Category: Church Development

Here is part 6 of an 8-part essay by Dr. Gary Deddo titled “The Christian life and our participation in Christ’s continuingministry.” To read other parts, click on a number: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8. For all 8 parts combined in one article, click here.

Recap of part 5

In part 5 we examined the story of Jesus and the feeding of the 5,000 and how that is a model of our participating with Christ in his ministry. In that story, we see the original disciples moved to action, giving rise to a related, crucial question: How do we motivate Christians to active participation in ministry with Jesus?

Preaching, teaching and counseling in participation with Christ

Ironically, having understood something of our participation in the ongoing ministry of Jesus, in turning to the related topics of preaching, teaching and counseling, we can easily revert to addressing people in ways that ignore the reality of our union and participation with Jesus. When we focus on our own obedience, we are in the habit of thinking that our individual will is the key to our behavior and actions. If something is going to get done, then we tend to depend on one of two things: 1) the strength of our own wills, or 2) the effectiveness of our native or learned skills, and their deployment in the programs, plans, techniques or formulas available. But if we lack both these, we may simply conclude that we have no responsibility at all. It must be someone else’s calling.

How do we properly call people to join us in the Christian life as communion, fellowship, and partnership with Christ?

First, let’s consider how all of Scripture is structured as it invites us to participate. As the Torrance brothers reminded us so often, all the commands of God are built on the premise of the unconditional covenant promises of God. All obedience is moved by faith in the character of God. “I will be their God, and they shall be my people” is the foundational refrain throughout the Old Testament (see Jeremiah 31:33, Genesis 17:8 and Exodus 6:7). God made a unilateral covenant with Abraham: “I will bless you… in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:2-3). That covenant is renewed throughout Israel’s history. It was not, Paul reminds us, until 430 years after God made his covenant with the people who were to be a light to all the nations, that God provided them with the law (Galatians 3:17). The law falls within the circle of the unconditional promise of blessing.

Notice how the Ten Commandments unfold. They were given after the great Exodus of Israel from slavery under the Egyptians. Then, in Exodus 20:2, we find a theological preface to those holy obligations: “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” Then the commands follow as a result of this saving work. We could insert a “so” or “therefore” before each one. “I graciously brought you out of Egypt, so you shall have no other gods before me. So “you shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.” So, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” So, “you shall not murder…commit adultery…steal….covet.”

That theological preface calls all Israel, and us, first to remember who God is and who we are in relationship to him. It does not first address our wills or set up conditions. It announces the unconditioned, good, gracious and faithful character of God. The stipulations of obedience are built on that foundation. From our New Testament vantage point, God’s own faithfulness is further demonstrated in the fulfillment of that promise. In Jesus Christ, God has become our God and we have become his people in an unimaginably intimate way. We became united to Christ who lived, died, was raised and ascended for us that we might share in his divine life. All our obedience then, is meant to follow the same pattern. Trusting in God to be true to his character provides the foundation for all obedience, for behind the promises made to us stands the Great Promise Maker and Promise Keeper. It is this God who then subsequently calls us to a life of obedience in relationship to him.

James Torrance, in full harmony with his older brother Thomas, used to point out that all the imperatives of Scripture are founded on the unconditional indicatives of grace. Obedience is not a method to cause God to be gracious to us. No. God’s unconditional grace brings with it a call for our unconditional obedience. The imperatives (commands) point out obligations that come after grace, not the conditions that have to come before grace. The imperatives of our obedience describe the shape of our participation in the covenant relations in which we live and move and have our being. They show us the direction of the grain of relationship so that we don’t get splinters.

But are there consequences for disobedience? Yes, there are. When we move against the grain of our relationship with God, we won’t enjoy the relationship and its benefits. In fact, we experience negative consequences. We cannot receive the benefits when we fail to trust in God and participate in the life he has provided for us. Our failure, however, does not negate the unconditioned grace of God. Our disobedience has no power to undo what Christ has done. We cannot change the grain of God’s character and decision for us in Jesus Christ. We can live in denial, we can close our eyes and cover our faces at noonday and say the sun is not shining, but our denial has no power to create a counter-truth and counter-reality.

The pressure to preach sanctification by works

If faith in our gracious union with Christ is the foundation for all our obedience, then how do we build on it? Do we merely yell more loudly what God wants his people to do? Do we give endless advice? Do we perpetually offer as the key to effective Christian life—new programs, new methods, new understandings, improved seminars and conferences? Do we change from plan A of preaching the unconditioned grace of God, to plan B and threaten people with a subsequent conditional grace of God? Do we preach as if God were finished with his part of the plan so now the rest of what God wants done is all up to us, as if he had no further plans—so that, if we fail, then God’s ultimate plan fails? Do we preach grace for salvation but works for a life of obedience?

