Important Theology on the Cross, United with Christ by George Smeaton

As I was writing this study on the cross, I have had occasion to read several wonderful books which have helped me immensely to understand the atonement in a deeper or more practical way. One of these books is "The Apostle’s Doctrine of the Atonement" by George Smeaton. Unfortunately, this most helpful volume was written in Old English, in typical puritanical style, and can make for tedious reading.

Because the subject matter of the book is so very important and gaining understanding of the cross is of utmost importance, I have included a copy of a particularly helpful section of this book by George Smeaton, changing some of the words to modernize the language, and including several editing comments so as to clarify the subject being communicated.

I hope that you enjoy the following writing. It is both deep and lofty, as well as being theological and practical. I have personally grown much through the understanding of what the author presents below, and it is my hope that you will, as well.

grace and truth,

Mike Cleveland
team member www.settingcaptivesfree.com

"Important Theology on the Cross - United with Christ" - content by George Smeaton, updated and edited by Mike Cleveland

A passage of great importance on the atonement is Romans 6:1-8:

Romans 6:1-8 (NIV)
¹ What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ² By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³ Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. ⁵ If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. ⁶ For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-- ⁷ because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. ⁸ Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

This amazing passage should be clearly understood, because this same kind of language occurs in many of the books that Paul wrote.

To understand what is meant by dying with Christ, we need to see the connection between the previous chapter of Romans (Romans 5), with the current passage. In Romans 5:12-19 Paul described our standing in Christ, and then he added "where sin abounded, grace much more abounded." Anticipating the objection that would be made to such a view of God’s grace, Paul says, "Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?" and then he rejects that thought with total abhorrence of the idea. But not content with his mere "God forbid" rejection of the thought, he then goes on to prove that this type of perversion of grace could not logically follow for a reason which touches the deep elements of God’s moral government, and makes it totally impossible. What is the reason Paul gives? It is not that Christians have new motivations (which Paul does bring out at the end of the chapter), but rather a solid basis in law. He argues from a fact-the great objective change of relation that comes from dying with Christ. (Editor: In other words, Paul argues that Christians will not use grace as a license to sin not because of new motives or desires that are in the heart of a Christian, but rather because our legal standing has changed. We have died with Christ.)

We need to ask, then, what Paul means by these expressions that he uses, on which he makes his point so strongly (verse 12): "dying with Christ", "dying to sin", "buried with Christ", "crucified with Christ" (or co-crucified).

One particular verse of Scripture will give us a key to the meaning of the above phrases:

2 Corinthians 5:14 (NIV)
For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.

In this passage, Paul obviously uses two expressions interchangeably; that is, "He died for all", and "all died in Him." He is describing the same thing from two different points of view. The first of these expressions describes the vicarious (this term means "substitutionary" or "in the place of") death of Christ as an objective fact. The second phrase speaks of the same great transaction, in terms that indicate that we too have done it. So then, we may either say, "Christ died for us", or "we died in Him." Both are true. We can equally affirm that He was crucified for us, or we were co-crucified with Him. This alternating phraseology makes it all clear.

But it does need to be stated that we are not referring here to two acts-one on Christ’s side and another on ours (in other words, an experience on our side parallel to His). Rather, we have but one public representative, corporate act performed by the Son of God, in which we share as truly as if we had accomplished the atonement ourselves.

It is a mistake to not carry Romans 5 into Romans 6. If we carry the thought of the representative character of the two Adams from the one chapter into the other, then the difficulty vanishes. (Editor: Adam represented us when he fell in the garden, so that his fall was counted as our own, just as if we were in the garden and fell ourselves. Just so, Jesus Christ represented us when He died on the cross, so that His death was counted as our own, just as if we had died and paid the penalty for our sins ourselves).

The very same manner of expressing this truth is found in Romans 5:12.

