Believe that Humanity Has Fallen Short of God's Glory

 

    Last week, at the Bell County Expo, we heard at the annual meeting of the J.A.I.L. Ministry a wonderful and emotional testimony of a mother whose son, a Navy officer, committed and was convicted of murder. Carol Kent’s story of a mother’s heartache over the sinfulness of her child and the overcoming love of a mother was moving to say the least.

     Imagine Adam and Eve, knowing that their own sinfulness was now living out in their offspring, and that they were to blame. They lost one son to death at the hands of his brother, and then they lost the other son, who was banished to the east of Eden.

    All of humanity is fallen and we as Christians need to see how horrific our sin is in order to truly understand how great God’s love and forgiveness is and how greatly we are in need of receiving and giving that same type of love and forgiveness.

    Love for the unlovely, unlovable, and unloving in no way excuses the sins of others, nor is it our place to overlook the call for justice when evil occurs. In Carol Kent’s story, her son is now active in prison, witnessing and leading others to the same love and forgiveness that he received as a murderer.

     When we look at humanity, God’s call is not first to look outward, but inward. We need to admit that there is no greater sin than my sin. Our sin, and no one else's sin, is the only sin that God will hold us accountable for. We need to clearly see that God loved us when we were totally and inescapably sinful.

     Secondly our call is to look upward. We need to put our faith and trust that not only are we in sin and in great need of forgiveness, but we are also greatly loved by God. He has sought us and saved us when we were lost and helpless. Our salvation does not come based on how good we are (we are not that good) but how good He is.

    How good is God? “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16. Our salvation is not automatic, we must call on the name of the Lord to be saved.

    Once we have called on God and placed our faith in Christ, it is then and only then that we should look outward, but not to condemn but to show the same love which God showed us through Christ.

     The past few days we have been thinking and pondering about God’s love for humanity. If you are wondering and even confused on how God saves the lost, whether you should be a Calvinist, an Amyraldist, or an Arminian, perhaps you should do what Jesus told Peter who was wondering about John.

     21Peter, seeing (John), said to Jesus, “But Lord, what about this man?”  22Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.”

     God is God and He will judge the wicked. He has not called us to be judge nor jury on the guilty. That is, as they say, “above our paygrade.” He has called us to love and be the proclaimer of God’s glory which is extended to humanity and to be merciful as He is merciful, to forgive as He has forgiven, and to love as He has loved us.

The following is an outline of Believe, Chapter 7 on Humanity.

1.      Created in the Image of the Lord .................................. Gen. 1:1-21

2.      Cain’s Inherited Lostness ........................... Gen 4:1-16, Jude 1:1-16

3.      Creation indicted by the Law ..... Rom. 1:18-32, Rom 2:17-24, Rom 3:9-20

4.      Compassion’s Invincible Love  ................. Hos 1:1-3, 3:1-3, 11:1-11

5.      Christ’s Invitation is Limitless ...................... Various John passages

6.      Christ Illustrates the Lost ............................................Matt 18:1-14

7.      Christians Instructed to Love and Forgive ... Luke 6:27-36, Philemon 1:1-25

Believe in God's Power of Love

     When I think about “all people are loved by God and are in need of a Savior,” I think of the rich young ruler, found in Luke 18: 18-23, Matt. 19:16–22 and Mark 10:17–22. The man (who by the way is never called “young”) was seeking eternal life. Even though he had lived an outwardly moral life and had been blessed with great riches, he felt like he was missing something.

    “What more do I lack?” he asked Jesus. The point today is not Jesus’ answer but rather that Jesus
1) loved the man who rejected His call to eternal life and
2) that the man was the man who was responsible for rejecting Jesus’ call.

     When the man walked away from Jesus, the Bible records an interesting comment about Christ. Mark and Matthew both say that Jesus loved the man who was rejecting His call. God loves us but He doesn’t love because of us. He loves because He is love.

     People often have a hard time thinking about a loving God and a literal “Gehenna” (the Biblical word for hell). Because it is hard to reconcile those two truths, some people either disbelieve in hell or disbelieve that God really loves all of humanity. And yet both are absolutely true. But just because God loves everyone, that does not mean that everyone will be saved.