I’m afraid we often do resort to these tactics. Despite the pattern of biblical teaching that begins with God and his faithfulness, we feel the pressure to preach and teach and motivate folks to obedience by addressing the naked will with raw commandments. We can be tempted to speak as if we are God’s slaves and as if God depends on us, as if God is at a distance, and ministry is really up to us, as if God’s grace merely establishes a potential that we, if we are able, realize and actualize and make true by our efforts.

But this is not how Jesus or the apostle Paul addressed the “problem of the Christian life.” For if all the imperatives of Scripture are founded on the unconditioned indicatives of grace and the character of God represented by them, then when obedience is not forthcoming, we must go back and strengthen the foundations and not attempt to find another one. We must go back to preaching and teaching and discovering the character and heart and promises of God, for everything that we are called to do mirrors what God is always and continually doing for us and in us on the basis of the vicarious ascended humanity of Christ and our union with him. Obedience is built on trust—not trying.

Preaching the indicatives of grace as the basis for the imperatives of grace

If we are intent on seeing people more faithful to Christ, we must first show the faithfulness of Christ to them, for their own faithfulness can only be a participation in the faithfulness of Christ. If we want folks to be forgiving, then the basis for that is the announcement of God’s forgiveness for us. If we see that we need to be generous, then we need to hear of God’s great generosity to us and even to the unjust. If we are concerned that people do not seem to care for the lost, then we need to be reminded that Jesus is the one true Apostle sent to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10) and remember—that includes us! He is still drawing people to himself, and still sending us to participate in his mission to the lost.

If we announce we should be more compassionate towards the poor, then at the same time we need to hear of God’s own heart towards the poor. We need to see his provision for the orphan, widow and foreigner and even ourselves, as we recognize our own spiritual poverty. If we are concerned for racial reconciliation, then we require being continually reminded that God in Christ has already recreated us into being one new humanity (Ephesians 2:15). We are reconciled to God and to each other in Christ. We can count on that work having already taken place, rather than see ourselves as given the task of realizing an ideal that God has merely put before us and is waiting for us to make it happen. Then, all of our efforts in this direction will be moved by faith in the completed work of Christ and the ongoing ministry to make the fruits of that reconciliation visible. All our activity will be generated by faith in God. Paul referred to this as “the obedience of faith.” This is what he declared and it is what oriented and motivated his ministry from beginning to end (see Romans 1:5 and Romans 16:26). This is the only kind of obedience that Paul is interested in, for it alone reflects truly who God is in Jesus Christ.

Here is part 5 of an 8-part essay by Dr. Gary Deddo titled “The Christian life and our participation in Christ’s continuing ministry.” To read other parts, click on a number: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8. For all 8 parts combined in one article, click here.

Recap of part 4

In part 4 we saw how union with Christ is a way of talking about our core identity in terms of our meaning, significance, security, dignity and destiny. This identity is both a gift given, and a settled fact. Because Jesus is alive—still fully and really human as one of us—and because he continues to minister by his Spirit on the basis of his accomplished work, we are able to participate and have fellowship and communion with him in everything we do. But what does our participation with Jesus in his continuing ministry look like? The New Testament gives several examples. Here in part 5 we’ll look at one of them in depth.

Going against the grain

Though we can live in denial, hiding the truth by attempting to depart from Christ, doing so cannot undo the truth of who we actually are in Christ. We may get splinters, but we cannot change the grain of the wood when we go against it. The only choice we really have is 1) to affirm the reality with our minds and in our actions, or 2) deny the reality of who Christ is and who we are in relationship to him.

In seeking to honor Christ in their actions, some ask, What would Jesus do? But a better question, if we want to truly participate with Christ, is this: What is Jesus doing? Answering this question leads us to seek to discover what Jesus is doing in the present situation and consider how we can get involved with his activity. When we see the depth of the grace of God in uniting us to Christ to share with us his communion with the Father, what else can we possibly do with our lives except to go where he goes, do what he does, and live for the glory of the Father as he always has and still is doing?

