Welcome to After The Fact, a knowing faith many episode where we look to take a big question

and address it in just a few minutes. Typically the questions we consider will line up with our

larger topic for the season that's certainly true for our time today. We are discussing

Romans on knowing faith this season and joining us today is Dr. Stephen Yule. Dr. Yule is associate

professor of biblical spirituality at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and he's the

author of several books including but not limited to William Perkins, the father of Puritanism,

a hope deferred, the blessings of adoption, and the inner sanctum of Puritan piety, John Flavolt's

doctrine of mystical union with Christ. Dr. Yule, welcome to After The Fact. Thanks for joining us.

It's good to be here. Thank you very much. All right, Dr. Yule, here's our big question. What is

mystical union and how is it at play in Romans 6, 1 through 11? That's a great question.

Really important. Martin Lloyd Jones, I think it was Martin Lloyd Jones. I'm almost absolutely

certain it was Martin Lloyd Jones who said that the doctrine of mystical union with Christ is

the most important doctrine that we can comprehend and apply as believers and the difference

really between life and death. And so when we speak of mystical union with Christ we're really

referring to what it means for Christ to baptize us with the Holy Spirit into his body,

whereby we become one with Christ. The Puritans like to describe it as an indesoluble union,

whereby we are one with Christ in God's estimation. And obviously we can see the implications of

that for the doctrine of justification. You know what is Christ becomes ours, what is ours becomes

Christ. We see the implication for that when it comes to adoption because we are now one with

the Son of God, we become sons of God, and the implications of that for sanctification. Very

significant that because we are one with Christ, we are one with Him in His death, burial and

resurrection, legally so, but also practically so because of the indwelling presence of the Spirit

...