In Christ · Participation and Union with Christ in Paul

Definition

A reading of Paul, and of Ephesians especially, in which the phrase en Christō (“in Christ”) and its variants, “in him,” “in whom,” “with Christ,” “in the Beloved”, name the central location of every benefit of the gospel. Paul does not say believers receive forgiveness, adoption, the Spirit, the inheritance, or new humanity as separable transferable items handed across a divine counter; he says we have these things because we are in him, incorporated into the Messiah whose death, resurrection, and exaltation we now share. The framework is participation: God’s people are united to Christ such that what is true of him becomes true of them. This is the densest theme in Ephesians (the phrase appears ~36 times across six short chapters, the highest concentration in the New Testament), and it organizes the indicative half of the letter (chs 1-3, what God has done in him) and grounds the imperative half (chs 4-6, walk worthy of the calling you have in him). The framework also gathers in two adjacent Ephesians themes the site treats as subsumed under it: the mystery (mysterion) revealed in Christ (1:9-10, 3:3-9, 5:32, 6:19), and the Spirit as the seal and down-payment (arrabon) of the inheritance (1:13-14, 4:30). What is hidden is unveiled in him; what is promised is sealed in him; what is mature is grown in him. Outside of him, the letter has nothing to offer.

Key proponents

Modern

Constantine R. Campbell, Paul and Union with Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study (Zondervan, 2012). The fullest modern monograph on the topic. Campbell argues the standard English “union with Christ” actually covers four distinct but overlapping realities: union (the new status), participation (the believer’s sharing in Christ’s narrative, esp. his death and resurrection), identification (with Christ’s pivotal events as the believer’s own), and incorporation (membership in his body, the church). All four are present in Ephesians, often in the same sentence. The site borrows Campbell’s typology as the basic toolkit.
N.T. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God (Fortress, 2013), esp. ch 10 (“The People of God, Freshly Reworked”); Paul: In Fresh Perspective (Fortress, 2005); Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters (Westminster John Knox, 2002, the Ephesians volume). Wright’s foundational move: in the Messiah is the participatory frame Paul takes from the Hebrew Bible’s pattern of a representative king who incorporates the people. David is anointed and Israel is “in David”; the Messiah is anointed and the renewed people are “in him.” The phrase is not mystical lift; it is covenant-corporate.
Lynn H. Cohick, The Letter to the Ephesians (NICNT, Eerdmans, 2020). The lane’s careful exegetical baseline. Cohick documents the structural function of en Christō in Ephesians: every theological assertion in 1:3-14 (the great berakah) is qualified by it, and 2:6 (“raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus”) is its narrative climax.
Markus Barth, Ephesians 1-3 (Anchor Bible, Doubleday, 1974). Reads Eph 1:3-14 as a single Greek sentence whose syntax forces the reader to feel the participatory texture: nothing is named that is not located in him. Barth pairs this with his Jew-and-gentile reading: union with Christ is the only basis of the new humanity.
John M.G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift (Eerdmans, 2015). Re-frames “grace” through six “perfections” (especially incongruity, the gift given to the unworthy). The gift in Paul is not first a benefit but Christ himself; the gift’s reception is union. The framework runs cleanly into Eph 2:8-10 (saved by grace through faith → created in Christ Jesus for good works).
Michael J. Gorman, Inhabiting the Cruciform God: Kenosis, Justification, and Theosis in Paul’s Narrative Soteriology (Eerdmans, 2009) and Becoming the Gospel (Eerdmans, 2015). Reads participation as cruciform: to be in Christ is to be conformed to the self-giving, downward-moving life of the crucified God. The site’s cruciform hermeneutic and this framework are interlocking.
Richard B. Hays, The Faith of Jesus Christ (1983, 2nd ed. Eerdmans, 2002). The participatory reading of pistis Christou (the faithfulness of Christ): the believer is incorporated into the faithful obedience of the Messiah. Dovetails with gospel allegiance and the subjective-genitive option carried in justification.
Timothy Gombis, The Drama of Ephesians: Participating in the Triumph of God (IVP, 2010, in influences/). The book’s title states the thesis: Ephesians is the drama of participation in God’s apocalyptic triumph. Believers, raised with Christ and seated with him (2:6), are agents in the unfolding cosmic drama. Gombis’s reading and this framework are mutually load-bearing.
Marty Solomon (Bema podcast, Galatians and Ephesians, in influences/). The Hebraic rabbi-and-disciple lens: “in the rabbi” is the disciple’s identity, formed by walking after the rabbi until the disciple’s life takes on the rabbi’s shape. Solomon supplies the Second-Temple texture for what Paul means by “in him.”
Tim Mackie (BibleProject Ephesians notes, in influences/). The literary-design lens: the en Christō phrase as the structural backbone of Eph 1’s berakah and the conceptual thread running through the letter.