What does participation look like? Jesus and feeding the 5,000

The story told in Mark 6:30-44 illustrates how our union with Christ and our participation in his ministry are held together. As it begins, Jesus took some unanticipated initiative. He told the disciples that they should feed these 5,000 people. They’d been listening to the teachings of Jesus until very late that afternoon. There was, perhaps, just enough time to get home by nightfall to prepare supper. So the disciples were astounded at Jesus’ suggestion. How could they possibly feed so many? They didn’t have two years’ worth of wages in their wallets to buy bread, and they certainly didn’t have a chain of bakeries ready to deliver truckloads of it.

Jesus had asked them to do the impossible. But Jesus was not stymied by their incredulity. He had another word for them: “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” I’m sure the disciples must have wondered at the relevance of such a request. But it got worse. The results of their count yielded only five loaves and just two fish. The disciples did not know what to do next.

Jesus provided some leadership. He directed the disciples to get all the people to sit down in groups. The people actually did what the disciples asked, though it would not have been clear what would follow. Some must have muttered, “It’s getting a little late, isn’t it? I thought he was finished.” Next, Jesus took from them the loaves and fish. He looked up to heaven, directing his gaze and his words of thanksgiving for the food to his heavenly Father, for what was going to take place not only would involve Jesus and his disciples but also Jesus with his Father. He broke the fish and loaves in pieces to distribute to the twelve standing around him.

Then the disciples were called back into action. Jesus directed them to hand out the food to the people. I suspect that the people followed the example of the disciples and broke off pieces to give to those next to them. Almost without realizing (Mark here is so understated!), “they all ate and were filled.” Not only that, but from those five loaves and two fish, there were twelve baskets full of broken pieces of bread and fish leftover! Twelve baskets—one for each of the disciples. Can you imagine their reaction as each one brought back a basket full after handing out just a few scraps?

How did this happen? We could simply say Jesus performed a miracle. Of course, but how did he go about it? Was it with great fanfare, a spectacular Hollywood magic show complete with light, mirrors and smoke by which the amazing Jesus impressed us again with his phenomenal powers? Not at all. Jesus did not multiply the loaves and fish by himself. In fact, he drew very little attention to himself. In lifting the food to heaven and saying a blessing, Jesus understood himself as dependent on his Father. This situation was like all the others he encountered in his earthly life: Jesus only did what he saw his Father doing (John 5:19).

Jesus participated in the actions of his Father. Further, Jesus had said to the disciples, “You feed them,” and they did. Jesus (with his Father) not only could have provided the loaves and fishes, but he could have had the disciples stand back, saying “Watch this, boys!” and sent those loaves and fishes flying instantly right into the laps of all 5,000. What an amazing magical moment that would have been! But he didn’t go about it that way at all. He involved his disciples. They participated with him in feeding the hungry.

I am not suggesting that Jesus needed the disciples—or even their fish and loaves. That would be a gross misrepresentation of the truth. But rather, Jesus delighted to find ways for his disciples to get involved in the very things he and his Father were doing. Did these disciples have the understanding or the resources needed for the task? Not at all. But Jesus found a wonderful way for them to participate in his humble exhibition of the divine compassion of his heavenly Father. The disciples got to be involved in the very thing Jesus (and his Father) was doing. I’m sure they were astounded—not just that all the people got fed, but that he took what was theirs, made it his own, and then gave it back to them to serve the people in his name. Can you imagine the joy and wonder of being involved in God’s feeding of 5,000?

Partnership with Christ

This Gospel story illustrates Christian life and ministry. What is needed, good and right, is always overwhelming, even seemingly impossible. We hear a word from Jesus that sounds like “You feed them,” and we quickly become aware that we have so little. It’s humiliating, at least to our pride, to admit how meager our resources are compared to the compassionate aims of God. At that point the question becomes, Will we act in faith, trusting in the character of the one calling for our action and obedience? Will we give him what we have so we can see what he will do with what little we really offer to him?

We may offer to him our failures and our sin in confession, or offer our resources, action plans and obedience with thanksgiving. Will we trust him to do with our meager action just as he did with those first disciples? Will we marvel at the miracle of participating in Christ’s own obedience to the Father in his continuing ministry to his neighbors and his world? That’s the wonder of Christ’s Lordship—he always makes room for our participation, though we never really have what it takes. It is only in partnership with him, in fellowship and communion, in union with him, that we reflect the glory of God as his children.

Do you sense God calling you to start a new GCI congregation? The call to be a church planter is challenging, and through GCI Church Multiplication Ministries (CMM), we’re here to help.

