BLOG 6/15/18. THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH

BLOG 6/15/18. THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH

In our current cultural context when there are all of those entities identifying them as Christian churches, and ranging all over the ideological map, … it is worth taking a step back and asking the question: what is God’s ultimate purpose for the church? What is its place in his design in reconciling the world to himself? Where does it fit in our understanding of the work of Christ? What makes a church an authentic church?

For myself, I have always been fascinated by, first, the apostolic designation of the church as the body of Christ. But then, even more, by those last three chapters of the Book of the Revelation at the end of the Bible, where the church is identified as the Bride of the Lamb of God. This has provoked me into making a note in my own prayer journal to always ask the question as to what my life and influence have to do with creating a Beautiful Bride for the Lamb?

I know that is strange and mystical language for some. But it has profound roots. In God’s New Creation, God’s in-breaking Kingdom inaugurated by Jesus Christ, a huge part of that is the re-creation of the human community so that it is in conformity with God’s original design for humankind, created to live in intimate fellowship with its Creator. When, in the fullness of time, Jesus entered our human community in his reconciling mission, he immediately began to call out a community to come be with him and to be formed by his life and teachings, to know his heart and mind and to be intimate with him—the band of disciples.

Jump over, then, to a seminal passage in Paul’s letter to the Romans (8:29 in loc.) and you will find that God’s eternal (predestined) design is that those who are called to him through Christ are to … “be conformed to the image of his Son.” This design/purpose is fleshed out in in the letter to the Colossian community and one to the Ephesian community and comprise a fascinating description of that which the church is to be about in its formation. God’s people called to himself through Christ are to be conformed to the image of God’s Son in knowledge, in righteousness, and in true holiness—or, to be those who think like the Son, whose life-style mirrors his life and teachings, and in its being totally in intimate harmony with the Trinitarian community (holiness). It is to be that fulfillment of Christ’s/the Lamb’s self-giving love, … his Beautiful Bride whose whole purpose to be the fulfillment of the Lamb’s redemptive love, — His glory.

The church is not some mindless and unfocused religious assembly professing some identity with Christ. The same Spirit that is in Christ also empowers the true church, and with a purpose. It is to be a community that is to have the mind of Christ, that sees all things from his point of view, and which is the incarnation of his life, his love for confused, lost, guilty and hopeless men and women, i.e., his zeal for the salvation of real sinners, for ministry to the poor, the sick, the stranger and the homeless, and the unjustly imprisoned. It is to be in total harmony with Christ and the incarnation of his redemptive design.

All this so at the consummation of the ages, there will be the marriage feast of the Lamb, when he shall be forever perfectly at one with those for whom he gave his life, and called to be conformed to his image—it will be his  Beautiful Bride.

The leadership of every small or large Christian community needs to keep this design always before itself in evaluating the authenticity of is communal life, and its identity as a church: Are we self-consciously seeking to be conformed to the image of God’s Son? Are we creating a Beautiful Bride for the Lamb? … or are we simply proliferating ‘church activities’?

Come, Holy Spirit!

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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