Realizing Our Union with God

Another divine double-entendre

‘Realize’ in Two Registers

As a reader, author, and editor, I enjoy words and their meanings, especially when they can be used with two different senses at once. Earlier, I highlighted some examples from the Gospel of John HERE and HERE.

Today, I’ve been reflecting on the wonderful word “Realize.” The most common use of ‘realize’ is when we come to understand something. “I didn’t know that and now I do! I hadn’t realized that before.” If we have a sudden realization about something important, we might call it an “Aha! moment.” Add the spiritual dimension and it’s an epiphany or a revelation.

But there’s a second sense that is less common but may be even more important. To realize something can be when some promise or hope has been “fulfilled” or some concept has “become real” to me in my experience. Perhaps you’ve heard is used this way: “She realized her dream of becoming a doctor” or “They realized their goal of performing on stage.” To realize in this sense is more than gaining an understanding—it’s an experience where we have achieved something or someone else has achieved it for us (I’ll get to that momentarily).

‘Union’ in Two Senses

“Union” is another word with multiple meanings, but for now, I will focus on the idea of our ‘union with God.’ What does that phrase speak to you? I think that virtually all religious movements and spiritualities aspire to ‘union with God’ even if what we mean by ‘union’ and what we mean by ‘God’ differ dramatically.

For example, union might be described variously as a personal relationship, a living connection, a conscious awareness, a covenant partnership—all of which describe what Buber referred to with his expression “I-thou.” There’s a me and a you and we’re united in some real way.

Others might think that’s still dualistic. Among the Eastern religions, the goal might sound like a union that is so complete that we’re just absorbed into the divine and the “I-thou” collapses into an absolute unity. But even then, some of the Hindu and Buddhist writings distinguish the Self from the self, just as Christians distinguish the Spirit and our spirit… becoming one, without separation and without confusion.

‘Realizing Our Union’ in Two Perspectives

I sometimes hear or read the phrase, ‘realizing our union with God’ (or even simply ‘realizing God’) and I’ve discerned two perspectives. Some come to realize their union with God in the sense that they finally get it. They’ve had an “Aha! moment” or epiphany that we are already united with God. A Christian perspective would be that Christ has united humanity to God in himself through the Incarnation. “Ah, now I get it! I hadn’t realized that before.”

But the second sense of ‘realize’ also work here. We could say the union of divinity and humanity was realized (fulfilled, accomplished, became real) in the person of Jesus. But now WE need to realize it… that is, by the grace of God, we also experience that union as real. The union has been realized in Christ and now it is realized in us, both through a new awareness and through a renewed experience. It’s both/and.

Reconciliation: Accomplished & Applied

This helps us understand Paul’s both/and of reconciliation (think of this as a re-Union, when he says,

¹⁷ So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹ that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. ²⁰ So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God.

Can you see the both/and there? He proclaims the truth that we have already been reconciled to God—20 centuries ago! The re-Union was accomplished! And this is true of who? The whole world! The message God has delivered for his ambassadors to communicate is that in Christ, the world HAS BEEN reconciled…

AND, therefore: BE RECONCILED. Recognize what has been accomplished. Now realize it in your experience.

Realize (recognize) your reconciliation, your re-Union.
AND realize (experience) your reconciliation, your re-Union.

How Do I Realize My Union?

We’ll have to revisit that question later. I’m doing an airport run now. But I would welcome responses to that question in the reply section. Gotta go!