     An illustration of God’s love can be seen in the power company sending electricity to your house. Just because the power is available, not every switch is turned on in your house. The access is available, but your receptivity to that power is not turned on.

    God’s love for all of humanity supplies the power of salvation, which was empowered by the perfect life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God’s grace is the light switch which turns on that power. It is our faith (which even that comes from God) that actually activates the switch to turn on the power to light up our eternal life.

     God’s power of love is not wasted or squandered simply because some people choose not to turn on the light. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

    Don’t blame the power company if your lights are not on because the problem is not the power source. Don’t blame the electrician if your lights are not on if you have not turned on the switch. And it’s not the owner’s manual’s fault if you don’t have the faith to believe it when it says, “turn switch up for on.”

    “Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,” found in Romans 10:13, means God has generated the loving power, the gracious supply and the trusted mechanism for you to walk in the Light, and even supplied the faith through His instructions in His Word for you to believe you can walk in the Light. But you have to turn on the switch.

Believe God's Love for Humanity -- even if they are not saved

 There are some Christians (a lot of Christians) who believe that Jesus did not die for all of the people in the world but only for those whom God pre-chose.

    There are others (again, a number of Christians) who believe God pre-selected those who would believe but only because He, in His perfect power and knowledge, looked ahead in time and knew who would and who would not answer the call to receive salvation. And there are others who believe salvation is like a lost lottery ticket or check, which could otherwise bring great riches, but since it is unclaimed, there are no effectual benefit.

    As we learn about humanity and compassion, I hope we will think through what we believe about God, His love and how we should respond in compassion based on what we believe.

    There is room for good people to disagree with certain elements of what we believe. God is infinite and when there are some Scriptures that seemingly “conflict but not contradict” with other Scriptures, the result can cause conflict between believers with finite understanding. Those areas certainly provoke thought.

    What we can agree with (I hope this threads the needle in what we all believe) is that God loves all people, but love can be in different proportions and with different end results.

     A case in point is that I can say I love all of humanity. And yet I love my family more than a stranger, like a man I have seen late at night on the corner of W.S. Young and the expressway. If that were my son or my brother, I would demonstrate my love differently than I do to a man I don’t even know other. And yet he is someone’s son and possibly someone’s brother.

     I truly do love this man, but he may see the times I have passed him and may not perceive my love. By comparison to the way I would treat him if he were my son or brother, my “love” could be considered as indifference or even “hatred” because I did not respond.

    These next few weeks will be where BELIEVE gets deep, and as we go through this, I hope that our love gets deeper too as we seek to not only love our neighbors as ourselves (Jesus’ second greatest commandment), but also that we love one another as Christ loves us (Jesus’ new commandment).

Believe in God's Love for Humanity--Despite our Flaws

     I have been thinking of the “depravity of humanity” lately (seriously, I have been. Just watch the news and you can’t escape it), and this week we are studying humanity, both our depravity and also the love God has for us.

    Have you ever thought about out of all of us seven billion people, none of us, not one, are perfect? Do you every think that maybe God has some responsibility in the defect of our design? Have you ever wondered like Paul says, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will? … Why have You made me like this?”

    (I am treading lightly on this because Paul’s inspired response was “But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? … Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?”) See Romans 9:19-20 (NKJV).

    Why are we humans so depraved, so sinful, so mean and evil to one another? There is a biblical answer and hopefully by the end of the week, we will have a deeper understanding of our wickedness…and how God still loves us.

    When my two sons were younger, one of them asked me this question, why did God create us so prone to sin? It was a good question and like all good questions, it made me think to come up with an answer.

    If we go all the way back to the beginning to Adam and Eve, they were created sinless and innocent, but they were not perfect. They were still given the freedom of choice. In fact, you might think it was careless for God to place the forbidden fruit “in the midst” (or in my translation “the smack-dab middle”) of the garden of Eden. Why was the tree so tempting and why did the fruit look so appealing (pardon the pun if you think it was an apple).

     And while we are asking, who let that smooth-talking serpent come into the garden?

    Going even further back, the Bible doesn’t talk a lot about how Satan and the demons were formed, but from Genesis to Revelation, there is no mistaking it, there is a real and literal devil and his entourage of fallen angels. We can surmise that Satan was created not just sinless and innocent like Adam and Eve, but he was created without having a tempter to tempt the one who would become the ultimate tempter.

