| Whatsoever
Things Are True
by Dan Coburn Pastor, Emmanuel Baptist Church pastordan@mtida.net A guest column by Todd Holcomb Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:9 & 10 that the Father's purpose in Christ was to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on the earth. In Colossians 1:18-20 we read, "And He is the head of the body, the Church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross." The work of the Cross goes far beyond you and I. It goes beyond the restoration of Israel, beyond the election of the Church. The miracle of the Gospel is literally the restoration of all creation to the Father through the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. When we talk about being the Bride of Christ, we are talking about our response to the relentless, insane love of Yahweh for His people, but when we talk about being the Body of Christ, we are talking about sharing in the ultimate destiny of the exalted Christ himself! Ephesians 1 and 2 tell us that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead and seated at the Father's right hand in the heavenly places. All things have been put under His feet and He is head over all things to the Church, which - hear this - "is His Body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." And God, "being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us...raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places!" This is what it means for our hope to be the destiny of Jesus Christ. Our salvation is in Him alone. Our restoration to the Father, our seat in the heavenly places, our inheritance - it's all contingent on the fulfillment of the destiny of Jesus Christ. The glorious part of it all is that His destiny is assured. From Genesis 3 to Revelation 21 the Father has purposed to restore all things to Himself through the shed blood of His only Son, and we are invited to take part in that destiny as the very Body of Jesus Christ. What a hope we have in Jesus! Yet, there is also a great responsibility that we carry. As the Body of Christ, the fullness of Him who fills all in all, we are the parts that do the filling. When the lost world around us cries out, "Where is God?" We are the answer. When a fellow believer struggles with habitual sin, we are his hope. How important is it then for us to be unified in love? For together we are the presence of Christ in the world. Two images of the Church run parallel through Scripture. An unworthy bride redeemed by a relentless love. A mature man, unified in faith, growing in stature to the fullness of Christ. If we focus solely on being the Body of Christ, we can miss out on the story of the redeemed bride, but getting too caught up with the idea of being the Bride of Christ, we can miss out on the promise found in being the body and the mission we have today. It is by balancing both identities that we can look forward to our inheritance in Christ and, with humility and love, invite others into our joy. |
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