effect of
the love, grace, and mercy of God; these are spoken of along with it as the
foundation of it, #Ps 89:2,3,33,34 Isa 54:10 hence it is commonly called the covenant of grace, and this was made from everlasting; Christ
was set up as the mediator of it, and his goings forth in it were so early, #Pr
8:23 Mic 5:2 eternal life was promised before the world began, and blessings of
grace so soon provided, #Tit 1:2 2Ti 1:9 all which proves the antiquity of this
covenant, of which more hereafter. Now this covenant was made with Christ not
as a single person, but as a common head; not for himself,
or on his own account only, but for and on the account of his people; as the
covenant of works was made with Adam, as the federal head of all his posterity;
hence he is said to be the figure or type of him that was to come, #Ro 5:14 so
the covenant of grace was made with Christ as the federal head of his spiritual
offspring; and for this reason a parallel is ran between them in #Ro 5:1-21 1Co
15:1-58 as if they had been the only two men in the world,
the one called the first, the other the second man. Christ represented his people
in this covenant, and they had a representative union to him in it; all that he
promised and engaged to do, he promised and engaged in their name and on their
account; and when performed it was the same with God, as if it had been done by
them; and what he received, promises and blessings of
grace, he received in their name, and they received them in him, being one with
him as their common head and representative.
4. There is a legal union
between Christ and the elect, the bond of which is his suretiship for them,
flowing from his strong love and affection to them. In this respect
Christ and they are one in the eye of the law, as the bondsman and debtor are
one in a legal sense; so that if one of them pays the debt bound for, it is the
same as if the other did. Christ is the surety of the better testament; he drew
nigh to God, gave his bond, laid himself under obligation to pay the debts of
his people, and satisfy for their sins; who being as such accepted of by God,
he and they were considered as one; and this is the ground
and foundation of his payment of their debts, of his making satisfaction for
their sins, of the imputation of their sins to him, and of the imputation of
his righteousness to them. In short, it is the saint's antecedent union and relation
to Christ in eternity, in the several views of it in which it has been
considered, which is the ground and reason of all that Christ has done and suffered for them, and not for others; and of all the
blessings of grace that are or shall be bestowed upon them, and which are
denied to others: the reason why he became incarnate for them, and took upon
him human nature with a peculiar regard to them, was because they were children
given to him; and why he laid down his life for them, because they were his
sheep; and why he gave himself for them, because they were
his church; and why he saved them from their sins, because they were his
people, #Heb 2:13,14 #Joh 10:14,15 Eph 5:25 Mt 1:21. In a word, union to Christ
is the first thing, the first blessing of grace flowing from love and effected
by it; and hence is the application of all others; "of him are ye in
Christ Jesus", first loved and united to Christ, and then it follows,
"who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption", #1Co 1:30. So Dr. Goodwin {2} observes,
that union with Christ is the first fundamental thing of justification and
sanctification and all. Christ first takes us, and then sends his Spirit; he
apprehends us first; it is not my being regenerate that puts me into a right of
all these privileges; but it is Christ takes me, and then gives me his Spirit,
faith, holiness, &c.
{1} Works, vol. 1. part 1. p.
62.
{2} Works, vol. 3. part 2. p.
347.