     When Satan or Lucifer fell, he was not tempted by a choice or a forbidden fruit or by some design flaw, but rather he fell because he was created so perfectly and so beautifully that he thought he could ascend to become like the Most High (I base this on Isa. 14:13-14).

    Getting back to my sons’ question, I turned it around to them. “Which would be better?...

…to be born perfect (or in the angels’ case, created) and if you sinned once, you would be forever damned to torment in hell…

or

…to be born as a sinner (as all of us born after Adam and Eve) and if you did just one thing right by accepting God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ, you would be forever blessed with eternal life.”

    I and my two boys agreed that it is far better to be in the latter category than the former with the fallen angels and that smooth talking serpent.

    This week we will be looking at humanity and ponder the musings of one of my favorite hymns which says, “and wonder how He could love me, a sinner, condemned unclean.”

Believe God's Love for Humanity--God was serious when He said that "love others" thing

    “I love humanity,” someone once said, “it’s people I don’t like.” (I think it was Linus Van Pelt!)
     In our world, we sometimes get bogged down by reality, by the nitty gritty, when it comes to actually putting things in practice.

    It’s easy in my daily quiet time to wax eloquent and write devotionals and espouse all the virtues of Christianity.

    But then, the sun rises, people wake up, and I have to deal with them! I don’t know how many times I had to apologize the other day, but apologies are best made beforehand by not doing something that you know that you know that you know that you are going to having to walk back later on and apologize for!

    One day our church’s assistant administrator, Kay, came into my office and I was smiling.
    “What?” she asked.
    “What, what?” I replied.
    “Why are you smiling?” she responded, a little hesitantly.
    “I am just trying to be pleasant!” I defended.

    Maybe it is because I need to smile more and it shocked her. Maybe it was because I was forcing myself to be pleasant. Maybe I was smiling like a guy I saw at Lowe’s the other day: every time I went down the aisle, I could see him before he even saw anyone else, he was smiling, smiling, smiling, at nothing in particular. Kind of creepy if you ask me, you know, to be that happy at Lowe’s!

    Or, maybe I (and I don’t think I am the only one) need to be reminded from time to time that God loves all of us and we need to be like Him. Loving God by loving people.

   Every human is a naturally born sinner and we need to accept that in others and accept it in ourselves. 

   If we are not perfect, we should not expect that of others. We need to see that all people are loved by God and need Jesus Christ as their Savior.
   Now I better end this devotional. The sun is about to rise and I got to deal with people!
    For some reason, Zondervan didn't send out a Devotional for Chapter 7 but here are the highlights.

Chapter 7: Humanity

KEY QUESTION:
How does God see us?

KEY VERSE

For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16)

KEY IDEA

I believe all people are loved by God and need Jesus Christ as their Savior.

KEY APPLICATION:
I value all human life and see people the way God sees them. As a result, I am compelled to tell all people about Jesus.

YOUR TURN

In your own words, describe how love for God and love for others are related. (You’ll find some ideas in Luke 10:25-37.)

Believe in the Church as a Place for Grace

     Sometimes (often times?) the church gets a bad rap because it does not operate perfectly. But can you point to any entity that is operated by humans that functions perfectly?

     How about the school system? Hospitals and even doctors have huge insurance policies for malpractice. We are seeing airbags that are supposedly designed to protect us being recalled.

     Are police departments without criticisms? What about our city or county governments? No? 

     Well, surely our national government and election process, that runs like a well-oiled machine, right?

     OK, please stop snickering. Since we can agree that no organization operates without some degree of dysfunction, can we make a higher call for our organizations, including the church? Can we ask for some grace?

     Grace. No I don’t mean saying a prayer of “grace,” like you would before a meal, although all of the entities I’ve listed could definitely use more prayer. No, I mean can we imperfect people give a little more grace and mercy to those who need it?

     You have surely heard of marital spats and family feuds and church splits over the most mundane of causes. Divisions and divisiveness could possibly be avoided and certainly lessened if we all had a little more grace and mercy in our hearts for others who are less than perfect.

     The story is told that a young man was sentenced to hanging and his mother came before Napoleon, pleading for mercy. “Mercy?” came Napoleon’s cold, incredulous response. “This boy has stolen from my palace twice. He doesn’t deserve mercy!”