If you’d like to read a helpful, short (and free!) book about that calling, click here. You’ll also find a self-assessment instrument on CMM’s website. It will help you explore your sense of calling.

If you’d like to discuss becoming a church planter in GCI, feel free to contact your pastor, your regional pastor and/or CMM national coordinator Heber Ticas (see his contact information on the CMM website).

Thom Rainer of LifeWay, in a recent post on his blog, noted five ways some senior adult churches were able to become younger. In that post he made this important comment:

I am not suggesting there is anything inherently wrong with a congregation of senior adults. But I have been asked on numerous occasions how these churches can possibly reach younger families. Rather than give you my own subjective opinions, let me share with you five different ways some churches have actually accomplished this feat.

To read the full post, click here.

On a related note, Haydn Shaw, in his book Sticking Points, wrote this:

Hoping your church can reach everyone puts the focus on your church, not on the people you’re trying to reach, and in no time you’ll be asking the dead-end question again. Go young or grow old together—both benefit the Kingdom of God. Just don’t fool yourself into thinking you can do both if you keep doing what you’ve been doing (p. 207).

For a summary by Ed Stetzer of the key points in Shaw’s book, click here.

Here is part 4 of an 8-part essay by Dr. Gary Deddo titled “The Christian life and our participation in Christ’s continuing ministry.” To read other parts, click on a number: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8. For all 8 parts combined in one article, click here.

Recap of part 3

In part 3 of this series we addressed several common objections to taking seriously and realistically our union with Christ: It sounds too good to be true; it seems to say we are somehow confused with Christ; there seems to be no place for us to be or to act. All of these objections are misunderstandings based on false assumptions and false logic. Now in part 4 we’ll explore more in depth what our union and communion with Christ involves.

Who We Are: Our Identity in Christ

What does our union with Christ add up to, if it is not a moral, psychological, volitional or telic union? Perhaps the best word we can use in our contemporary situation to convey who we are in Christ is to say our union with Christ determines our identity. Identity seems to be summed up in who or what gives us our meaning, our purpose, our significance, our security, our dignity and destiny. These elements are essential to who we think we are, and how we act and respond to things around us. Union with Christ means that he is the sole and ultimate source of our meaning, purpose, significance, security, dignity and destiny. Others may remind us of our identity in Christ by what they say to us and in how they treat us. We may, and indeed ought to, remind others, be signs and witnesses to who others are in Christ. But only Christ, our Creator and Redeemer, can be the source of our identity. This is why we worship God alone. We worship what gives us our ultimate identity. In this sense who or what we serve or treasure indicates our identity. We can serve/worship only one real master.

The problem is, there are many sources we may look to in order to derive or secure our identity. In our secular society none of them have to do with the God of the Bible, revealed in Jesus Christ. So we can seek to establish our identities through our work or careers, through financial success, possessions, through social approval, personal achievement, leisure activities, educational achievement, political power and influence and through relationships with family, friends, co-workers, etc. The list is endless. Representatives of these various spheres of human life often broadcast grandiose promises of giving us a more secure sense of identity if we will only fulfill certain conditions: get that degree, achieve that promotion, buy a certain thing, live a certain place, realize some potential, fall in love, fulfill a certain fantasy, etc. But these are all conditionally offered potential sources of identity. Only if and when, a, b, c, then you can gain a more secure identity, be somebody. Even more important, these things cannot give us our real identity. They are false idols and cannot provide us with any ultimate or lasting meaning, purpose, security, dignity, or destiny. They cannot tell us who we are, for they do not know, and do not care! They are not your Creator nor your Redeemer. They are no gods!

The Danger of Christ-Plus

The danger in the church, the believing community, is to acknowledge Christ, but then seek out supplemental sources of identity. That amounts to serving two masters—trying to live a Christ-plus life (Christ plus x, y, or z). But what we add on can never serve as sources of identity. They can only be spheres in which we live out our identity given to us as a free gift by the grace of God. Once we add on the plus, the plus will inevitably make itself the key and central point. A competition will be set up in which the plus element demands to take over and serves as the real ultimate source of identity.

This dynamic is addressed often in the New Testament, especially in the letter to the Galatians and in the letter to the Hebrews. Adding on something to Christ is not a neutral and safe thing. It is a danger and ultimately means Christ is not being honored as the only ultimate source of identity, is not the only object of our worship. We become at best divided in mind and heart, soul and body. As we say these days, this is not sustainable. Our union with Christ means he provides us with our true identity as a freely given gift of his grace. We are the children of God sharing in his very Sonship with the Father by the Holy Spirit.