Romans 5:12 (NIV)
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned-

The meaning here is that all men sinned in the first man’s act of sin; for that public act was representative, and all Adam’s offspring were included in it. From God’s perspective, there have been but two men in the world, with the two families of which they are the heads; there have been just two public representatives. The idea of Christ being our Surety (Editor: that is, "one who has become legally liable for the debt, default, or failure in duty of another") and the representation of His atonement as the act of "one for many", run through this entire section of Romans. But the passage we are studying (Romans 6:1-8) contains one difference as compared with other passages, and that is that here we are described as doing what our representative did. In other words, the one corporate act is described from our share in the transaction.

Let us notice the expressions used in Romans 6:1-8:

It is said that "we died to sin (verse 2). As this phrase is misunderstood quite frequently, we must discover what it really means. It frequently occurs in the writings of Paul in different forms, and it always alludes, not to an inward deliverance from sin, but to the Christian’s objective relation (that is, to His personal standing before God through the substitutionary work of Jesus Christ). In other words, it means that we are legally dead to sin in Jesus Christ. This is made very clear by two other expressions occurring in the section. The first of these passages applies the same language to the Lord Himself; for He is said to have died to sin once (verse 10). Now the only sense in which the Sinless One can be regarded as dying to sin, is that of dying to its guilt, or to the condemning power which goes along with sin, and which must run its course wherever sin has been committed. He died to the guilt or criminality of sin when it was laid on Him, He certainly did not die to sins indwelling power. See the difference here?

The second of these phrases shows that this dying was the ground or meritorious cause (Editor: or basis) of our justification. "He that is dead has been justified (not FREED, as is rendered in certain versions) from sin" (verse 7). The justification of the Christian is thus based on his co-dying with Christ; that is, we are said to have died when Christ died, and to have done what Christ did. The words undoubtedly mean a co-dying with Christ in that one corporate representative deed; that is, they mean that we were one with Christ in His obedience unto death, just like we were one with Adam in his disobedience. Christ’s death to sin belongs to us, and is as much ours as if we had born the penalty ourselves. And the justification by which we are forgiven and accepted has no other foundation. It is noteworthy that Romans 5 describes all this in the third person (Editor: see Romans 5:15-19 to see what the author is referring to here), whereas Romans 6 describes it in the first person, and from our own share in it.

Paul also says in this section that our old man is crucified, or co-crucified with Him. The entire section of which this is a part is to be regarded not as an exhortation, but as the simple statement of fact; this passage does not set forth anything done by us, but something done on our account, or for our sake, by a Surety, in whose performance we participate. But, it might be asked, "can’t we understand that these statements designate two separate actions, one done by Christ, and a similar or parallel one by us?" No. The acts are not two, but one, described from two different points of view. There is not one crucifixion on the part of Christ, and a second, parallel and similar but different, crucifixion on the part of His people. There is but one corporate act-the act of "one for many."

But what is the old man that is said to be co-crucified with the Lord? Does not this refer to our inward corruption? No it does not. Such an explanation is untenable (Editor: unable to be defended), as it would make the expression synonymous with the next clause which is not only bad theology but also inept reasoning. Instead, the first clause is made the ground or condition of the second.

The old man is crucified in order that the body of sin (sin within us, or the flesh) might be destroyed. Now there must be a difference between the two clauses, as the former is in order to attain the latter. The old man said to be crucified with Christ, is therefore our old personality, or our standing "in Adam", which is terminated that we may have a new relationship to God in the crucified Surety (Editor: our standing "in Christ") ; a privilege which lays the foundation also for the destruction of inherent corruption (or the flesh). But these two (verse 12)-person and nature-are not to be confounded or confused.

