Union with Christ: A Biblical View of the New Life in Jesus Christ

by Lewis B. Smedes

How can a person who lived nearly two thousand years ago radically change a human life here now? How can Jesus of Nazareth radically affect us, as persons, to the depths of our being? How can he reach out over the great span of time that divides us from him and change us so profoundly that we become “new creatures” in him? / The answer, according to the Apostle Paul, lies in the fact that Jesus Christ enters into union with us. Lewis B. Smedes believes that union with Christ is at once the center and circumference of authentic human existence. Union with Christ is Smedes' probing and sustained exegetical study of what Paul means when he speaks of our being in Christ and Christ being in us. Hailed as “a thoughtful, discerning, and thoroughly scriptural study” when it was first published in 1970 under the title All Things Made New, the book has been greatly streamline in this edition. By judiciously cutting away what now strikes him as “scholarly clutter,” Smedes has produced a carefully condensed version of his earlier work while retaining its basic substance.

Paperback

First published April 1, 1983

About the author

Lewis Benedictus Smedes (1921 — December 19, 2002) was a renowned Christian author, ethicist, and theologian in the Reformed tradition. He was a professor of theology and ethics for twenty-five years at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. His 15 books, including the popular Forgive and Forget, covered some important issues including sexuality and forgiveness.

Lewis Benedictus Smedes was born in 1921, the youngest of five children. His father, Melle Smedes, and mother, Rena (Benedictus), emigrated to the United States from Oostermeer, Friesland in the Netherlands. (Rena's name before being changed by the officials at Ellis Island was Renske.) When he was two-months-old, his father died in the partially completed house he built in Muskegon, Michigan. He married Doris Dekker. He died after falling from a ladder at his home in Sierra Madre, California on December 19, 2002. He was survived by his wife, three children, two grandchildren and one brother.

In addition to many articles, Smedes wrote many popular books including:

* Forgive & Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don't Deserve, Harper, 1984
* A Pretty Good Person What it Takes to Live with Courage, Gratitude, & Integrity or When Pretty Good Is as Good as You Can Be, Harper, 1990
* Standing on the Promises
* Choices: Making Right Decisions in a Complex World
* How Can It Be All Right When Everything Is All Wrong?
* Caring & Commitment: Learning to Live the Love We Promise
* The Incarnation in Modern Anglo-Catholic Theology
* All Things Made New
* Love Within Limits
* Sex for Christians
* Mere Morality: What God Expects From Ordinary People
* A Life of Distinction
* The Art of Forgiving
* Shame and Grace: Healing the Shame We Don't Deserve
* Keeping Hope Alive
* My God and I, a Spiritual Memoir, Eerdmans, 2003

Reviews

[Sarah Vigue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd give this 4 stars but it's a little hard to follow because it's the layperson version of a fuller book and it shows. Might just be better to read the original scholastic piece but I do appreciate how well this was created.

[Wendy C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, I am a Lewis Smedes fan. Period. I read this because of interest in the topic. I kept hearing the phrase, "union with Christ". He does justice to the reality of relating to God as a person and does great balance. While it is theological, it is not elitist, staunchy nor rigid. I wish I had know this guy. I want to read his memoir one day.

[Steven Tryon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Union with Christ is a 1983 reissue of Smedes' 1970 ThD thesis, minus what he saw in retrospect as "scholarly clutter". Even so, it is not light reading. It is a classic Reformed statement of the Christian's unity with Jesus Christ as expressed especially in Paul's phrases, "in Christ" and "Christ in us".

I read the book years ago in Seminary. After reading so much recently of Thomas Merton, I decided it was time to revisit Smedes.

The book is extraordinarily well researched and written. That Smedes is a master wordsmith is beyond question. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God, Christ in us and with us in his power and action. To be in Christ is to be in the church, which is Christ's body in the new situation brought about by Jesus' death and resurrection, now empowered and guided by the Spirit to do Christ's work in Christ's world.

Smedes is a man of action, which I greatly appreciate. I do think he excludes too quickly the sacramental approach which sees the Christian's union with Christ as including also a sense of the divination of human nature by the presence of Christ in us.

As Roman Catholic ecclesiology has had to expand to take account of Spirit-filled Protestant churches, so Protestant and Reformed theology needs to expand to take into account the vibrant mysticism of monastic communities and individuals and their huge impact for the good of the church and of the world. The church needs the witness of both Smedes and Merton.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good overview of the Reformed Protestant understanding of union for the individual believer (for the church not so much). It draws back from Eastern Orthodox thought and mysticism and that is too bad. It also remains too academic (meaning dealing with academic's arguments) at places, despite the rewrite of this earlier work by Smedes for a more general audience.

[Mar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even though this is the less theological version made for "lay" people, I struggled to be engaged by the arguments. Don't disagree with him, but didn't follow it all, either.