The Christian Life as Participation in Christ’s Continuing Ministry

So then what light does our union with Christ shed on the Christian life of obedience, or our calling to ministry? I have found that the word participation, which is a translation of the biblical Greek word koinonia, is indispensable. Our obedience and our ministry can only be properly grasped as a sharing in or participating in the obedience and ministry of Jesus Christ.

But if Christian life and ministry is somehow participation, what is it that we actually get involved in? Christ has completed his once-for-all ministry. How can we get involved in that? We can’t attempt to redo what he has done. How can we participate? This line of questioning indicates that we often forget or perhaps never fully grasped the fact that the risen Christ ascended in his bodily form with his humanity, a humanity not only intact but now glorified. James Torrance used to put these questions to his classes: “When do we really see the true humanity of Christ? Was it when he was hungry? Was it when he was asleep in the boat? Or was it when he was angry in the temple? No. We see Christ’s true humanity and so ours, in his ascension. There we see our humanity sanctified and glorified in him as he takes us with him as our substitute and representative into the very presence of the Father.”

The humanity Christ assumed at conception was not cast off like the empty external fuel tank of the space shuttle, only to fall back to earth some minutes after its blastoff for outer space. No, the incarnation is permanent because, as Paul put it, the man Jesus Christ is (and remains to this day) our mediator (1 Timothy 2:5). His perfected humanity remains the only meeting place for God and humanity to meet.

But not only does his humanity abide, his ministry also continues. His gracious service did not end at the cross. Yes, the reconciling work was finished, but that reconciling work was for the sake of our living out of that recreated relationship now securely reestablished. As we see throughout the book of Hebrews, we serve a living Lord who continually intercedes for us. He remains the one true apostle, the one true leader of our worship, the one true pioneer and perfecter of our faith. Our Lord Jesus Christ remains ever vigilant, ever active. He is no retired Savior who is now unemployed.

All our responses to Christ are nothing more than following Christ in his present activity and engaging in the ministry that he is actively doing now through the Holy Spirit. When we preach the gospel, we participate in the apostolic ministry of Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, for the Spirit continues to bear witness to Christ and to our need for Christ. When we love a neighbor, or love an enemy, for the sake of Christ and his kingdom, we are merely catching up with God. We’re merely going to work with God. When we pray, we’re joining Christ in his faithful prayers of intercessions for us and for the world. When we worship, we are joining in with all the faithful, including those who have gone before us who are continually worshiping following the leadership of Jesus Christ, our great worship leader (leitourgos).

Even when we confess our sins, we join with Jesus himself who is the only one who truly knows the depth of sin, who is perfectly repentant and so for us received the baptism of John the Baptist. But as our great mediator who knows our weaknesses, he takes our weak faith and meager repentance and graciously makes it his own, perfects it and passes it on to the Father. On the basis of the work of Christ to save us, rescue us from sin, we are saved for participation, fellowship, communion in an ongoing relationship of wonderful exchange.

When we see our whole lives this way, we join with the apostle Paul, who proclaimed, “I live yet not I but Christ who lives in me.” That is not just a platitude that sounds nice. The whole of the Christian life is actually a participation in the life and ministry of Christ. So we can say, I pray, yet not I but Christ prays in me. I obey, yet not I but Christ obeys in me. I have faith, yet not I but Christ has faith in me. I hunger and thirst for righteousness and reconciliation, yet not I but Christ in me.

The joy, peace and love that Christ wants for us is not a joy, peace and love that are like Christ’s, that we somehow achieve with God’s help. No, by his Spirit, Christ tells us he intends to share with us his joy, his peace, his love, and his righteousness. And, from the foundations of the earth, he never thought otherwise!

Never view yourself apart from Christ, for that is not who you are.

Here is part 3 of a 8-part essay by Dr. Gary Deddo titled “The Christian life and our participation in Christ’s continuing ministry.” To read other parts, click on a number: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. For all 8 parts combined in one article, click here.

Recap of part 2

In part 2 of this series we looked at the biblical foundations and theological synthesis of the revelation of the reality of our union and communion with Jesus Christ. This reality was not a secondary matter in the New Testament nor in Christian teaching down through the ages. But because it has been somewhat forgotten, there is the need to bring it back to light. However, there are some obstacles in the way of fully appreciating the truth and reality of our union with Christ. In part 3 of this series we will consider some of those barriers.

