Community: God's Plan in Redemption

The church is not an accident. Before the foundations of the world, God had in mind a plan to redeem a community of people for His glory and for their joy.

 

 

Because God Himself is a community (see Part 1), it makes sense that he would redeem a community of people for Himself. In doing so, he restores us to our original image-bearing purpose of mirroring his being and nature, as we walk together as reconciled people, under the banner of the gospel.

 

The church is a community, not a building or a program. If you're a Christian, you don't "go to church". You "are the church" and you go to "be with the church" in various environments (services/gatherings, small groups, coffee shops, restaurants/bars, dinner tables, parks, and the list goes on).

 

Very simply put, the church is community redeemed. Unlike other forms of community, the redeemed community that we call the church is not based upon performance. Whether you're in or you're out is not based upon what you do or don't do. Rather, the redeemed community that we call the church is based upon identity. Whether you're in or you're out is based upon who you are. And, this is who we are. This is the identity statement of the church:

 

All of us have fallen short of the glory of God, finding our righteousness to be lacking. Thus, we trust in a righteousness not our own. We trust in the perfect righteousness of Jesus, gifted to us by grace, through faith. This is our common thread.  

 

So, I guess you could say that the redeemed community that we call the church is based upon performance...the performance of Jesus on our behalf. He lived the life that we could never live and died the death that we deserve to die. In doing so, he purchased us, giving us a new identity and reconciling us to God and to one another. Under the banner of the gospel, the church has the opportunity and privilege of mirroring God's being and nature. Remember, God Himself is a community. And, we were designed to mirror Him as a community of both unified (one God) and diverse (three persons) image-bearers. What better display of the unity and diversity of the Trinitarian God than the church, a diverse group of people who all unite under the banner of the gospel.

So, what does gospel-centered community look like practically? The apostle Paul answers that question in the following passage:

 

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. (Romans 12:9-13)

In light of this passage, the following are characteristics of gospel-centered community (adapted from Matt Chandler's Creature of the Word):

 

genuine love: "Let love be genuine." The entire nature of our relationship with one another (as Christians) is the fact that we have all rebelled against God and need a Savior. Thus, we acknowledge that we're far from perfect. The only perfect one is Jesus. So, we shouldn't be surprised that others aren't perfect. Nor should we feel the need to display a façade of perfection for others. In Christ, we are set free from pretending/fakery and surface-level community and are free to let our love be genuine.

 

hatred of evil: "Abhor what is evil." We want to create safe environments that foster honesty. Yet, we don't want those environments to be warm and welcoming to ongoing, unrepentant sin. Gospel-centered community embraces sinners while making war on sin. We need the redeemed community that we call the church because we have blind spots. You are the greatest enemy of your own joy. You need a community that will walk alongside you and lovingly and graciously help you to kill sin before it kills you.

 

encouragement of good: "Hold fast to what is good."  The goal is not simply to call fouls on one another. As we help one another to put sin to death, we must also speak life into one another. We must encourage our Christian brothers and sisters as we see them growing in the gospel. 

 

affection/honor: "Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor." The idea here is that the redeemed community that we call the church is a family. This means that, even though some brothers and sisters in Christ may get on your nerves (even the church has a crazy uncle or cousin), you're deeply aware that your big brother Jesus (as the author of Hebrews refers to him) has a deep affection for you, in spite of your many imperfections. His affection for you motivates your affection for this family called the church. As a result, you notice when your brothers and sisters in Christ are missing from the proverbial table. And, you look out for them in the same way that you would your own flesh and blood.  

 

desire to serve: "Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord." Jesus is the servant Savior who transforms lovers of self into lovers of God and people. In the same way that Jesus came as the embodiment of God to serve others and ultimately sacrifice his life for others, the church is to be the embodiment of God in the culture, serving others and sacrificing for others in a way that points to the person and work of Jesus. Because we've been served by Jesus, we're happy to serve others.

 

future hope, present patience, and constant prayer: "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer." In hard times, we need to remind one another to rejoice in future hope and to exercise present patience. A day will come when everything sad will become untrue. Sometimes, we need to be reminded of that. And, we need to be reminded to exercise patience as we walk through those seasons of pain/frustration, knowing that God is purifying us, conforming us to the image of Jesus. And, in all of this, we need a community that will surround us in prayer, lifting us up to our heavenly Father.

 

no man left behind mentality: "Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality." To show hospitality is not simply to open up our homes to one another. It's to open up our lives to one another, welcoming one another in. The idea is that as we mature in our faith, we bring along others for the ride.

 

As you consider this list, in what ways has God gifted you to live out the beauty of the gospel in the context of community? In what ways can you grow more in your understanding of the gospel as it relates to community?

 

Gospel-centered community is both strange and compelling. The greatest apologetic of the gospel is a community of people who believe it and live by it. Community is never meant to be an end in and of itself. Community and mission are inseparable. As people look in on this redeemed community that we call the church, they will get a glimpse of the one who redeems. They will get a glimpse of Jesus.

 

Jamey Vizzini

Lead Pastor/Planter

CrossPointe Winter Springs