If we're going to fight sin well, we cannot be exclusively focused on what we're running from.

We have got to get our eyes on what we're running towards as well.

And we can be more specific than simply saying, truly, I'm running, looking to Jesus, amen, but what about him?

Yes, the hope that he has for us in the future, but also

who he is and we're to be imitators of Christ and to run after this. And again, with the freedom

of knowing, I'm not doing this to try and earn my salvation or my status before God, but

because of who he's made me in Christ, he's conforming me into his image, and I'm to run after

that, I'm to strive for that. And these are beautiful and good things.

Brad Weatherall is the senior pastor of The Orchard, a multi-site church in the northwest

suburbs of Chicago.

He also serves on the steering committee of the Gospel Coalition Chicago Regional Chapter

and is the author of Saved to Sin No More, How Union with Christ Empowers a Life of Holiness.

Brad, thanks for joining me today on the Crossway podcast.

Thanks for having me.

So you open this new book that you've written by making the case that the doctrine of our union with Christ is,

quote, exhilarating. And yet my guess is that some,

if not many of the people listening right now, who have heard about even that doctrine,

union with Christ, they might consider it to be a little bit abstract or maybe even a little

confusing. It's one of those doctrines, one of those phrases that

sometimes gets thrown around, and we're not really sure what we even mean by it. So what do you

make of that fact that, on the one hand, you call this exhilarating and just foundational for our

lives, and yet it's a doctrine that many Christians might just feel a little bit ambiguous about.

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