What does First B Jackson teach about union with christ?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on union with Christ starts with a single claim that runs through years of preaching: being joined to Jesus through faith is not one feature of the Christian life among many. It is what the Christian life is. Pastor Ray has returned to this idea across Romans, Galatians, and John, each time making the same point from a different angle. The declaration in Romans 8:1, that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, does not stand on its own. It carries the weight of everything Paul has argued before it, and the phrase 'in Christ Jesus' is doing real work. It is the reason the declaration is true at all.
The law comes up in almost every treatment of this topic, and always in the same role. Ray and Pastor Mark both press the same distinction: the law can identify sin, and Paul even says it aggravates the desire to do it, but it cannot remove sin, restore what sin has broken, or make anyone righteous. What the law could not do, God did by sending His own Son. Christ lived the life of perfect obedience the law required and took the death He did not deserve, so that those united to Him through faith could receive what He earned. Pastor Mark, working through Galatians 2:20, pointed to the Greek tense behind 'I have been crucified with Christ' as something that happened once in the past and carries its effects permanently forward. That settled reality is the ground on which everything else stands.
What union with Christ actually looks like in daily life comes through in how both Ray and Pastor James handled John 9 and the commands of Romans 8. Setting the mind on the Spirit is not automatic for a believer. It is an ongoing, deliberate choice, and the teaching here is honest about that. Peter made the great confession and within ten verses had to be corrected for setting his mind on human interests rather than God's. The purpose behind Christ's work, as Romans 8:4 frames it, is that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in those who walk according to the Spirit. That requirement, as Jesus summarized it, is loving God and loving people, which is also the longstanding motto of this church. The 'through Christ' in that motto, Ray has said plainly, is not optional phrasing.
Taught from Romans 8:1-18 · Galatians 2:20-21 · Galatians 3 · John 9:1-38 · Colossians 3:1-3
The passage taught · 2 Corinthians 4
1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we don’t faint.
2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
3 Even if our Good News is veiled, it is veiled in those who are dying;
4 in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- June 16, 2024 Union With Christ Is What It's All About Romans 8 shows that union with Christ, not self-effort, frees believers from sin and death and makes it possible to truly love God and others.
- July 3, 2016 No Condemnation for Those in Christ Jesus Romans 8 reminds us that the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives in every believer, freeing us from sin and death to love God and others.
- June 12, 2016 Work the Works While It Is Day A pastor walks through Romans 7 and John 9 to show how union with Christ through faith calls believers to simple obedience, honest testimony, and worship.
- June 12, 2016 Union with Christ Is What It's All About A blind man's healing in John 9 opens up the question of what it means to obey simply, testify honestly, and worship faithfully when you are united with Christ.
- April 26, 2015 Union With Christ Through Faith Pastor Ray walks Galatians 3 through a pop quiz on faith versus law, showing why union with Christ, not rule-keeping, is the heart of the gospel.
- August 26, 2012 Crucified With Christ and Yet I Live A verse-by-verse look at Galatians 2:20-21 showing how union with Christ's death and resurrection is the foundation for living a genuine life of faith.