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The mystical union is a union with the entire Trinity. The Holy Trinity refers to the three persons in one God (Matthew 28:19; Deuteronomy 6:4). The Triune God is one and yet has three persons. The Trinity has only one nature and is composed o f only one substance. It is also composed o f three persons but still has only one will. In the mystical union the believer communes with the one nature and

substance o f God. Each person o f the Trinity is also in communion with the believer. In addition all the persons o f the Trinity work together when God is in communion with the believer. One cannot have communion with only one person o f the Trinity for this would destroy the Trinity opera divina ad extra or the economic Trinity (Pieper. Christian Dogmatics. I, 416). It should also be noted that the divinity o f the Son and the Holy Spirit were often proved in the Trinitarian and Christological debates by appealing to their part in the theosis o f man (Athanasius. Four Discourses against the Arians. 2.70; NPNF. Series 2. 4:386; Gregory ofNazianzus. Fifth Theological Oration: On the Holy Spirit. 28; NPNF. Series 2.

7:327; Augustine. On the Gospel o f St. John. 48:9-10; NPNF. Series 1. 7:269).

Holy Scripture teaches the Father and the Son are in communion with the believer in the

following two passages. I John 1:3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship (κοινωνίαν) with us; and truly our fellowship (κοινωνία) is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. I Corinthians 1:9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship (κοινωνίαν) o f His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Likewise John 14:23-26 teaches a union

where the Father and Son are present. A union with the Son has already been presented. Therefore only the following references will be cited: Ephesians 3: 17-19,1 Corinthians 6:15-17, Romans 8:1,9, John

14:23-26,1 John 1:3,1 Corinthians 1:9, John 17:21-25, Ephesians 2:13, Galatians 2:20, and Colossians 1:27. The Holy Spirit is also included in this union. The following passages prove this to be true.

Romans 8:9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, i f indeed the Spirit o f God dwells in you. Now i f anyone does not have the Spirit o f Christ, he is not His. Hebrews 6:4 For it is impossible fo r those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers o f the Holy Spirit.

In addition, I Corinthians 6:15-19 shows that a communion with the Holy Spirit exists. Even the

Formula o f Concord stresses the fact that each person o f the Godhead is present in the unio mystica. “To be sure, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who is the eternal and essential righteousness, dwells through faith in the elect, who have become righteous through Christ and are reconciled with God” (FC SD III, 54).

The voices o f church history confirm this exegesis. St. Cyril o f Alexandria writes:

For the Word also dwells in us. The most holy Paul confirms this point for us when he says: “For this reason I bend my knees before the Father, from whom all fatherhood is named in heaven and on earth. May he grant that you are

strengthened in power through His Spirit, according to the riches o f His glory, that Christ may dwell in you in your hearts” (Ephesians 2:14-17); and that He is within us by the Spirit, “in whom we cry out Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15). And so, if we have been granted the same dignity by God the Father, our position is in no way inferior to His. For we too are sons and gods by grace, and we have surely been brought to this wonderful and supernatural dignity since we have the Only Begotten Word o f God dwelling within us. It is completely wicked and foolish for them to say that Jesus has been granted the dignity o f the Sonship and has won this glory as a matter o f grace (Cyril o f Alexandria. On the Unity o f Christ. 80).

Bonaventure maintains a mystical union with the entire Trinity in his Breviloquium (1.5). The Golden Age o f Lutheran Orthodoxy confirms this to be true. Martin Chemnitz writes:

And since it is the greatest and sweetest consolation for us that, although our wretched human nature because o f sin has been torn away and alienated from God, who is life itself (Eph 4:8; Is. 49:8ff), yet His physical body, which is o f the same substance with us, is most intimately joined and united with the divine nature in the person o f the son o f God because o f the hypostatic union, that in his way the restitution and reparation o f it [our human nature] became surer and more certain, and thus we in turn are made participants (κοινωνοί) o f the divine nature

in Christ (II Peter 1:4), and thus also receive fellowship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (I John 1:3) (Chemnitz. TNC. 41).

