{"id":3437,"date":"2016-10-19T23:58:06","date_gmt":"2016-10-19T23:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baonline.cog7engage.net\/?p=3437"},"modified":"2023-08-29T11:20:51","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T17:20:51","slug":"who-in-the-world-are-we","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baonline.cog7engage.net\/who-in-the-world-are-we\/","title":{"rendered":"Who in the World Are We?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once upon a time, we were not a people, but now we are the people of God. Once we were without mercy, but now we have mercy. That\u2019s what Apostle Peter says: God\u2019s mercy<\/em> has made us God\u2019s people<\/em> (1 Peter 2:10). Amen!<\/p>\n

Paul speaks about this people-forming mercy too, even more vividly: God\u2019s church was purchased by God\u2019s own blood (Acts 20:28). It\u2019s extraordinary! What a costly, generous gift to be called and claimed as His own.<\/p>\n

But what does it mean to be His<\/em>? In our conflicted, confused post-Christian culture, it is more vital than ever that we know our true identity as God\u2019s people \u2014 and regardless of nationality, sex, race, or any other identification that the world elevates as essential (Galatians 3:28).<\/p>\n

So who in the world are we, and why does it matter?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Word choice<\/h2>\n

The answer is not easily grasped in one word. Peter and Paul were inclined to speak about the people of God, this church of God, by metaphor \u2014 each one, in its own way, a name-tag that pinpoints who we are in relation to God, the world, and each other.<\/p>\n

We are called body<\/em> and bride<\/em>, flock<\/em> and family<\/em>, virgins<\/em> and vineyard<\/em>, house<\/em>, temple<\/em>, building<\/em>, and by Jesus himself, a city on a hill<\/em>. Back in 1 Peter 2, we find four metaphors strung together: \u201ca chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people\u202f.\u202f.\u202f.\u201d (2:9; Exodus 19:5, 6). Notably, these are all rooted in the story of Israel.<\/p>\n

Each of these could be profitably explored to help locate our true character as a distinctive community, resistant and resilient, witnessing and welcoming, in the face of mounting worldly pressures eager to conform all to its fallen image. But we focus here on just one word.<\/p>\n

The best word is the one the New Testament uses most often, a word we\u2019ve already noted and the one Jesus first called us: My church<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Peter is in the middle of that story too. It was to Peter, after confessing Jesus as \u201cthe Christ, the Son of the living God,\u201d that the Master spoke: \u201cAnd I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it\u201d (Matthew 16:16-18).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

His ekklesia<\/em><\/h2>\n

It\u2019s not accidental that the first mention of the church in the New Testament included opposition. Jesus didn\u2019t say that hades would not try<\/em> to prevail \u2014 it has and it is \u2014 but that hell would not succeed! This tells a basic truth about being the church: We are hopeful but never simply at home in the world. <\/em><\/p>\n

A chief reason for asking the \u201cWho are we?\u201d question is that after many generations of false comfort, the church, particularly in North America and Europe, is waking up to a world culture she does not recognize and in which she is not at home. This is good, I think. It\u2019s the opportunity to recover all it means to be church.<\/p>\n

But this raises a critical question: Is our present identity as the church robust enough to withstand a steamrolling culture such as ours? The church in the West is so vulnerable precisely because she has accommodated, and is now largely assimilated into, a politic of individualism, rights, and consumption that dissolves the very virtues necessary to sustain the church in our world. Many fall asleep or fall away. We need a fuller view of what church is.<\/p>\n

It is easy to take the common word church<\/em> for granted. It is not a place we go to, but who we are; not a building to assemble in, but the embodiment of Christ; not just voluntary association, but God\u2019s elect. We see this in the word itself. Church<\/em> is translated from the Greek word ekklesia<\/em>, meaning \u201ccalled out.\u201d God\u2019s new community finds its identity shaped by a required departure.<\/p>\n

This definition orients us. But called out of what? Again 1 Peter, after his list of metaphors: \u201ccalled . . . out of darkness into His marvelous light\u201d (2:9). Can Israel be Israel in Egypt? Exodus must occur. This is a start. As we dig deeper into the word ekklesia,<\/em> we see why Jesus chose it and how it further informs our identity as the assembled covenant people of God.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

His assembly<\/h2>\n

Two key contexts, common and theological, unpack the meaning of ekklesia<\/em>. In common first-century use \u201cekklesia<\/em> connoted an assembly, the citizens of a given community called together to tend the city affairs.\u201d1<\/sup> Behind this, its theological shape was given by its link to Israel. In the Greek Scriptures that the apostles read, ekklesia<\/em> rendered the Hebrew word qahal,<\/em> or \u201cassembly,\u201d as the gathered congregation of the Lord (Numbers 20:4-12; Ezra 10:1-14).<\/p>\n

We glimpse these contexts in Stephen\u2019s reference to Israel after the Exodus as the \u201cchurch in the wilderness\u201d (Acts 7:38, KJV). So the church shares in that ongoing story of God\u2019s covenant people: His earthly representatives, unique citizens amid competing identities and citizenships (Philippians 3:20).<\/p>\n

Jonathan Leeman discusses the big implications of this choice of words in his new book, Political Church<\/em>:<\/p>\n

In calling itself ekklesia<\/em>, the church was identifying itself as fully public, refusing the available language for private associations (koinon<\/em> or collegium<\/em>). The church was not gathered like a koinon<\/em> around particular interests, but was concerned with the interests of the whole city, because it was the witness of God\u2019s activity in history. At the same time, the church was not simply another polis; instead, it was an anticipation of the heavenly city on earth.\u202f.\u202f.\u202f.2<\/sup><\/p>\n

