“The leading element in communion with Christ is communion with Him in His death. Observe thirdly, that in this manifold communion with Christ, the first and leading element is communion with Him in His death, in His cross.
And the reason is that it was by His death that He obtained for us that promise and gift of the Spirit whereby we are united to Him and made a new creature in Him— called into His communion or fellowship.
Christ was born for us in the manger, but that does not secure the Spirit for us, though it was a glorious step thereto.
For us He was baptised in Jordan.
For us He was tempted in the wilderness and triumphed in His temptations.
For us He lived, and laboured, and sorrowed, and watched, and prayed.
For us He agonised in Gethsemane, was apprehended as a malefactor, was led away captive and bound, was stricken, smitten and afflicted, and, as a lamb before his shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.
And in all this, if the Spirit once came forth and united us to Him, we have communion with Him in the merit and spirit of the whole.
But if His interposition for us go no further, the door of the Spirit’s forth-coming from Christ to us, and from the Father through Christ, is still locked. It is the cross, the perfect expiation of the cross, that opens that door.
As it is written, ‘Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon us, that we might receive the Spirit through faith.’ (Galatians 3:13-14) For it is through Jesus Christ and Him crucified that the Holy Ghost is shed on us abundantly.
The cross is the pathway, the channel, by which the Spirit comes. The cross is the reason why He comes. It is the holy justification of a holy God in sending forth the Spirit to a miserable sinner.
See to it that by faith ye own this same reason as your reason for expecting the Spirit. And as by faith ye look along by the cross of Christ to your Father’s throne, doubt not there is coming forth unto you abundantly the Spirt of the Son, whereby ye cry, ‘Abba, Father.’
But if it be directly and immediately for and by the cross that the Spirit of Christ cometh to you, then the immediate and first and central communion that you have with Christ is in His cross— you are crucified with Christ.
His cross is yours. His perfect propitiatory sacrifice in all its merit is yours. You are sanctified, cleansed, dedicated to God, offered up and acceptable unto Him by the offering of the body of Christ once for all.
This is your fundamental privilege as a believer. On this foundation all your other privileges rest— from this center all your other privileges flow forth. Know ye not that as many of us as have been baptized, engrafted, engrafted into Christ, have been engrafted into His death?”
–Hugh Martin, “Knowing that our Old Man is Crucified with Christ,” Union with Christ: Sermons of Hugh Martin, eds. Matthew J. Hyde and Catherine E. Hyde (Glasgow, Scotland: Free Presbyterian Publications, 2024), 97-99. Martin is preaching on Romans 6:6.
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