1 Peter 2:24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
Last time we thought of the believer's legal union with Christ in terms of the crediting (imputation) of Christ's perfect life to the believer, so that the believer is counted as having lived that life "in Christ". In Christ also, the believer died to sin, was buried, rose to new life and is seated at the right hand of God. However, there is another aspect to this legal union that we want to note in this devotion - that our sins were credited to Christ and fully punished in Him on the cross.
If anyone is to be saved, two things must happen. As we have seen, they must possess a positive righteousness, through having the life of Christ counted as their life. However, this does not take away the guilt of their sins committed first in Adam and subsequently from their conception onwards. So in our union with Christ, not only is His life credited to us, but our sins were credited to Him and He died on the cross to take the full punishment they deserved. He took our place in hell and suffered its torments for us. Through being joined with Christ, the believer has no guilt of sin to drag them down to hell, and also has the perfect life of obedience to God that is necessary for eternal life!
Note again in our text that there is a practical outcome from this union - an ability for the believer to die to sin (since Christ died to our sins on the cross) and to live to righteousness (since Christ lived a perfect life of obedience in our place when here on earth). Without this union, there could be no transformed life.
So our legal union with Christ involves an intimate and glorious exchange which underpins the cleansing of sin we receive as the Holy Spirit joins us with the Lord Jesus Christ. All this is pictured in baptism, and we should certainly delight to reflect on such deep, rich and majestic truths, whether by looking back on our own baptism or witnessing that of someone else!