Obstacles to grasping the reality of our union with Christ

There are significant obstacles to our even beginning to grasp the truth of our union with Christ. I’d like to give some consideration to those concerns that often have blunted if not obliterated any concerted effort to grasp this profound theological truth.

Too good to be true?

First is the sheer wonder of the profound depths of such a grace. Would God really go to such lengths, heights and depths for us? It sounds too good to be true. But when it comes to God, shouldn’t we expect the good news to sound like it is too good to be true? Is not God’s grace beyond all we can ask or imagine? Certainly this response is no reason to rule out its gracious reality.

Confusion of ourselves with Christ

Union with Christ has often been avoided because of fear that if we say we are united to him at the ontological depths of our being, we will collapse ourselves into him and confuse ourselves with him. That misunderstanding of our union with Christ is a possibility expressed not just in what we think, but reinforced by how we are taught to think. We learn that what things really are is what they are all by themselves. They are individual substances, all one stuff. So, if two things are truly united, the difference between them as well as the distinction of each must be lost. Either one thing would turn into another, or both would turn into a third thing. Following this pattern of thinking, union with Christ would mean we turn into Christ or he would turn into us, each ceasing to be what we were. The Torrances were quick to warn that it is this way of thinking about ourselves as individual substances (a way that can be traced back to Aristotle) that leads to such confusion. If we assume that we are what we are independent of anything else, then a relationship, such as union, cannot contribute in any essential way to what things actually are.

But what if Aristotle was wrong? What if the essence of being human is defined by what we are by virtue of our being in some kind of relationship with God? What if relationship is essential to human being and not optional or accidental, but constitutive—such that we would not be what we are except by virtue of the relationships in which we exist, especially in relationship to God? If that is the case, then the Triune God who has his being as Father, Son and Holy Spirit reconstitutes our humanity by forging a new relationship with fallen humanity through his Incarnation and his entire life, death, resurrection and ascension as the New Adam. In that case, Jesus Christ has become our Lord from the inside of our humanity. We are now what we are because of Whose we are.

It was the truth of our union with Christ that led the Torrances to rethink our Aristotelian ontology (the study of the nature of being itself), and conclude that being itself, divine and human, is “onto-relational.” If relationship is essential to who we are, then in union with Christ, we are really united, but remain distinctly ourselves without confusion with Christ. We are most truly ourselves when we are united to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Union is a continual relationship with Christ at the deepest levels of our being, not a confusion of ourselves with Christ.

Grasping the truth of our relationship to Christ calls for the renewing of our minds so that we begin to think differently about what makes us who we are. In the end, we even have to approach reading Scripture differently. The challenge becomes not so much taking the Bible literally, but taking it realistically. When Paul declares that we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies, we have warrant, despite our Aristotelian philosophical training, to grasp this realistically. The good new is that we as Christians are united to Christ in such a way that all that is ours is his and all that is his is ours. Paul says, “though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9).

What does it mean to be a Christian? It means by grace we are united to Christ as his true brothers and sisters. Nothing less. That is who we are in him.

No place for us: antinomianism?

As noted above, some people worry that any real union must confuse us with Christ. This idea can be reinforced if we feel somehow compelled to trace out a false logic—a third obstacle, which goes something like this: If who we are is who we are in Christ, and our whole salvation is complete in Christ, then there is no place for me and no significance to what I do. This is the antinomian objection, that if we are really united to Christ then there is no reason or purpose for my choices or obedience. I can do what I like.

This might be one of many possible logical implication of our union with Christ. But theology is not the result of strings of logical implications. And simple logical inferences are never necessarily true. Second, everything depends on what we mean by union. The New Testament affirms a profound union with Christ, the completed work of Christ, and the wonderful exchange and yet it also calls for our involvement, our activity, our participation. Union in the New Testament sense does not rule out response, obedience, action and decision, but includes them.

Can we make any progress in understanding how these elements fit together? I think the answer is yes, and the Torrances lead the way. Union with Christ in this realist way does not eliminate the trusting obedience of the Christian life, but actually strengthens it!

A personal union

The biblical picture points to the union of persons who remain persons. The union is a personal union, not mechanical or functional or impersonal. Such a personal unity calls for interaction, for inter-relationship. A personal unity means that neither person is lost, but the distinction of persons is maintained while the personal, deliberate and chosen interaction takes place. Unity in this frame means the establishment and fulfillment of the creature in relationship to God through the humanity of Jesus Christ, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. This union is a reflection of the Triune relationships but now mirrored in God’s relationship to us in Christ and through the Spirit. Jesus can pray to the Father in a meaningful way even though he is one in being with the Father in the Spirit. From all eternity the Son can glorify the Father and the Father glorify the Son and yet be one. It turns out that the oneness of God is a unity where relationship is intrinsic to the being of God, so that if God were not Father, Son and Spirit, God would not be God. Aristotle’s presuppositions about what things can be and how they exist are apparently incorrect. Relationship can be essential to who, at least, God is—and who we are.

