Union with Christ: Barrett and Ortlund Team Up

Credo Fellow Gavin Ortlund tees up with Matthew Barrett for a special crossover episode between the Credo podcast and Truth Unites. Their goal is to root Protestants in the wisdom of scripture and the riches of the Great Tradition.

In this episode, they talk to J. Todd Billings about union with Christ and its relationship to the doctrine of participation. Protestants are often accused of having a deficient doctrine of participation, but Billings holds up John Calvin to show otherwise. Also, Billings believes union with Christ is theological shorthand for the gospel itself. Together Barrett, Ortlund, and Billings discuss a range of topics such as: why Protestants should embrace the doctrine of participation, the relationship between union with Christ and justification, how participation informs sacramental ontology, what union with Christ has to do with justice, pastoral implications of both doctrines in the church, and more!

Gavin Ortlund is Pastor of First Baptist Church of Ojai in Ojai, California. He has a PhD from Fuller Theological Seminary in historical and theological studies. His published books include: Theological Retrieval for Evangelicals: Why We Need Our Past to Have a Future; Finding the Right Hills to Die On: The Case for Theological Triage; Retrieving Augustine’s Doctrine of Creation: Ancient Wisdom for Current Controversy; Why God Makes Sense of a World That Doesn’t: The Beauty of Christian Theism, and Anselm’s Pursuit of Joy: A Commentary on the Proslogion.

J. Todd Billings is the Gordon H. Girod Research Professor of Reformed Theology at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, MI, where he has served since 2005. An ordained minister in the Reformed Church in America, he received his M.Div. from Fuller Seminary and his Th.D. from Harvard. He is the author of Calvin, Participation, and the Gift: The Activity of Believers in Union with Christ as well as Remembrance, Communion, and Hope: Rediscovering the Gospel at the Lord’s Table.

Matthew Barrett is the editor-in-chief of Credo Magazine and host of the Credo podcast. He is associate professor of Christian theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Director of the Center for Classical Theology. He is the author of the award-winning Simply Trinity and his new book is called, The Reformation as Renewal. He is currently writing a Systematic Theology (Baker Academic).