Premodern witnesses

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Ephesians (c. 392). Reads en Christō throughout as the believer’s true location: not a metaphor, an ontology. On 1:3 he insists that “in him” is the necessary preface to every spiritual blessing; on 2:6 he marvels at the believer “already” seated with Christ. The earliest sustained participatory reading of Ephesians.
Athanasius, On the Incarnation (c. 318). The classical formulation: “God became human so that humans might become God” (De Inc. 54). The patristic doctrine of theosis (deification), sharing in the divine life through Christ, is the deep theological grammar of participation, and the New Testament charter for it is the en Christō and en pneumati corpus, of which Ephesians is the densest single witness.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John (c. 425-428). The classical articulation of believers’ physical-spiritual incorporation into Christ through the Spirit and the sacraments. Cyril reads John 14-17 alongside the Pauline “in Christ” texts as a single doctrine.
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion III.1.1 (1559 ed.). The Reformation tradition’s most famous opening sentence on union: “as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us… we must, in short, be engrafted into him, and put on Christ.” Union, for Calvin, precedes justification and sanctification; both are gifts received in him. The lane’s Reformation anchor for the framework.
Martin Luther, “The Freedom of a Christian” (1520) and Lectures on Galatians (1535). The fröhliche Wechsel, the “happy exchange”, between Christ the bridegroom and the soul his bride: he takes our sin, we receive his righteousness, because we have become one with him. The exchange happens inside union, not as a transfer across distance. Luther’s reading sits closer to the participatory frame than caricatures of his theology allow.

See How We Read for the longer lineage of this and the other frameworks on this site.

Core insights

Every benefit of the gospel is in him. Eph 1:3-14 is a single Greek sentence (the longest in the New Testament) and every theological assertion in it is governed by an en Christō or its variants. Blessed, “in Christ” (1:3). Chose, “in him before the foundation of the world” (1:4). Adopted, “through Jesus Christ… to himself” (1:5). Graced, “in the Beloved” (1:6). Redeemed, “in him through his blood” (1:7). Mystery revealed, “in him” (1:9). Summing up all things, “in him” (1:10). Inheritance obtained, “in him” (1:11). Hope set, “in Christ” (1:12). Sealed, “in him you also” (1:13). The repetition is not a verbal tic; it is the grammar of salvation. There is no salvation outside of him because there are no salvific benefits that exist as detachable items.

Participation is wider than imputation; imputation is one of its effects. The Reformation tradition was right to defend the gift of righteousness received by the believer rather than generated by the believer. But the gift’s location is union: we are righteous in him, not by a separate ledger entry. Calvin’s Institutes III.1.1 protects this. The recovery of participation in modern Pauline studies (Wright, Campbell, Gorman, Hays) is not a retreat from forensic categories but a re-placing of them inside their participatory home. The believer is justified because the believer is in the Justified One. Imputation is one of the gifts that flow from union; it does not replace it.

Eph 2:5-6 is the climactic participatory verse. “Made us alive together with Christ… raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Three compound verbs, synezōopoiēsen, synēgeiren, synekathisen, all governed by the syn- prefix (“with”). The believer’s narrative is now the Messiah’s narrative: his resurrection is our resurrection; his enthronement is our enthronement. The “heavenly places” (epourania) language of Ephesians (1:3, 1:20, 2:6, 3:10, 6:12) is the spatial frame for this: the believer’s true location is already where Christ is, even while the believer’s body remains on earth. Gombis: this is the drama. Wright: this is the new-creation reality breaking back into the present.

Indicative grounds imperative. The macro-structure of Ephesians is indicatives in chs 1-3 → imperatives in chs 4-6, hinged at 4:1 (“I therefore… urge you to walk worthy of the calling to which you have been called”). The ethical “walk” of chs 4-6 is not effort-based moralism; it is the living out of an identity that is already true in him. “Put off the old self… put on the new self, created after the likeness of God” (4:22-24), the old self is the pre-incorporation identity, the new self is who you are in Christ. You don’t become it; you wear it. This is also why the household codes (5:21-6:9) are framed by submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ (5:21): the new mutuality is participatory, not contractual.

Mystery (mysterion) is what is hidden until it is unveiled in him. Eph 1:9-10 names “the mystery of his will” as God’s purpose “to sum up [anakephalaiōsasthai] all things in Christ.” Eph 3:3-9 names the same mystery as the inclusion of gentiles as “fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus” (3:6). Eph 5:32 calls the marriage-and-Christ analogy “a great mystery.” Eph 6:19 names the gospel itself “the mystery of the gospel.” The mystery is not God’s secret plan revealed to insiders; it is the cosmic purpose of God now exposed in Christ. Because mystery in Ephesians is what is unveiled in him, the framework subsumes it: every callout the chapters need on mysterion can be placed inside the participatory frame.

