Christ's Community on Christ's Mission (Part 1)

“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” (Ecc 4.9-12)

A friend once remarked to me, when visiting after completing boot camp in the military, that the hardest lesson he had to learn was that he was no longer responsible merely for himself to make sure he had completed the tasks personally assigned to him. Now he was responsible for his whole company to make sure that they all had completed the tasks assigned to the company. He was no longer a lone man, but part of a body, working together for a common goal.

I had similar epiphanies when the Lord showed me that salvation is not all about me. Yes, I knew (in theory, at least) that our salvation is “soli Deo gloria,” for God’s glory alone. However, I was blind to some important truths. 

1. I’m not alone, but God has saved others, too; and he didn’t save me merely for my own good, but that I might serve his body. Our physical hand does not serve itself alone, but feeds, protects, washes, nurses, and scratches the whole body. (In fact, it’s very hard for one hand to do anything for itself; and of course it can do nothing if separated from the body.) This is Christ’s community. 
2. And I’m not alone, but there is a world full of my brothers & sisters (by nature) who are still under the curse; and God did not inundate me with his grace in Christ for merely my own personal blessing, but that the super-abundance of his blessing might overflow me to reach “all families of the earth” (Genesis 12.1-3). And all of this is to the end that God in Christ is known, loved & worshipped. This is Christ’s mission. 

Salvation is not Jesus-and-ME-together-forever, but Jesus-took-US-to-be-his-bride.

to be continued...