\u201cJesus\u2019 salvation does not have social and political implications\u202f.\u202f.\u202f. but it is a politics that is meant as an alternative to all social life that does not reflect God\u2019s glory.\u201d3<\/sup><\/p>\n

The church does not just have<\/em> a social ethic\u202f.\u202f.\u202f. but the church is<\/em> a social ethic. And this ethic, this politics, witnesses to the kind of social life possible for those who have been formed by the story of Christ. The church\u2019s challenge has always been \u201cto be a \u2018contrast model\u2019 for all polities that know not God.\u201d4<\/sup><\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

Our challenge<\/h2>\n

We see how the metaphors for the church mentioned above are linked to her identity as a visible, public people in continuity with Israel and in covenant with God. It is at once an alternative politics to the ordinary politics of the world, while an unceasing witness to the ultimate political reality that is the soon-coming kingdom of God.<\/p>\n

Jesus drew on Zion imagery, calling His church \u201ca city [polis<\/em>] .\u202f.\u202f. on a hill\u201d (Matthew 5:14; Psalm 2:6). Paul used prophetic imagery of new covenant Israel, calling the church a \u201cflock\u201d (Acts 20:28; Jeremiah 31:10-12). Peter echoed the Exodus generation, delivered and instructed, calling the church a \u201choly nation\u201d (1 Peter 2:9; Exodus 19:6). The clear and unavoidable conclusion is that by God\u2019s call in Christ, we represent a new citizenship, a polity that is in<\/em> all and yet transcends<\/em> all national borders or human identities that would define or divide us.<\/p>\n

We also see how the politics of the church is utterly defined by her relation to God in Christ. Our political reality begins and ends with \u201cJesus is Lord!\u201d This is why the well-meaning but filtered political activism of Christians in secular societies is so ineffectual: The source of our polis<\/em> is neutralized. We play politics by other rules on someone else\u2019s turf and wonder why society does not look Christian. Can we expect otherwise when Jesus is deemed irrelevant?<\/p>\n

Most of us reading today belong to a cultural dominion that has taught us to think that there are only two political options: to either participate or abstain from the politics offered by our resident nations. But our Christ-given name begs to differ. Church<\/em> means that by definition, we are God\u2019s political reality and resident aliens, a diverse and distinct public pointing to His kingdom within the fallen kingdoms of this world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wilderness church<\/h2>\n

Being God\u2019s alternative to the way the world works cannot help but make us feel like the church in the wilderness, in between this world and the world to come. Like Israel of old, that \u201cExodus out,\u201d however it comes, is difficult and sometimes tempts us to complain. Or it can even make us mistake the land of milk and honey for the land in our rearview mirror, rather than the one we journey to (Exodus 15:24; Numbers 16:13, 14).<\/p>\n

Being the church in the wilderness means being a people on a journey with our merciful God, ordered around He who redeems and commands. Such a people and journey as this cannot help but be \u201csojourners and pilgrims\u201d in this world, as Peter said, praising Him who called us out, living honorably among the very nations who speak against us as evildoers (1 Peter 2:9-12).<\/p>\n

In the United States another political season is upon us, and many Christians are struggling to make sense of what they are seeing, not only in the political sphere of the nation but also in nearly every other facet of culture and life. We now suspect more than ever before that there is no \u201cpolitical\u201d solution to the ills that face the world. But it is just at times like these that we recall who we are \u2014 His church<\/em>, a politics of another kind.<\/p>\n

Whatever the choices offered or made in presidential elections, the real hope of the world lies elsewhere. I cannot say it better than Leeman at the conclusion of his book:<\/p>\n

The political hopes of the world should rest upon the local church \u2014 in its life together. Here the pardoning word of the gospel is spoken, and the obedience \u2014 giving power of the Spirit is applied. The warfare of the nations begins to end here. It\u2019s a different kind of politics, to be sure. It is the politics of aliens, strangers and unwelcomed immigrants. It is a politics that expects, even embraces, persecution (Mt. 5:10-12). Still, the hope of the nations is to be placed here \u2014 in this society gathered around a King who has laid down his life for the world. It is those who have submitted themselves to this crucified King who, in turn, lay down their lives for one another and beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.5<\/sup><\/p>\n

This is the church in the wilderness \u2014 a mercy-formed people for the world\u2019s sake.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Stanley J. Grenz, Theology for the Community of God<\/em> (Eerdmans, 1994) 465.<\/li>\n
  2. Jonathan Leeman, quoting William T. Cavenaugh, Political Church: The Local Assembly as Embassy of Christ\u2019s Rule<\/em> (IVP Academic, 2016), 36-37.<\/li>\n
  3. Ibid., quoting Stanley Hauerwas, 37.<\/li>\n
  4. Ibid.<\/li>\n
  5. Ibid., 392.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Once upon a time, we were not a people, but now we are the people of God. Once we were without mercy, but now we have mercy. That\u2019s what Apostle Peter says: God\u2019s mercy has made us God\u2019s people (1 Peter 2:10). Amen! Paul speaks about this people-forming mercy too, even more vividly: God\u2019s church […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":3438,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nWho in the World Are We? - Bible Advocate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/baonline.cog7engage.net\/who-in-the-world-are-we\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who in the World Are We? - Bible Advocate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Once upon a time, we were not a people, but now we are the people of God. 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