     “But sir,” the mother begged, “It would not be mercy if he deserved it.” Moved by the mother’s passion and persuasion, Napoleon relented and the boy was released.

     Tolerance is not what is needed today, for tolerance implies that all views are equal in value and merit, when clearly that is not the case.

     Grace is defined as unmerited favor, an undeserved gift, recognizing a wrong has been done but a greater gift of grace can be given to balance out the wrong.

    In fact, grace exceeds and overcompensates the wrong.

The Apostle Paul knew about grace and the need of it within the church. He began every epistle which is recorded in the Bible with these words, “Grace to you and peace.”

     Paul wrote more about grace than any other person in the Bible, including Jesus Himself. Paul knew he needed grace and had received grace and mercy from God.

     Are you upset with the church or someone in the church? Have you been hurt by someone? Have you chosen to stop going to church because it has failed in your expectations? 

     Are you holding a grudge or unforgiveness because of someone who “doesn’t deserve” to be forgiven?

     The church is far from perfect. As surely as you can walk into a hospital and find people who are in need of healing, when you walk into a church, you will find people who are in need of grace. That is why we who are called Christians need to be the biggest dispensers of God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness.

     God is rich in mercy (Eph. 2:4) and did not spare his grace when we needed it. As the woman pleaded for mercy for her son who needed it, I ask you to be a dispenser of grace, mercy and forgiveness today to those who need it the most.

     Even to those who don’t deserve it.

Believe in the Church as a Fellowship

The Church Fellowship

            Fellowship means community

     The local church is to be a fellowship in that we are to love one another, be at one with one another, and to walk in harmony with one another. Someone defined fellowship as “two fellows being in the same ship, going in the same direction.”  In order to be a Christian, you must commit yourself to Christ, and in order to be a church member, you must commit yourself to the  fellowship.

            To be a Christian without being a part of a fellowship is like a man who wants an intimate relationship with a woman, but not willing to commit to marriage.  In a marriage, commitment is not only going through a ceremony, signing a license or wearing a ring. It is also seen in a daily devotion to joyfully show loyalty to the person to whom you are committed.

            Both the wedding ceremony and the daily devotion are necessary to build a committed life together. In a church fellowship, you cannot have true interdependency among the members of the fellowship if there is no commitment. Commitment begins with uniting formally and officially through church membership. It continues with unity.

Fellowship means unity 

     In addition to commitment, the Bible says if you have divisions and quarrels and disagreement, you do not have fellowship. Paul said he would not praise the Corinthian church because there were divisions among the people (1 Cor. 11:17). Membership in the local church is to be characterized as having one mind and judgment.

       Repeatedly the Bible calls to church to “that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together” (1 Corinthians 1:10). Second Corinthians ends with the command to “be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.”

       Paul wanted to hear the church at Philippi was of one mind and one spirit, a conduct which would be “worthy of the gospel of Christ.” If there is to be “any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy”  (Philippians 2:1-2), we should have a good fellowship together.

       Philippians 3:16 says a unified fellowship comes with the maturity “to the degree that we have already attained.” The church fellowship can have disagreements without divisions and without losing its call for unity. There should be no sharp bitterness or divisiveness. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul underscores the necessity of different ministries within the church, a topic we will discuss in Week 6 “Membership Means Individuality.” Unity does not mean uniformity and Christians can have differences without being divisive.

           Ephesians 4:3 says “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” A good fellowship promotes unity and appreciates differences as sources of strength.

Fellowship means continuity

     We also have the responsibility to continue in fellowship together as an encouragement to one another (Hebrews 10:24, 25). This is not anything new, as the early church was characterized by its fellowship of harmony, joy, worship, witness and numerical growth (Acts 2:46-47).

            The Apostle John is often called the Apostle of Love, since he wrote so much on it in his letters and in his gospel. Yet he boldly stated that church members “went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us.” (1 John 2:19) Again in his second letter, he wrote, “Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has the Father and the Son.” (2 John 9)

            Clearly we are to continue in fellowship. Once you leave the fellowship of one church, members should immediately seek to be united with another fellowship as soon as possible. 

