BLOG 8/24/14: COLONIES OF GOD’S NEW HUMANITY BEGIN WITH THE ESSENTIAL FOCUS ON JESUS CHRIST.
With all of the confusion, all the counterfeits, and all the aberrations that go under the use of the designation of ‘church’, I want to intentionally, here, define the church as composed of those colonies of God’s New Humanity. God’s New Humanity is the communal dimension of God’s intent to “make all things new” in and through Jesus Christ. That sounds orthodox enough, but let me unpack it a bit, because the focus gets lost so easily, especially on those of us who are the most involved.
The tragic estrangement of the human community from each other, and from the Creator emerges graphically in the colorful Garden of Eden story early in scripture. Between that third chapter of Genesis and the twenty-first chapter of Revelation (in which it is stated that: “the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people”) is the fascinating picture of God who loves this fractured and contentious human community, and loves it unconditionally—so much so, that he provides in his own Son as the the reconciler, who reconciles us to God by his blood (cross), and makes us to be a community of reconcilers.
Humankind—that’s us—is designed to live in intimate relationship with each other and with our Creator-God. This is what was lost in the rebellion recorded in those first chapters of Genesis. Alienation replaced shalom. The temptation to “be as gods” was insane. It all “went south” from that point, i.e., mutual accusation, jealousy, murder, separation, false gods, darkness …
But God immediately began to unfold the design of his infinite love, and the record of how that began to emerge over generations is all made plain in the coming of Jesus—“the mystery hidden for the ages” (Colossian 1:26) now unfolded in Jesus, has an awesome communal dimension, which is: that we are to love one another as God loves his Son, and loves us—unconditionally. This is a radically new kind of humanity and a radical new kind of love. At infinite costs to himself, God reconciles us to himself by the gift of his Son, and then makes us to be in this world a community of reconcilers. There are to be no anonymous others, or nameless faces in his communities.
As we are called to put our trust in Jesus Christ, we are also called to become the incarnation of his new humanity right in the midst of this human brokenness and suspicion, injustice and lack of mercy.
But do you know what? Before you and I even begin to look into this, we must realize that the individuals who are to compose this New Humanity must first of all are a radical new breed who have had a transformational encounter with Jesus Christ, which encounter of faith begins with a radical conversion, a deliberate turning away from our autonomy, and an entering into the radical new life that Jesus calls us to. There is no sweet “church membership” here. Not at all. Repentance and faith are at the threshold. Jesus himself is the Door. He is the Way unto God … and the New Humanity is only what it is intended to be as it abides deeply in him, and is formed by his life, death, resurrection, and teachings. To “seek first the Kingdom of God” begins with seeking first the glory of Jesus.
This is where the ostensible ‘church’ so often drifts. It becomes focused on its inner life and activities, and in doing so, marginalized Jesus … and for our purposes here, is his command that we actually love one another as he loves us: unconditionally. The human community that he is making new is not isolated piety. It is his love and reconciling grace to real others: the most difficult, broken, confused of this human scene. It is only possible (as he taught us) by the gift of his Spirit. But it begins with Jesus—Jesus is the Architect and Builder of his church, his New Humanity, and it is to be the radiant display of his own life, and love and teachings. That’s our starting point.
