Duane Sheriff - Our Union with Christ: How You Can Enjoy a Deep Relationship with the Living God

HARRISON HOUSE BOOKS BY DUANE SHERIFF

Identity Theft

Copyright 2020Duane Sheriff

Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version. Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked AMPC are taken from the Amplified Bible, Classic Edition, Copyright 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2015. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked TPT are taken from The Passion Translation, Copyright 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, www.thepassiontranslation.com. Used by permission of BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC, Racine, Wisconsin, USA. All rights reserved. All emphasis within Scripture quotations is the authors own.

Published by Harrison House Publishers
Shippensburg, PA 17257

Cover design by Eileen Rockwell
Interior design by Terry Clifton

ISBN 13 TP: 978-1-68031-298-0
ISBN 13 eBook: 978-1-68031-299-7
ISBN 13 HC: 978-1-68031-301-7
ISBN 13 LP: 978-1-68031-300-0

For Worldwide Distribution, Printed in the U.S.A.
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INTRODUCTION

Our union with Christ is a great mystery waiting to be revealed. Its all about the miraculous sum total of our new identity in Christ as His bride, which affects just about everything. It affects how we believe and behave because all our actions (good or bad) come out of our being and who we believe we are. The union we have with Christ and our new condition as His bride affects how we view and approach life and its challenges. Our new condition in Christ is directly connected to our purpose in this life. We cannot fulfill that purpose if we do not know who we are. It truly takes a revelation from God to see our new condition in Christ. Thats a radical statement, but it is the truth.

We are personally and specifically revealed in Scripture in a glorious and profound way. As we open our hearts, God delights in downloading spiritual knowledge, a clarity of His calling, and the power to fulfill that calling. He desires that we discover the exact gifting He has placed within each of us as well as the masterful principles He has laid out in Scripture for our success in navigating life. This includes our most intimate relationships, specifically marriage. I emphasize marriage because our relationship with Jesus is revealed and experienced in the biblical picture of matrimony. In this divine framework, the husband loves his wife as he loves himself and the wife receives the blessings of a loving, pursuing husband. Gods amazing grace is displayed in Jesus as a magnanimous husband to us, the Church. It shows us that Jesus loves us as He loves Himself. He is nothing but a blessing to His bride. Our spiritual Husband asks for a simple response in faiththat as a submissive, loving wife, we welcome Him with open arms, trust Him, and receive what He provides in His amazing grace.

The world and many religious traditions have distorted the true meaning of marriage. God desires to restore the original portrait, and thereby, restore our relationship with Jesus as His beloved bride. While this is not a book on marriage, God has chosen the biblical picture of marriage to reveal our relationship with Jesus and our new identity as His bride. Regardless of our marital status, marriage is a universal language that communicates Gods unconditional covenant love for us the Church. In order to understand our relationship with our Husband Jesus, we must first understand marriage from Gods perspective. This revelation of marriage as God ordained it connects us to our purpose in life as the bride of Jesus. Christianity is not about rules, regulations, and rituals but rather a beautiful love relationship with the Lord. Once we know who we are, we can clearly see what we have and can now do through Christ.

In my first book Identity Theft, we dealt with the identity crisis we were all born into through Adam and how we all labored under a fallen identity because of sin. In this book, we will discover how we now reign in life through the new birth and our new identity with Christ as His bride. Everything that was lost in the fall is now fully recovered in the resurrection of Jesus (our Husband).

CHAPTER 1

THE UNVEILING

Most everyone enjoys a good mystery. Whether it be a book or movie, the intrigue of discovering clues, developing hypotheses, and ultimately solving the case gives us a sense of adventure that keeps us hooked. Who doesnt enjoy a good Sherlock Holmes story that has been told and retold many times over the last century? Life is also full of mysteries waiting to be unlocked and explored as we grow and mature.

Sue and I have been married since 1980, and let me tell you, there are still great mysteries associated with the female and my wife that I am diligently (well, sometimes) trying to ferret out and identify. I dont know that I will ever totally figure out the right buttons to push but the adventure associated with working on it keeps me in hot pursuit of Sue in growing our relationship. Its the not knowing and excitement of figuring it out that creates a desire to keep seeking and stay on the quest for answers.

So it is with the Bible. There are mysteries associated with God and His Word that He desires to open up and reveal to us as we pray and search through the Scriptures. Too many believers get so discouraged on what they dont know in regard to Gods will, plan, and purpose for their lives that they tend to lose sight of what they do know. The riches found in the mysteries of God are what make Christianity an adventure as we discover more and more of His abundant treasures. Let us never allow what we dont know to keep us from enjoying what we do know. This will encourage us to keep pursuing Him diligently, thereby daily unearthing the unknown mysteries of God. Mark 4:11 speaks of this: Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. Mind-bogglers such as the mystery of iniquity, the mystery of godliness, and many others, call us to the exciting pursuit of God and His personhood.

Discovering and unlocking this mystery of our union in Christ will open a floodgate of encountering and enjoying Gods love for us in a much greater way.

One of the greatest mysteries is the mystery of Christ in us. It is referred to as the great mystery