When we think carefully and closely how God can be in union with His own creatures, we must never make the blunder of confounding God with His own good works, which is the old heathen notion of pantheism. God is an eternal, self-existent, universal, spiritual substance and all the things He has created exist external to Himself. Creation is not external to God, considered in connection with space, but external to Him in the sense of being apart from His own substance and personality and character.  

God pervades every atom of His creation, and by the continual act of His will sustains all things in creation, or else they would drop back into nonexistence. So that, in considering the union of God with His creatures, we must view it in two ways: first, as a natural one; and, secondly, as a gracious union.  

The natural union of God with His creatures is that which He has with all material, sentient, mental and moral being. God pervades every sinner and every fallen spirit, and incessantly imparts to them the strength that they have to exist or to act. So that the very energy that demons and wicked men have in performing sinful acts, and in rebelling against God, is supplied to them each moment by the benevolent power of the Creator, Whom they ignore and despise. Thus God is in one sense in union with them, but it is as a Creator and a merciful God, Who gives to them gratuitously the powers of their being. If that bond of natural union between the Creator and the creature were suspended, they would instantly sink into annihilation.  

But there is another union which God establishes with His creatures, which is a gracious union; that is, a union originating in grace, and based on a moral similarity between Creator and man. It is in this sense that “God is nigh to all those who call upon Him,” that is, He is not only nigh them in a natural way as Creator, and all-pervading Preserver, but He is nigh them in a spiritual sense. He is nigh them in hearing their prayers, relieving their distresses, forgiving their sins, purifying their natures, and imparting His own holy character to their moral being. It is also in this sense that we are told, “The Lord knoweth the way of the upright,” that is, He not only knows the ways of the upright from an intellectual standpoint, because in that sense He knows the way of every sinner, but He knows the way of the upright from an inward spiritual conscience of the similarity and unity of the way of the upright with His own way. So that in this higher sense, God has a moral and gracious union with His saved and holy creatures that He does not have with those who are disobedient, and who will have only a natural union with Him.  

Now, in this gracious union that a creature may have with God, there are various degrees. First, what we may call moral union, that is the union that a person may have with God on the plane of morality. There is a difference between a moral and a holy act. A moral act may be defined as one which is performed from a rigid sense of duty, and where the person feels in honor or in duty bound to perform the act, while the deep affections of the heart may not be in it. A holy act must involve the affectional nature, for there can be no such thing as holiness apart from love, and if moral acts are performed which do not flow readily, promptly and sweetly from the affections of the heart, they are not, in a true sense, holy acts.  

The Bible recognizes that an act may be performed by the will power, from the coercive sense of conscience, from the effect of religious education and from the taste of a well-educated mind and yet not be filled with a deliberate choice and full affection of the heart. Such acts are performed by a determination of the will more than by the spontaneous promptings of a loving heart. Hence we read that “Amaziah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart.” And so there are multitudes today who are doing acts of morality and righteousness, and such actions are certainly according to God’s Word and will. In so far as the bare act is right in itself, such persons are in accord with the letter of God’s will and are in partial union with His will and character. But such union is only partial. It is a legal union more than a spiritual union.  

The next stage of union with God is where a person determines to submit himself entirely to God’s will on all points, whether agreeable or disagreeable, though it may involve pain and loss and sore trial. There can be this degree of union where the thought in the man is merely that of surrender or submission without the added thought of appropriating the fullness of God. There are multitudes in the church who intend to accept of what is popularly termed the “doctrine of a higher Christian life,” but who regard it from a crucifixion standpoint as merely a life of submission to God’s will. Hence we see in modern religious literature that surrender to God and perfect submission on all lines as set forth is the highest form of religious experience.  

But such persons do not grasp the full Christian life as set forth in the New Testament, which stretches away leagues and leagues beyond the bare fact of enforced and constant submission of the will. The submission of the will to God on all points is the gateway to the fullness of the Spirit and the life of Jesus, but if the soul simply gets its idea, or simply gets its vision on nothing beyond this utter surrender of the will, it does not perceive the fullness of union with Jesus.  

This is a state of Christian experience where the soul has determined it will not murmur, it will not rebel, where it has settled it that though the tears may flow, and the heart may be rent, and storms of trouble may come, and the pain may be long protracted, yet it will not resist the providence of God, nor lift its hands against the Divine will. This is a great step in Christian life, and one that multitudes have not yet reached, but it is still a condition of experience where the soul has to put itself under great vigilance, and mount extra heavy guard to keep down the insurgent elements of the heart. To say the least, this experience does not bring the soul into full victory, nor does it keep the soul in a state of sweet restfulness in God. Such a person certainly has a large degree of union with the Divine will, and so far as the attitude of the determination is concerned, the will may be considered in perfect union with God. But there are other elements and faculties in the soul beside the will, or the power of determination, and in order to have perfect union with God there must be something more than the action of the will.  

A still further step of union with God is that state where the soul not only performs the outward act that is right, and not only determines to be perfectly yielding to God on all points, but where the love of God is so received into the heart that the other affections become like God. Here the submission to God flows out from the affectional nature in such a way that the soul loves to submit to God and finds a supreme delight in sinking into His will at all times, in all places, and under all circumstances. In this condition, the affectional nature, with all its intuitive instincts and promptings and desires, becomes one with God, as well as the choices and determinations of the will.  

This is the blessed state spoken of by David and by Jesus, when they said, “Lo, I come, I delight to do thy will, O God, and thy will is in my heart.” The words, “Lo, I come,” involve the deep determination of the will, which certainly brings it into union with God. But the added words, “I delight to do Thy will,” involve the whole of the affectional nature flowing out towards the Divine purposes and the Divine character, in glad, happy, sweet abandonment. This is the state that is set forth in the Psalms and the New Testament, and the other Scriptures, as being the condition of true union with God. In this condition the soul does not have to set a continual sentry upon itself to keep down some suspected rebellion, but it is a state where all the desires, and sympathies, and affections are in such accord with God that they rest in Him and enjoy Him. Even in times of great trial and suffering, such a soul finds in God its highest and truest joy; in one sense we may say it finds in Him its only joy, for all other joys and blessings of every sort are received from God’s will, and when they are taken away God’s will and God’s nature are just as blessed and precious as before.