A saving relationship

Within those relationships there is real interaction, personal activity. So the saving relationship of exchange into which we are taken by grace calls for interaction, inter-relationship, and responsiveness. Salvation, rather than being an impersonal steady state of being, like a statue, is a relational reality. This is what makes salvation personal and alive. Being united to Christ is not being formed into a perfect, inert statue, but more living and being in a dynamic relationship where there is intimate giving and receiving in a wonderful communion. That relationship determines the essence of who we are and who we are becoming.

Perhaps we can draw a distant comparison with marriage in answer to the question, “Why should we do anything if we are united to Christ and our whole salvation is complete in him?” Raising the question that way about our union with Christ would be like asking why two people who are married should live together, since they have entered into the state of matrimony. But isn’t marriage by definition a sharing of life together? It would make no sense and be a violation of the logic of relationship to say, “Since we’re already married, there’s no point in living together.” So too in our union with Christ. As James Torrance used to exhort us, following Calvin, union with Christ and communion or participation in Christ are twin doctrines that can never be separated and never collapsed. Our unity with Christ in a relationship of wonderful exchange is a completed gift in which we personally participate so that the truth and reality of who we are in Christ becomes more and more manifest in our lives as we grow up into him.

We live our life in union with Christ because we live and move and have our being by being in communion with Christ. It is a personal reality in which we are meant to participate. Neglecting our active participation is neglecting our present salvation established in Christ. What does it mean to be a Christian? It means living daily by the grace that we are united to Christ as his brothers and sisters. Nothing less. That is who we are in him.

Below is a video update on the recently held GCI Intern Program orientation. For additional details and pictures, click here.

On YouTube at http://youtu.be/gIq9jZa7rkQ.

Here is part 2 of an 8-part essay by Dr. Gary Deddo titled “The Christian life and our participation in Christ’s continuing ministry.” To read other parts, click on a number: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. For all 8 parts combined in one article, click here.

Recap of part 1

In part 1 of this 7-part essay we noted that in responding to the ethical challenges in our contemporary world, some churches have adopted an activism that, unfortunately, tends to misrepresent God and the Christian life. As a corrective, we noted the Torrance brothers’ emphasis on an approach that remains focused on the central question of Christian theology: Who are you Lord? With that focus, all we think about and do as churches remains centered on Christ, enabling us to enter more fully into what our Lord actually is calling us to do. At their core, Christian living and ministry are about living in union and communion with Christ. Now in part 2 of this series we’ll explore the biblical foundations and theological synthesis for understanding that union and communion.

Scriptural teaching on union with Christ

What do the Scriptures teach? What did the early church and the Reformers understand? And what legacy have the Torrance brothers left us regarding our union with Christ? Let me first summarize what that union is not:

1. It’s not essentially a moral union with the result that I agree and am committed to doing what God regards as right and righteous. That may be a moral fruit of our union, but that is not what it is.
2. It’s not essentially a psychological union where Jesus has positive regard for me and I feel warmly connected and desirous of his approval and presence. Again that may be a fruit, but not the source.
3. It’s not essentially a volitional union where I am willing to do the practical work of God, accomplishing all that he sets out for me to do, so that my will is a mirror image of God’s will.
4. It’s not essentially a union of purposes (a “telic union”), where my goals, aspirations, dreams, ideals and hopes match God’s.

Union with Christ is much deeper, more enduring and far more effective in our lives than any of these aspects of the Christian life. The New Testament message is that we are so united to Christ that the core of our very being is changed because it has become spiritually joined to the perfected humanity of Jesus. The apostle Paul writes that we are one in Spirit with Christ (1 Corinthians 6:17). In his letter to the Ephesians he writes that we are presently—right now—seated with Christ in the heavenlies (Ephesians 2:6). We are so joined that what happened to Christ 2,000 years ago has actually included us. So in Paul’s letter to the Colossians we read that we have co-died with Christ and have been co-raised with Christ (Colossians 2:12-3; 3:1). Paul announces this fact as a completed action that is true of all the members of the body of Christ.