Believe in the Church: We are the original politically incorrect people

    Who doesn’t love the birth of a baby? On the Day of Pentecost, as recorded in Acts 2, we see the birth of the church. In our reading in BELIEVE, we see four elements in Acts about the church:

•     The community emerges (Acts 1:1-11; 2:1-41). 
•     The commission of the church enlarges to include Judea and Samaria (Acts 8:1-8, 14-17, 25; 9:31). 
•      The congregation expands to even the Gentiles as seen in Acts 11:1-18). 
•      And ultimately, conversions to ends of the earth “For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “’I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’” See Acts 13:47 and Acts 13:1-3, 38-52.

   The church, or God’s called out ones (which is what the word church in the New Testament language really means), is called out to be independent from the world. In other words, the church was the original politically incorrect society of believers. Somehow, we have convinced ourselves that if only we were more like the world that the world would like us.

     Jesus said the world will hate us because it first hated Him. We are to come out from among them (2 Cor. 6:17. The most common word for Christians in the Bible is “saints” and no that is not just for a select few of holy dead people. All of us who are born again are saints and that word means “set apart ones.”

     The final three analogies of the church (see the first trio here and second trio here) found in the Bible shows that we are to be:

3. Independent from the World.

1.      The Church is a Priesthood, holy and set apart from the World (1 Peter 2:9)
2.      The Church is a People, royally set out of the World (1 Peter 2:9)
3.      The Church is a Proclamation to the World (Acts 2:42-47). We are to be a city set on a hill (Matthew 5).

    When Jesus went to His hometown of Nazareth, His first sermon was out of Isaiah, in which he quoted, ​​“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, ​​because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed;to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”(Luke 18-19).

    Babies are sure a lot of fun. But they are messy, loud, unpredictable, cranky, needy, and a host of other things, which when we describe them, that sounds a whole lot like the church. It’s been 2,000 years almost since the Day of Pentecost. It is far past the time when we need to grow up as a church and become the full measure and stature of what God has called us “out” to be: saints, who are set apart for the work of the Lord. To God be the glory. 

Believe in the Church: Christ is the big picture

    The proverb of “You can’t see the forest because of the trees” means that we often miss the overall picture because of the details. The Lordship of Jesus Christ in the church is paramount. The needs of the individual members, though important, must come under the direction of the overall leadership of Christ in accomplishing His purpose.

     Believe it or not, not everyone is always happy about everything that goes on at the church. Sometimes people stop giving. Sometimes people start griping. Others stop coming. Paul said we need to not be infants but rather mature, speaking the truth, but in love so that we can grow and build up the body in love, all under the headship of Christ (Eph. 4:15-16).

     Peter's confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, found in Matt 16:13-19, is the first reference by Christ to the church. The centrality of Christ is the rock on which Jesus built the church. Just as there were three analogies to the church on our interdependence on each other, there are three analogies to our dependency on Christ--He is the Head, He is the Bridegroom, and He is the Cornerstone. 

  

     While evangelism and ministry are important, our chief end is to bring glory to Jesus Christ through His church.

          In the previous devotional, we saw the interdependence we have as a church--we need each other. More importantly, we are dependent on Christ, and we obviously need Him. Continuing the analogies of the church, our dependence on Christ shows:

1. The Church is a Body (1 Cor. 12) with Christ the Head.

2. The Church is a Bride (Eph. 5) with Christ the Bridegroom.

3. The Church is a Building (1 Corinthians 3) with Christ the Cornerstone.

      

Chapter 6 Believe Outline 

(pages 92-109)

   1. Covenant Established (Gen. 12:1-9, 15:1-21)

   2. Confession Expressed (Matt. 16:13-19)

   3. Community Emerges (Acts 1:1-11; 2:1-41)

   4. Commission Enlarges (Acts 8:1-8, 14-17, 25; 9:31)

   5. Congregation Expands To Gentiles (Acts 11:1-18)

   6. Conversions to Ends of the Earth (Acts 13:1-3, 38-52)

   7. Call to Church Explained (Eph. 4:1-16)

.....and Evaluated (Rev. 2:1-7)

  

Believe in the Church as a Family

The Church Family

     I love Ephesians because it talks so much about the church as a chosen people (1:4, 14), as a building (2:19-22), as a fellowship (3:9), as a family (3:14-15), as a body (4:15-16), as a bride (5:23-32).  Today I want to emphasize our relationship in Christ as a family. We were born into the human race, but also into a family. In the same way, the born-again Christian is born into the universal church, but we also must be involved as members within the local family of believers.