(Editor: Romans 6:1-5 and 7-8 is referring to our standing, or our state, nor our actions or behaviors. The passage refers to our own crucifixion with Jesus Christ, and shows that our standing with God has changed through the death of Christ. We are no longer viewed as "in Adam" and therefore under the penalty of sin and condemnation. Rather, we are viewed as having died with Christ, therefore Christ paid the penalty of sin for us (and we paid it "in Him") so that our official standing is now "in Christ" and therefore free from guilt and condemnation. Romans 6:6 speaks of actions and behaviors changing as a result of our official standing having been changed through the death of Jesus Christ. To summarize, Romans 6:1-5 says we have been crucified with Christ, which tells us that our standing has changed from being "in Adam" (with its curse and condemnation) to being "in Christ" (with all of its blessings and benefits). Therefore, because of our crucifixion with Christ, that is, our official standing now in Christ, our behavior should change so that we should no longer be slaves to sin. The first five verses of Romans 6 are statements of fact, then verse 6 is an exhortation, so a one-sentence summary is, "because we were crucified with Christ, we should no longer be slaves of sin.")

But to bring even more clarity to the mind of his readers, Paul says we were baptized into His death (verse 3). Christ is presented to us as laden with sin (Editor: loaded down, or burdened with sin), and satisfying divine justice; and baptism, as a symbolical representation, shows our connection with Him, or rather our participation in that great corporate act which Jesus did on the cross, in the place of all His people. That is, we are seen as having done what He did, and to have done what He did, and to have undergone what He underwent, to satisfy divine justice. The symbol of baptism teaches this, and Paul tells us the fact that it was a baptism into His death, an emblem (or picture) of oneness with Christ, or fellowship with Him in His death to sin (verse 10).

But another thought to be noticed is that the oneness with Jesus in His death, or the co-dying with Him, secured the ulterior end of life. The death was the price of the life. The one was the cause, the other was the unfailing reward or consequence. We must put these two in juxtaposition (Editor: place these two things side by side).

First, then, all the above expressions, and others similar to them, point to a discharge (or release) from a hard master. That master is sin, which is described through these two chapters as a mighty potence, or tyrant, that entered into the world by one man, and reigned over the human race. This is more than a personification, more than a figure of speech, for the apostle Paul is struggling to express a relation where human analogies break down. He has no term by which to describe it but the power of a potentate, or of a master, over his slave. By death this yoke is broken, according to the language of Job 3:19: (NIV) "The small and the great are there, and the slave is freed from his master." The apostle declares that not only was the death of Christ a substitution in our place, but that the consequences of it being a substitutionary death are that we may be said to have done what He did. And, because of our oneness with Him, we are discharged from sin as a master.

But this secures life; for this life is the fruit, effect, or reward that is based on the former action (death). If the Christian died with Christ, he will also live with Him, by a bond as sure as Christ’s own death and resurrection. If we died with Him, we believe that we shall also live with Him (verse 8). But if that is so,--if Christians live with Christ as surely as they died with Him,--it follows that their life can no longer be devoted to sin, but to God, as was the life of Christ. They have fellowship with the Lord in His resurrection-Life, a participation of the same holy life that the Lord lives in heaven, and cannot, therefore, surrender themselves to a lifestyle of sin.

This, then, is the grand answer to the objection to the doctrines of grace mentioned at the beginning of Romans 6. Paul, in refuting the objection, appeals to the deepest principles in the moral government of God. He proves that Christ’s vicarious (substitutionary) death, for the satisfaction of divine justice, and for the annihilation of sin, opens a way for the entrance of a new reign of life. He makes it blatantly obvious that Christ’s own resurrection-life, which comes in to renovate and transform humanity, makes a lifestyle of sin impossible. Motives may go far; and they too are called into service. But this life of a Christian is elevated above the power of mere motives. The life of Christ enters to renew mankind, and to secure holiness.

A further testimony having much influence on the doctrine of the atonement is Romans 8:3:

Romans 8:3 (NIV)
For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man,

Paul stated at the beginning of the chapter that, in consideration of the indwelling sin which adheres to us (which he described in the chapter 7:15-25), there is no condemnation to the Christian. Then, he adds Romans 8 as the ground or basis of the non-condemnation, and of the deliverance from the law of sin and death. The passage amounts to this: that there is no condemnation, because sin has been condemned in Christ’s flesh, and (Editor: because of Christ’s death) the approved fulfillment of the law is laid to our account.