To Embrace Christ

Calvin finds the theological implications of the believer's union with Christ to be both polemically expedient and the necessary remedy. Justification and sanctification, imputation and infusion, Christ and the Holy Spirit—these are as inseparable in salvation as the sun's light is from its heat. God's monergistic formation of faith in the Christian unites him irrefragably to Christ, who is his righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. To embrace Christ in the gospel is to embrace every redemptive blessing purchased by him as well. Justification and sanctification are distinct soteric aspects, or benefits, of one's union with Christ

 

Craig Carpenter, A Question of Union With Christ? Calvin and Trent on Justification, pg. 379-380