The Gnesio-Lutherans and the devotional writers agree (Hesshusius. Postilla. 54; Arndt. Wahres Christentum. 770). The bulwark o f orthodoxy, Abraham Calov, concludes this catena:

.. .but we assert that the substance o f the believer is united with the substance of the entire Holy Trinity through a conjunction o f substance to substance, without extension or contraction o f the divine or human essence, by a change o f manner only, which according to God’s gracious will is different in this life from what it will be in eternal life (Calov. Systema. X, 511; Schmid. DTELC. 484).

F. Im pelling Cause of the Unio Mystica

The causa impulsiva or the impelling cause is that God is joined with the regenerate in a mystical bond o f union by a special internal love with which He completes them, and by the external merits (¹causa meritora) o f Christ with which He causes true faith from their apprehension (Hollaz. Examen.

936). This cause “moves or provides opportunity for the efficient cause, though not in an absolute sense or necessary sense, not as a prior efficient cause” (Muller. Dictionary o f Latin and Greek Theological Terms. 62). This cause is twofold. The first part is the love o f God. Not only does God have love but also He is Love according to St. John (Quenstedt. Theologia. Ill, 617). I John 4:16 A nd we have known and believed the love that God has fo r us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. 17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day o f judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. The second part is Christ and His merits which

Lutheran Orthodoxy often calls causa meritora or meritorious cause (Quenstedt. Theologia. Ill, 617).

For this reason one can biblically say that man’s salvation and sanctification was not caused by him but by the love o f God and the merits o f Christ.

G. How the Union is Achieved

The causa instrumentalis {media) or means o f this union are twofold. The means on the part o f God are the means o f grace: the Word, Baptism, and the Eucharist. The means on the part o f man so to

Hollaz. Examen. 936). For this reason faith is not a work o f man but a gift o f God by which he is able to receive grace.

1. Faith

The mystical union occurs through faith and not apart from faith. This has been spoken o f as the causa instrumentalis on the part o f man. However this designation is not meant in a synergistic sense, since faith is caused exclusively by God. Instead this designation is meant merely to serve in the systematizing o f this dogma. St. Paul points out the biblical connection between faith and the mystical union in his letter to the Ephesians.

Ephesians 3:17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — 19 to know the love o f Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be fille d with all the fullness o f God.

He reiterates this point in Galatians. Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son o f God, who loved me and gave H im self fo r me.” This teaching is also found in Galatians 3:16, 26-29. The connection between the unio mystica and faith can also be found in the writings o f the fathers. St. John Chrysostom writes, “Mark with insatiable earnestness how he invokes these blessing upon them, that they may not be tossed about. But how shall this be effected? By the ‘Holy Spirit in your inward man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith’” (Chrysostom. Homilies on Ephesians. 7; NPNF.

Series 1. 13:81). The Formula o f Concord agrees:

It is true indeed that God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, who is eternal and essential righteousness, dwells by faith in the elect who have been justified through Christ and reconciled with God, since all Christians are temples o f God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, who impels them to do rightly (FC SD III, 54).

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The mystical union can take place only in a believer, since faith must be present. Johannes Brenz writes,

“But receive Them with hospitality through love or through faith in Christ” (Brenz cited in Elert. The Structure o f Lutheranism. 156). Johann Arndt, Johann Gerhard, and Johann Dannhauer firmly confess that the mystical union can occur only by faith (Dannhauer. Hodosophia. Phaen. IX, 437; Gerhard. Loci Theologici. I, 530; Weimarische Bibelwerk. 161; Amdt. Wahres Christentum. 216). In contradistinction to the mystical union, the unio generalis occurs in unbelievers and all creation apart from faith (Act

17:28). Thus the mystical union is a result o f faith and salvation and not the cause o f them (FC SD III, 54). The relationship between faith and the mystical union is not a temporal one, but rather a cause and effect relationship. This relationship will be further discussed under the ordo salutis.