Here is a quote that I completely agree with! I had no idea till today that Mr. Austin-Sparks wrote this in his book, Union with Christ. The Lord has shown me that Christ is the center of all; He supersedes and excels beyond all. He is the first and the last, the beginning and the end and everything in between. He is all. He confirmed it to me today by having me find that He also revealed it to Mr. Austin-Sparks as well.

Union With Christ
T. Austin-Sparks

Union with Christ is the heart or centre of all that has been revealed of God's thought concerning man and of mans' relationship to God. Union with Christ is like the hub of a mighty wheel. There are many spokes to that wheel ¬ election, creation, redemption, salvation, sanctification, glorification; and then, like a series of subsidiary spokes ¬ repentance, faith, justification, conversion, regeneration, and so on. These are the spokes of the wheel, but they all centre in Christ and radiate from Christ and reach the rim, which is God. They unite us in Christ with God.

To give all this its true and full value, it is necessary to contemplate or have revealed to us the meaning of Christ, to see what an immense thing has taken place by the Son of God becoming the Son of man, by God becoming incarnate. It is a question of our being taken, not into Godhead or Deity, but into God's Son incarnate.

Now, the first preachers of the Christ evangel preached Christ. They did not, in the first place, preach salvation or sanctification or forgiveness, or judgment or heaven. That does not mean that they did not preach those things: they did; but not in the first place. They preached Christ, and all those things were included in the preaching of Christ; Christ as inclusive of all and as transcending all; for, after all, such things as salvation and sanctification, forgiveness, justification, are subsidiaries, they come afterward. Christ was before them all and Christ will be after them all. They are inside of Christ, but He vastly outstrips them all.

From: Union with Christ.


Mr. Austin-Sparks writes it more eloquently than I can, but we are in complete agreement. Without union there can be no salvation or justification or sanctification. All these lose their perspective and become nonsense without union with Christ. Without Christ there cannot be salvation or justification or sanctification or eternal life. It is our spiritual joining with Christ that makes all this possible. If a bride is not married to her husband she will not be able to share his name or possessions. She is a stranger, even a foreigner to him. If she becomes married to him, then what he has, she has, who he is she can share that as well. Our spouse has authority over all creation and we will judge angels. Now this is making more sense to me, hopefully to you as well.

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. –Matthew 28:18

Christ is first and foremost, and the fruit of our union with Him is salvation, eternal life, justification, sanctification, peace, joy, etc. The fruit of the union is very plentiful indeed!

What this means for the believer is that we have all these gifts (fruits) now, presently, we do not need to seek them, or ask for them or try to earn them. They are ours now for our taking.

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. –John 15:4

Union is necessary for there to be fruit. There cannot be fruit without union. All of us who are born again have this union now. We do not need to seek the union, if Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior and you have submitted your life to Him, then you are enjoying the union now. There is nothing left for you to do, He did it and now are job is to only become more aware of who we are in this wonderful, marvelous, unbelievable blessing of union!

We are the vessels and He is the Treasure contained within.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.. -2 Corinthians 4:7

All this imagery is interwoven. The Lord is infinite in His wisdom. This brings us to reflect upon the Marriage Feast spoken of in Revelations. Marriage, union, fruit, the Creator and the created joined spiritually for all eternity. Humankind returned to the state it enjoyed in the Garden. What a loaded statement was that when Christ said, “It is finished.” The immenseness of this concept is far greater than probably any of us mere mortals will be able to comprehend on earth. It will take an infinite mind to show us all that this means…

Jesus is More than a friend

Jesus is MORE Than Just a Friend

If I hear one more contemporary Christian song saying how much a friend Jesus is, I am going to scream and pull out my hair! Christians who consider their Lord and Savior as only just a friend or pal have no real concept of Salvation! If I offend anyone, please excuse me. I am serious and I will not take it back. He is not just another Homey that you chat with on Sundays or when times are tough, He is our Redeemer, Our Lord, The Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world.
The price He paid for our salvation was steep. We owe him more than friendly allegiance; we who claim to be saved owe Him everything, nothing short of our undying love and devotion. Bible reading and prayer should never be thought of as obligatory or duty, but as intimate moments with our deepest lover. What did Jesus say was the fulfillment of the law?
Was it not, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. Love your neighbor as yourself.”- Matt 22:36-38.
To a Christian who truly understands salvation and the price our Father paid for our Salvation, would not be so cavalier about treating Jesus just as a causal friend that you tell all your dreams and troubles to. He is much, much more than that. We should never forget that we are not our own that we were bought for with a price. – 1Corinthians 6:20.
What is said about the Church, are we not the bride of Christ? And we the members of the Church, the Bride, we are also individually spiritually joined with Christ. - Romans 7:4. Christ is our spiritual spouse, who only talks or interacts with a spouse or boy/girl friend occasionally? He is our life, He is our righteousness, He is our everything, how can anyone treat Him so casually? He is either the Lord of everything in our lives or the Lord of nothing, there is no middle ground! If a person receives a love letter is it not opened and read and reread immediately? The bible is sixtysix love letters, we should be reading them over and over. What is the point of a Wedding feast in Heaven if this is going to be some loveless marriage?
No wonder the church acts as if it is asleep, it is. Christ’s bride is doing the equivalent of laying at home watching television and eating bonbons! The moon in the night time sky has been a classic symbol of the church. It shines in the dark, but only reflects the light of the Sun, it has no light of its own. That is us. We are supposed to be reflecting the light of the “Son” but we are too busy treating Him as if he is a casual pal that we occasionally chat with.
How are we to complete the Great Commission when the Person whom we are to be proclaiming is nothing but a casual friend? It will ring hollow to say that Jesus is coming soon, we cannot wait to hang out with Him! He is such a cool friend…

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. -John 3:16


We return that love by calling Him just a friend, no wonder the Spirit grieves! We should all be ashamed of ourselves…..