BLOG 7/29/13. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU’RE GOING NOWHERE?

BLOG 7/29/13. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU’RE GOING NOWHERE?      

There’s a whimsical (I guess that’s the word) old saying: “Blessed are they who are going nowhere for they shall probably arrive.” I think of that often in conversation with folk inside of the Christian community, when I ask them what the goal and purpose of their Christian life might be? Predictably they will respond with sort of ‘nowhere’ answers about being a better Christian, or being more faithful in their church membership, or maybe even an honest answer about not being really sure what their ultimate goal is (except, maybe, to go to heaven when they die).

It is a known fact that goal-oriented people are more motivated, more hopeful, more creative, and more optimistic than most others. It is also a solid Biblical fact that Jesus and the apostles did not overlook this necessity. Jesus would teach that we much “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” which teaching then requires that we have a very clear grasp on what the kingdom of God and the disciplines of seeking such look like.

I have always been fascinated about one of the most misused texts in the New Testament in which Paul will tell us very pointedly that the purpose of our calling by God is in order that we be conformed to the image of his Son. The common mistake is to isolate Romans 8:28 from the rest and leave it an incomplete thought. Get this:

“And we know that for all those who love God all things work together for good, [which saying, when isolated, misses the point of what follows] for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:28-30).

That is one loaded statement with all kinds of consequences. God’s purpose in calling us to faith is in order to recreate us into the image of his Son, Jesus. Then he calls us and justifies us, and then enables us to be the “radiant display of the divine nature”—or glorified. Paul fleshes this out in a couple of other passages, such as when (in Ephesians 4:24) he calls us to put on “the new self” created after the likeness of God, a) in true righteousness (kingdom-shaped behavior) and b) holiness (in harmony with the Trinitarian community). Then, in Colossians 3:10 he gives us another dimension of God’s purpose in our calling and new creation when he says to us that we are also to be renewed in knowledge after the image of the creator (we’re actually to think and know like God).

God’s sons and daughters have, as their ultimate purpose, to be recreated into the DNA of God, as incarnated before us in his Son, Jesus (maybe imperfectly and provisionally, but all the same ….). That should get our attention, and get our juices flowing.

This is not religion or spirituality—this is the divine purpose in creating us and all things new in the here and now. We are to be the walking, talking, thinking, behaving, exhibitions of God’s new creation in Christ, and this is all made immediate and practical by the empowering of the Spirit.

What is our goal as Christians? It is to be the incarnation of God’s kingdom people in our character and relationships 24/7. That’s our goal and our mission: the glory of God in us. Here and now.

Please feel free to feed back comments. This is a great subject and worth pursuing.

About rthenderson

Sixty years a pastor-teacher within the Presbyterian Church. Author of several books, the latest of which are a trilogy on missional ecclesiology: ENCHANTED COMMUNITY: JOURNEY INTO THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH, then, REFOUNDING THE CHURCH FROM THE UNDERSIDE, then THE CHURCH AND THE RELENTLESS DARKNESS. Previous to this trilogy was A DOOR OF HOPE: SPIRITUAL CONFLICT IN PASTORAL MINISTRY, and SUBVERSIVE JESUS, RADICAL FAITH. I am a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, a graduate of Davidson College, then of Columbia and Westminster Theological Seminaries.
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