BLOG 5/21/14. (CONT.) A HUGE OVERSIGHT IN MY LAST BLOG
The essence of the true Christian community, as an expression of God’s design for the redemption of the human community out of it’s brokenness, and its re-creation into that communion with himself as he originally intended it, is so complex that it defies easy formulae for its accomplishment. I gave it a stab in my last blog, but as soon as I had posted the blog I realized that I had inadvertently left out the most necessary and dynamic factor that makes it all possible—the Holy Spirit.
This is to say: that true Christian community as a ‘merely human’ enterprise is a total impossibility. Outside of Christ our eyes are blind, our ears are deaf, and our hearts are obtuse. It is only as we return to God through Christ, by our heartfelt repentance and faith, that we become—miraculously and mysteriously—somehow the partakers of a whole new life, even though we come as those “poor and wretched, weak and wounded” rescued from the dominion of darkness into the dominion of God’s dear Son. What this means is: that Jesus Christ comes to take up his abode in us—“Christ is [us], the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
The implications of that miraculous transaction are awesome to the max. We become Christ to one another, to our friends, to our enemies, to the world around us. But especially do we become Christ to each other within the Christian community … because … Christ, by the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, comes to live within us. That is what the ‘new birth’ is all about. We have eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to respond to our calling as part of God’s New Creation.
At the ending of II Corinthians is a remarkable confirmation of this. Paul gives the benediction: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Let me take the liberty of quoting to you Gordon Fee’s comment on this (as a major New Testament scholar):
“In many ways this benediction is the most profound theological moment in the Pauline corpus. On the one hand, it encapsulates Paul’s basic soteriology [Google that word], expressed more explicitly in other passages (e.g., Gal. 4:4-6; Rom. 5:1-11), where God in love determined to save his people and thereby took the initiative to bring it about (Rom. 5:18-21). The ‘grace of our Lord Jesus Christ’ in turn concretely expressed that love; through suffering and death in behalf of his loved ones he effected salvation for them at one point in our human history (5:14-15). The ‘fellowship of the Holy Spirit’ [note carefully] conveys the ongoing appropriation of that love and grace in the life of the believing community (3:6-18).” [From Fee’s book: God’s Empowering Presence]
To attempt to create any form of the church, or of Christian community, without that dynamic reality and dependence upon the Holy Spirit is doomed to frustration. As Fee comments many times: If you do not comprehend the dynamic presence of the Holy Spirit in the creation of Christ’s church in the Biblical narratives, then you do not even begin to understand the Christian church or community.
But, when Christ comes to live in me, then he will motivate me to find another (like you) in whom he dwells so that we all share the journey and encourage one another. We attract, and are attracted by, those others in whom the Spirit dwells. Community is being recreated. We become Christ’s ministers to one another, and to the world around us. All of the ‘one another’ or ‘each other’ exhortations in the New Testament documents become the natural expression of the Spirit’s presence, and so recreate us into a healthy intimacy with each other and with the Triune God. Many good studies on the nature of Christian community do what I did in my last blog, and leave out this essential and dynamic reality that makes it all possible. So I’ve filled in my previous oversight in this word to you. Come Holy Spirit!