     One qualification for a pastor in 1 Timothy 3:5 is that he manages his family well, with the reasoning that if he cannot manage his family, how can he manage the church. Why would that be a condition of a pastor if it was not also true that the church should be like a family? Since our church is a family, we as members should treat one another as brothers and sisters.

     What impact does this have on us being interdependent on one another? One of the strongest passages on our relationships as a church family comes from 1 John 4:20, as the beloved Apostle wrote that anyone who hates his brother or sister in Christ is not truly a Christian.

     The old saying that “you can pick your friends but you are stuck with your family” is especially true with the family of God. We will be spending eternity with each other and with Christ. So John concludes that we cannot honestly say we love God whom we have never seen if we don’t love His children whom we have seen.

     Benefits of the Family         

     In Galatians 6:10 states that we should do good to all people, especially to those who belong to “the family of believers” (NIV).  Ephesians 2:19 says we are no longer strangers to God, but we are now “of God’s household.” We also are related to our spiritual family in order to meet physical (James 2:15), emotional (Mark10:29,30), and spiritual (1 Cor. 8:11-13) needs. Even as we saw the word “edification” earlier, which means to “build up,” is linked to the construction of a home. Members of the local church are to help one another to grow or be built up into a spiritual household or family (1 Pet. 2:5).

     Blessings of the Family

     In Romans 8:15, we see that we have received a spirit of adoption into God’s family and are now able to cry out to Him as “Abba, Father.” And if we are children of God, then Jesus is our brother and we all have direct access to our Father’s throne to present our requests.

     Behavior of the Family

     1 Tim. 3:15 says we ought to know how to conduct ourselves “in the household of God, which is the church of the living God.” 1 Peter 4:17 says that judgment begins with the “family of God.” We then are recipients of God’s blessings, benefits but also His disciplining as children. (see Hebrews 12:5-11).

Believe in the Church: We will make melody together

     Did you know you could make melody simply by coming to church and you don't even have to be a part of the choir?

     The word "member" conveys the idea that we have a relationship, a fellowship, with one another. The Greek word melos means literally "limb" or "part" of the body and is where we get the word "melody." It is this thought when Paul wrote in Romans 12:4-5, "we are members of one another."
   
    The early Greek writers would only use melos in the plural sense,  which really emphasizes how much we need one another. Yet some people do not understand the importance of being a member of the local church. They feel that being a Christian and a part of the universal church is enough. They say, "I don't have to go to a building to worship God."

    Rick Warren summarizes C.S. Lewis' thought on church membership by saying, "Any organ that is detached from the body will not only miss what it was created to be, it will also shrivel and die quickly. The same is true for Christians that are uncommitted to any specific congregation." (Purpose Driven Church, page 310).

     We are actually privileged and blessed to be an active member of the local body of Christ. Christ used three analogies of how we are interdependent on each other in the church:

1. We are Interdependent as a family (Romans 8:15)
2. We are Interdependent  as a fellowship (1 John 1:3-9)
3. We are Interdependent as a flock of sheep (John 10)

    As a family, we look to God the Father, to Christ as our spiritual brother and the Holy Spirit is who brings us to our adoption "The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." (Romans 8:15).

     We need each other as members of a fellowship, as seen in 1 John 1:3, that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.


   

Chapter 6 the Church: Does God Believe In Organized Religion?

    “I don’t believe in organized religion” is one of those phrases that sounds smart but is actually dumb.

    Like “Love means never having to say you’re sorry,” a phrase which even Ryan O’Neal made fun of in the movie, “What’s Up Doc?” just two years after he starred in the movie “Love Story.”

    But ask yourself: what system in the world does not have some semblance of organization? Imagine a school system or the military without organization. Any and every business has some form of organization, even Google where the late-bloomer hippie employees go to work barefoot.

    Even families and households have some form of rules and decorum. You can’t just walk up to some strange house and take up residence there just because you like their neighborhood or social income. Any system without some form of structure will fail due to chaos.

