VIRTUAL UNION VS. ACTUAL UNION WITH CHRIST
By Gilbert Beebe
From Signs of the
Times March 1, 1860
We have read some very labored articles which have been written
against the doctrine of eternal, vital
union of our Lord Jesus Christ and his mystical body, the church, in which the
writers have attempted to draw a line between what they call a virtual eternal,
and an actual eternal union, admitting the former, but denying the latter. Some
of the less discerning of the saints have become perplexed, and we have been
frequently called on to define the difference.
Before attempting to do so, we will remark, that
every expression of Bible truth by which the church of the living God, which is
the ground and pillar of the truth, is or ever has been distinguished from the
world or anti‑Christ has been assailed in the same sly and insidious
manner. Predestination, election, special redemption, regeneration, final
preservation of the saints in grace to glory, the resurrection of the dead,
and ultimate glory of the heirs of salvation, have shared the same fate. Read
to the Arminian, "Whom he [God] did foreknow, them he also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son," &c.
"Having predestinated us to the adoption of children," &c.
"Him being delivered up, by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." Ah, says
he, I believe in predestination; but not in absolute predestination! Well, let
us see: What kind of predestination can that be which is not absolute? Something like this. The Lord
had a design, a purpose or a will to do certain things if men or devils would
allow him to do so; but nothing in reality made certain by the counsel or
predestination of God. This is in reality a flat denial of predestination in
toto, yet it is what predestination must be if it be not absolute.
We believe in election. O
yes, says the self‑conceited freewiller, certainly, I believe election,
but not eternal, sovereign, personal election. But that God chose to save all
who would comply with certain terms, perform certain conditions, and make use
of certain means. A man must be lamentably stupid who cannot perceive that this
is a full denial of election altogether. Special redemption, yes, says Andrew
Fuller, and all his motley echoes, we believe it is special in its design and in its effect, but general in its nature,
and so general that all sinners, if they are so disposed, can avail themselves
of its full benefit. Thus professing to believe it to be special, deny its speciality, and rest its efficacy on the will of
the creature, and thereby disallow the saving virtue of the blood of Christ-
Regeneration. With one voice all the work‑mongrel tribes of the earth
agree, the sinner must be born again, but at the same time deny that the new
birth brings forth anything that the sinner did not possess before the birth;
no seminal preexistence of the life which the birth brings forth: no begetting
by the heavenly parent, but a mere change of purpose and pursuit, a new
modeling of the carnal mind, and a new formation of the old man. Perhaps this
may be a virtual, but not actual regeneration. All who are thus virtually born
again, if such a thing could be, would present a race of fatherless children;
bastards, and not sons. Perseverance is admitted, if they may be allowed to
supply the condition, if they hold out faithful, &c. Anything that will
strip the crown from the head of Christ, and crown the sinner as his own savior,
they seem very willing to admit. The resurrection is only admitted with such
qualifications as either, it is past already, or that it does not mean what the
Scriptures affirm, that "He that raised up Jesus from the dead, shall also
quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you.
We come now to our subject,
and will inquire, What is meant by Eternal Vital Union?
2. Does such a Union exist? And if so,
3. Is it Actual or Virtual?
By the term eternal, we mean
that which was before all time. The word vital means life, and union is onenessidentity
as a unit.
What kind of life does God give to his people? Is it eternal,
or is it only time‑life? John says, "This is the record that God
hath given us eternal life."‑1 John v; and Jesus says, "I give
to them eternal life." Many other express declarations of Scripture prove
that the life given to the children of God is eternal, and consequently did as
fully exist before they individually and experimentally received it, as
afterwards. If it did not exist before it was implanted in us, or communicated
to us by the new birth, then why is it called eternal? The eternity of it is
attested by the declaration that it was with the Father and was manifested. (1
John i.) This life is hid in God, those who receive it, receive by being
begotten of his own will, and born of God. Not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. This vitality then is eternal
vitality, or eternal life, which was with God, the Father, before it was
manifested.
Having then settled by Scripture testimony the two
points, namely, the life and its eternal
character, we come to the word union in
its connection with the terms eternal,
vital.
2. Did such an union exist? It seems almost like
insulting the intelligence of the reader to ask, was this life a plurality, was
it legions, or was it one life as it was with the Father before all worlds? Was
it more than a unit, when given to us in Christ Jesus, according as we were
chosen in him before the foundation of the world? If it was more than one life,
perhaps some one can tell us how many lives it was, but if it was one and the
self‑same life as it originated in God the Father, and is hid in him, if
it was but one and the same life as given to us in Christ Jesus before the
world began, then the controversy on the subject of eternal vital union may
cease, for one of the two propositions must be admitted or the Bible rejected.
To deny that a vital union, or a union of spiritual vitality did so exist in
eternity before all time, is rank infidelity, for God has so declared it. This
life was and is and forever shall continue to be that which makes us one with
Christ, as Christ is one with the Father, and that Christ and the church are
identified in, is positively asserted by Christ himself. He is in them, they
are in him. He also is in the Father, and the Father is in him, and so
completely so that he that hath seen him, hath seen the Father also. And we
ask, who has ever seen the Son, who hath not seen the church also? seeing that
he is in the church, and the church is in him. He is the head, the church is
his body; and does a head and its body make more than one man or person?
