Church: God's End-time Community
The sphere of our new life in Christ is the church. God has big plans for the church, his new humanity on behalf of the world. How do we grow into our identity as his new humanity, leaving behind the brokenness of our old humanity?
Having been placed in Christ, we have been transferred from this age (marked by the flesh, law, sin, death) to the age to come (marked by the kingdom of God, grace, Spirit, righteousness). This means that already we are a new creation (2 Cor 5:17), but this is not yet complete (1 John 3:2). We taste the life of the future and demonstrate God’s new age now, while awaiting the full reality. This is the framework for our lives. We can therefore live in such a way that the present counts for the future.
But we do face challenges as we live in the clash of the two ages: What about the battle we find ourselves in? How do we deal with evil and temptation? How do we play our role in God’s plans and become in practice what he has made us to be?
First, the Spirit, not the Law, is the power for our living. The Holy Spirit is given to us as a deposit or the firstfruits, guaranteeing that God’s future has arrived in the present. Because of his presence in our lives, divine infection has set in – he applies the work of Christ to our lives.
He is the power to live out our new life in Christ. Therefore, we walk, not by the flesh, but by the Spirit. Whereas the law pointed the way for us to go but left us where we were, the Spirit reveals God’s will and empowers us to fulfil the commands of God.
Second, our new life is worked out in community, not as isolated individuals. God is after a people who reflect him. As a body we support one another. So, the community is called to bear the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22) – after all you don’t need “patience, kindness…” until you are in community! The community builds up the community into Christ by allowing his life to flow from one member of the body to another.
This means that the church is a forgiven and forgiving community. As a grace-filled community, we extend to one another God’s grace and forgiveness to us in Christ. We humble ourselves and bear with one another’s weaknesses. We accept one another, without expecting them to be conformed to our way of thinking. Then God’s diversity-in-unity is worked out gloriously in the church as a sign to the world.
This is the way the New Testament sets out how we are to live as his endtime community:
The purpose is the glory of God as we are conformed to his image
The pattern is Christ as we walk in his steps
The principle is love which is seeking others’ good since love fulfils the law
The power is the Spirit who is God’s presence in our lives.
Third, we allow the contours of God’s story – Creation, Crisis, Calling, Christ, Church and Consummation – to shape our existence. This will help us be a people that embodies God’s love, peace, goodness, truth and hope to our world, showing God’s intentions for humanity in our daily lives, relationships, work and service. Then we will be faithful characters in God’s story, as he brings it to its rightful conclusion with his coming and making all things new.