Jesus himself indicated his purpose to unite himself with us. He teaches that our oneness with him is comparable to his oneness with the Father. He declares, “On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you” (John 14:20, ESV unless noted). He prays, “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one…. that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:23, 26). Jesus teaches that eternal life, salvation, involves a close communion: “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” (John 6:56).

In 1 Corinthians, Paul announces that everything that Jesus has is also ours. He declares that Jesus himself is our wisdom, our righteousness and our sanctification (1 Corinthians 1:30). The New Testament is filled with language that points to a profound reality: we belong in an astounding way to Jesus Christ. We can be said to indwell him and he us. We are often depicted as being in Christ, not just with or alongside him. The book of Ephesians is full of this kind of description that frankly blows our minds and fries our rational mental circuits. We have become new creatures “in” Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), because he has made us his own (Philippians 3:12) in such a way that there is what Calvin called a “wonderful exchange” at the deepest level of who we are. At that level Christ takes our fallen and broken natures and gives us a share in his sanctified and perfected human nature. Who we are is no longer who we are alone, for we are not alone. We are who we are by virtue of being united to Christ. As James Torrance tirelessly reminded us, by his grace we are given the gift of sharing in the Son’s union and communion with the Father in the power of the Spirit. As the early church expressed it: He who was the Son of God by nature, became a son of man so that we who are the sons of men by nature might, by grace, become the sons and daughters of God.

When Calvin and Luther commented on Ephesians 5:21-32, following the early church teachings, they did not exposit on the nature of human marriage, but marveled that we are far more united to Christ than a man and woman are in matrimony! Marriage is a dim and distant reflection of the deeper truth about our real communion with Christ. The ultimate companion we are made for is Jesus Christ who is truly bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh and to whom we are united by the Holy Spirit.

In the New Testament, especially in the book of Hebrews, we see that such a union had its beginning in the Incarnation, in Christ’s assuming a complete humanity, from conception to his death. What qualifies Jesus to accomplish this exchange with us is his assumption of our humanity along with its fallen condition. The early church recognized the depths of the incarnation when it declared not only that Jesus was “one in being” (homoousios in Greek) with the Father, but also “one in being” (homoousios) with humanity. His divinity by virtue of his union with the Father is no more true of him than is his humanity by virtue of his union with us. The apostle Paul laid the ground for this doctrinal explication of the Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451) when he identified Jesus with the new Adam (Romans 5:14; 1 Corinthians 15:45). Jesus Christ is united to us even more than we are united to the Adam of the Garden in Genesis. Thus our relationship with Christ puts our very existence on a whole new basis.

Our redemption does not just depend on what Christ did, but on who he is in the depths of his being—one with God and one with us. Our salvation, our life in Christ, was not only accomplished by means of Christ but “in Christ,” as Calvin used to say and James Torrance used to regularly remind us. Our new life is not external to us and layered on over us, but is worked out first in the humanity of Jesus and then given to us through his Spirit.

Luther, Calvin and Stewart on union with Christ

One older book that James Torrance often referred to was James Stewart’s A Man in Christ. Stewart concluded after his careful study of the New Testament that our union with Christ was the central element in the message of the gospel. That is, without union with Christ, there would be no gospel. God’s grace reaches that deep into who we are. We are no longer ourselves alone—we are who we are only in and through our union with Christ. We belong to God in Christ., body and soul.

Calvin used to warn that we ought never consider Christ at a distance. We are, to the root of our being, who we are in relationship to him who made himself one with us. This is why Luther and Calvin recognized that our whole salvation was complete in Christ: not just our justification, but our sanctification and glorification as well. To have Christ was to have the whole Christ. Christ could not be divided up into pieces, so neither could our salvation. What is complete and actual in Christ is truly ours even if it does not yet appear to be so. Our lives are hidden in Christ (Colossians 3:3). Our life in him is being worked out in us by the Spirit. This new being wrought in us comes through the sheer gift of our union with Christ. It is not us working out a potential that might be true if we properly apply ourselves. Rather, the Christian life is living out and manifesting the present reality of our union with Christ.

Below is a video of a TED Talk titled How Great Leaders Inspire Action. Addressing the fundamental question of Why?, it would be a helpful start to a church leadership team discussion concerning helping others embrace the congregation’s vision and mission.

On YouTube at https://youtu.be/a6kbcERdmCw.

While it is true that digital technology (including texting and various social media) can be a distraction and time-waster, it can also be a tool that helps us pray. To learn how, click here.