The Spirit is the arrabon of the inheritance, the present participation in what is coming. Eph 1:13-14: “you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the arrabon of our inheritance.” The arrabon is a Greek commercial term for the down-payment that guarantees the full purchase; some translations render it “deposit,” “pledge,” or “first installment.” The Spirit, in Ephesians, is the present share of the future inheritance that we already enjoy in him. Eph 4:30 picks the seal up again: “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” The seal is participatory: it marks belonging, and it works the eschaton backward into the present.

Participation is corporate before it is individual. Paul’s overwhelming usage in Ephesians is plural: “blessed us… chose us… predestined us.” The “in Christ” believer is never alone; she is incorporated into a body (1:23, 2:16, 4:4, 4:12, 4:16, 5:23, 5:30). The Hebraic background is the corporate solidarity of Israel “in” its representative, David’s house, Abraham’s seed. The Messiah is the new representative human, and being “in him” is being in the body of which he is the head (1:22-23). Ephesians has no spirituality that is not ecclesial. Personal participation is real, but the primary unit of participation is the gathered, multi-ethnic, one-new-humanity church (see one new humanity).

The Hebraic depth: in the Messiah draws on Israelite covenant representation. Wright is the cleanest here. In the Hebrew Bible, the king represents the people, what happens to him happens, in covenantal terms, to them. “In David” Israel goes up to battle; “in David” Israel inherits. Paul’s en Christō takes this pattern and applies it to the Messiah of God. The participatory frame is therefore not a Hellenistic mystery-religion borrowing (Bultmann’s old view, now widely abandoned); it is the Hebrew Bible’s corporate-representative pattern brought to its messianic conclusion. The phrase is also Eastern in texture: Solomon’s “in the rabbi”, the disciple whose life is being shaped into the rabbi’s life by walking in his dust, is the lived-experience side of the same theology.

Where it shows up in Scripture

Ephesians 1:3-14, the great berakah, the densest concentration of en Christō in the New Testament
Ephesians 2:4-7, raised, seated, enthroned with him
Ephesians 2:10, “created in Christ Jesus for good works”
Ephesians 3:6, gentiles as “fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus“
Ephesians 3:14-19, “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith,” and being “filled with all the fullness of God”
Ephesians 4:13, growing into “the mature anthropos, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”
Romans 6:3-11, baptized into Christ’s death, raised with him
Romans 8:1, 8:9-11, 8:31-39, “no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” and the Spirit’s indwelling
1 Corinthians 12:12-13, 15:22, the body of Christ; “as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive”
2 Corinthians 5:17, “if anyone is in Christ, new creation”
Galatians 2:20, 3:26-29, “I have been crucified with Christ”; “you are all one in Christ Jesus”
Philippians 3:8-10, “found in him… that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings”
Colossians 1:27, 3:1-4, “Christ in you, the hope of glory”; “your life is hidden with Christ in God”
John 15:1-11, “abide in me, and I in you”, the Johannine version of the same theology

Common misreadings to avoid

“In Christ is a mystical floaty experience.” No. Paul’s usage is covenantal, corporate, and concrete. The Bultmannian reading that traced en Christō to Hellenistic mystery religions has been steadily abandoned (Wright, Campbell, and the broader new perspective). The phrase’s home is the Hebrew Bible’s representative-king pattern and the Second-Temple Jewish hope of incorporation in the Anointed One.
“In Christ is private piety.” No. Paul’s pronouns are overwhelmingly plural. The “in Christ” believer is in the body, with siblings, across the dividing wall. A spirituality that is en Christō and not ecclesial is a contradiction in Pauline terms (see one new humanity).
“Union with Christ replaces justification.” No. Union is the location in which justification, adoption, sanctification, and glorification are given. The Reformation tradition at its best (Calvin, Institutes III.1.1) sets union under justification rather than across from it. The modern recovery of participation is correcting an over-individualized account, not deleting forensic categories.
“Participation collapses into moral imitation.” No. We participate before we imitate; the believer is “raised with him” before she is asked to “walk worthy.” Imitation flows out of union, not toward it. Reverse the order and Ephesians becomes the moralistic letter it is so often mistaken for.
“The Spirit’s seal is only future.” No. Eph 1:13-14 names the Spirit as the arrabon, the down-payment now, the guarantee of what is coming. The believer’s present life is already a share of the inheritance. Eschatology in Ephesians is already and not yet, and the already is real.
“The mystery is esoteric knowledge for spiritual insiders.” No. Paul’s mysterion is what God has now unveiled, the cosmic plan to sum up all things in Christ, and the inclusion of the gentiles in the one body. It is announced publicly (3:8-10) and made known through the church to “the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” Mystery in Ephesians is the opposite of gnosis: it is the once-hidden plan now made plain in him.

In Christ · Participation and Union

Definition

Key proponents

Core insights

Where it shows up in Scripture

Common misreadings to avoid

Further reading