Gospel-centred life

Principle: Belonging to Jesus means I belong to his community.

Consider this

As the preacher finished the sermon, Susie felt a lump in her throat and she had to blink quite hard to hold back the tears. She wanted what the preacher was talking about. She wanted to be part of a community like that. She wanted to live life well and she knew she couldn’t do that in isolation.

But isolation actually summed up her life. Being a Christian for Susie was just about her and Jesus doing stuff together. Of course she went to church on a Sunday and she was involved in a mid-week small group. But as she thought about the details of her life, even when she was with other people, it was as if she had been admitted to an isolation ward. Her contact with others was always behind a barrier.

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I have a book on holiness which is helpful in many ways. But on its cover is a solitary figure walking across a vast expanse of sand. On the back it reads: ‘Holiness, the Christian’s joint venture with God’. The message is clear: the pursuit of holiness is a noble, but private, expedition.

The book, for all of its profound insights, does not give a rounded view of the corporate dimension of a gospel-centred life. The Christian life is not less than it describes, but it is far, far more. In Ephesians Paul writes about a new man or a new humanity (2.14-16). God is creating this new humanity which is to image him in righteousness and truth (4.24).

Holiness is a community project because it’s together that we image God. God’s design throughout history has been to have a holy people: a people set apart for him, whose lives and relationships are distinctive. Most Christians wouldn’t argue with this. But does our acceptance of this truth make any difference? Isn’t it just another impressive classroom theory that’s next to useless in the real world?

Take the issue of decision-making as a test case. In a Western culture, where individualism is cherished and above challenge, this is where this principle really starts to bite. I’ve been raised in a culture where my individualism is asserted vigorously, affirmed constantly and protected fiercely. The decisions I make are my decisions to make. Work, money and relationships all fall solely within my personal autonomy. But if my individual growth as a child of God is tied up in our corporate identity as the people of God, then who I am cannot be separated from who we are. So it’s impossible to make our choices and decisions without considering others.

The choices I make impact the lives of my brothers and sisters. So I need to make those choices with others in mind. Yet, in many church structures, even church leaders make decisions to move without reference to anyone in the church. The first thing the congregation hears is the announcement that the minister has accepted a ‘call’ from another congregation. This is professionalism of the worst kind and a serious failure to model who we are in Christ.

This autonomous decision-making reveals our hearts. It shows up our self-preoccupation. In the first act of rebellion in Genesis 3, the man and woman became less than they were made to be. They looked out for their own interests and blamed their sin on each other. Part of God’s judgment upon them was alienation in all their relationships, not least from each other.

But on the cross Christ brought about a comprehensive reconciliation, restoring our communal identity and humanity. There’s no better way to affirm this radical communal focus than reminding ourselves of the one who embodied it most faithfully: ‘Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!’ (Philippians 2.5-8)

Question for reflection

Think about the church that you are involved with. Do you know what it means to belong to those people that God has, in his providence, placed in your life?

Biblical background: read Colossians 3.1-17.

The Gospel-centred Life is published at £3.00 by The Good Book Company (http://www.thegoodbook.co.uk).

Seventh of a series of extracts

Consider this

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Question for reflection

Biblical background: read Colossians 3.1-17.

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