    God has a purpose in “organized religion.” God is a God of order (1 Cor. 14:33). First Baptist Killeen has structure and problems, rules and hassles, systems and faults. But that does not mean that God cannot use us or any church. In fact, God ordains the church to be His primary way to accomplish His purposes on Earth.

The following is a devotional from Zondervan

KEY QUESTION: How does God accomplish his purposes today?

From the very beginning God has had a vision to be with his people in perfect community. When the first two humans — Adam and Eve — rejected this vision and were escorted from the Garden of Eden, God began to unveil a plan to provide the way back. God’s plan consisted of making Abraham’s offspring into a great nation and then into the body of Christ through Abraham’s descendants. Thus the story of Israel pointed people of all nations to the first coming of Christ — and through him to God’s plan to restore a relationship with his people.

As Jesus was nearing his crucifixion, he told the disciples about what was ahead and about their role in accomplishing God’s ultimate vision for the coming kingdom. [Matthew 16:13-19] highlights that God’s plan for believers is still in force; the vision is for believers to come together in a community that continues to this day.

After the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, God formed this community, called the church, led by his disciples. The story of the church points people of all nations to the second coming of Christ when he will fully restore the original vision of God.

KEY VERSE

 Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. (Ephesians 4:15)

KEY IDEA

 I believe the church is God’s primary way to accomplish his purposes on earth.

KEY APPLICATION: What difference does this make in the way I live?

•In the body of Christ, you belong to a family focused on all the things of God, which are good, right, and healthy.

•In the body of Christ, you will grow faster in your walk with God. Because of our new identity in Christ, we live to express who we are in Christ, not to prove who we are.

•In the body of Christ, you become a part of a movement larger than yourself.

YOUR TURN

What is a key phrase that describes the purpose of the Christian church in the world? (If you get stuck, you’ll find some ideas in Ephesians 4:1-16.) Join the discussion today and use the hashtag #BelieveTheStory.

Identity: In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in everything, charity

        As we finish this week’s study on identity, notice how this belief leads perfectly into next week’s study on the church, specifically the local church. As members of Christ’s church, there are beliefs that we collectively agree upon that identify us and unite us as Christian believers and specifically as church members.

     But what is Biblical unity?

        Unity, not merely union. There is a story in Judges when Samson tied several pairs of foxes together with a torch in between them. There was a union, but not a unity.

Unity, not uniformity. I liked the way Evangelism Explosion used to say it: God wants unity but not uniformity. He loves diversity, but not needless division.

Unity, not unanimity. And there are times when God wants unity but not unanimity. We do not have to completely agree on every last detail. I don't mind for people to disagree with me as long as they are not disrespectful to my beliefs. One person said it this way,

“In essentials, unity. 

In non-essentials, liberty. 

In everything, charity.”

        Our identity in Christ leads to certain identifying beliefs that unite us together as a church. As Christians, we have more things in common which unite us than we have which divide us, especially in the local church, where we can unite to work for God’s kingdom. Our identity as individuals, along with core identifying beliefs as a church will lead to unity in our diversity.

     Ephesians 3:21 ends a great theological chapter, resounding with “To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” Chapter 4 continues that prayer by explaining how we can practically give glory to Christ in the church for all generations -- in unity.

        In Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer, recorded in John 17, He requested three things: the Splendor of God’s Glory (1-13, 24-26), the Sanctity from the world through His word (14-20) and the Symphony in the church’s unity (21-23).

Similarly, Paul lists ways to walk which will unite the church. Ephesians says we must

• Walk in works: the good works God has prepared for us (“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them,” 2:10),
• Walk in worthiness: in the unity of the spirit (“I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,” 4:1ff),
• Walk not in worldliness: no longer in the futility of worldly thinking (“This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of[d] the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind,” 4:17),
• Walk in love (“And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” 5:2),
• Walk in the light: as children of the light (“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” 5:8),
• Walk in wisdom, not as unwise, but as wise (“See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” 5:15-16).

        We are indeed united by certain beliefs which identify us as a Christian body. But we are also diversified by certain gifts, talents and yes even opinions which actually strengthen us as members of that body. Those differences should never divide us in our common identity we have in Christ.

(For more on this topic of Identification in Christ, see the series on church membership entitled "Making Membership More Meaninful--Part 3, Membership means Identification."