"For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of
that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ."‑1 Cor.
xii. 12. Then Christ the head, and his church with all her legitimate members,
being many in membership, are but one unit in life or vitality. Christ says,
"I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father
but by me." If it be admitted that Christ is truly the life of the church,
the true God and eternal life, then that same life which unites him to the
church as his body, unites his body, the church, to him as her head. If it be
admitted that Christ is now to‑day the head of the church, will they
presume to say that he was not the head of his church yesterday? Dare any one
deny the announcement of the Holy Ghost? "Jesus Christ, the same
yesterday, today and forever." Of course, when we speak of Christ in his
oneness with and headship of the church as his body, we speak of him in his
mediatorial character as the Son of God, and so revealed with power.
3. Is this union of oneness of life in Jesus Christ
actual or only virtual? As neither of these words are used in the inspired
writings in connection with the union of Christ and the church, we must depend upon our lexicons for their signification; Webster's
Dictionary is the recognized standard of our language in the principal colleges
of our country. His definition is: Actual: 1. real or effective, or that exists
truly and absolutely; 2. exists in act; real; in opposition to speculative.
Virtually: In efficacy or effect only; by means of
some other influence, or the instrumentality of something else.
According therefore to the established and
acknowledged laws of our language, those who hold the doctrine of eternal,
actual, vital union, believe that the life of the church of God is one life,
and that it really, effectively, truly and absolutely did exist in eternity,
before the world began, in a sense opposite to that of mere speculation.
While
those who deny that it was actual, deny that it was real, or that it existed
truly and absolutely, in a sense opposed to that which is only speculative. And
those who deny that this union was actual before the world began, but admit
that it was virtually existing in eternity, deny that it was really, truly or
absolutely so, but in efficacy or effect only; and that efficacy or effect
could only be developed or produced by the means
or instrumentality of something
else.
Now which of these
positions, if either, do the
Scriptures and the teaching of the Spirit in our experience establish? To us it
is very clear that if this union of the life of the church in Jesus Christ
existed in him before the world began, it was more than a speculation; that it
was a reality. If it was not then a
reality, a fact, what is there in the communication of that eternal life to us
experimentally in the new birth, that can make the life what it was not before
we were made to feel its power? But one will say, the word actual signifies an act or
action. This Webster admits in a
secondary sense, not in its primary signification. Well, be it so; are we not
told that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord? Does
not the giving a thing imply an act or an action? Certainly it does. Well, when
was the act or action of giving us eternal life in Jesus Christ performed? We
are told that God hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, according as he
hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. Is eternal life a spiritual blessing? It certainly is
not a mere temporal blessing, then it was actually given us in him before the
foundation of the world. God hath
given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. The gift, not gifts of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. It is given us in him, and through
him it is in due time communicated to all the members of his body, when they pass from death unto life, are born again, and
brought into the unity of the faith
and knowledge of the Son of God. If the work of the Spirit in the new birth is the action which makes this union
actual, then we set aside the reality of grace
given us in Christ before the world began, and instead of the gift of God is
eternal life, we should read it, the gifts
of God, there are as many distinct gifts as there are members in the body.
And as the relationship of nearest of kin
could not exist in reality before
the life union existed, the consequence must be that when the Lord Jesus died
for his members on the cross, we, who now live upon the earth, were not really,
truly and absolutely so united with and related to him, as to allow us any part
or lot in the atonement.
Much confusion prevails where brethren confound this
vital union with our individual
experience of it when brought into it. The union, spiritually, was as perfect before
we were brought experimentally into the enjoyment of it, as it is now, or ever
will be. But in our earthly, carnal, sinful nature, we had no union with Christ, but were children of wrath even as
others; nay, we were dead in sins, and enmity against God, and enemies to him
by wicked works. But although the holy law of God cursed us in the earthly
Adam, yet for the great love wherewith he loved us in Christ Jesus, even when
we were in ourselves, that is in our earthly nature, dead in sins, he hath quickened
us together with Christ, and hath raised us together, and made us sit together
in the heavenly places in him, and thus by grace are we saved through faith,
and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man
should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good
works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk therein.
We all know that our earthly nature is estranged
from God, and in it we are strangers and foreigners, requiring to be redeemed
from the earth, called by grace, quickened by the Spirit and translated into
the kingdom of God's dear Son. This gift of God, which is eternal life, was not
given us in the earthly Adam, neither was our earthly, carnal and corrupt
nature given to us in Christ. The first Adam is of the earth, earthy, and as is
the earthy, such also are they that are earthy. But it was given us in the Son
of God, who is the Lord from heaven: as is the heavenly, such also are they
that are heavenly. Our natural birth develops us in the one life in .which we
were created in the earthly Adam, and a spiritual, new and heavenly birth,
develops or makes manifest in us, experimently that one life which was hid in
God, and which is now made manifest by the appearing of the great God and our
Savior Jesus Christ.
In conclusion, we do not regard either the words actual or virtual as necessary, or they would have been supplied in the
divine volume, but when men deny the reality of this eternal, vital union, or
oneness of life, and say it is only virtual,
or that it is not so in fact or in truth, we are compelled to resist them,
and contend that it is an eternal reality.
Please direct your comments to Mike Krall.