God’s Heart for Unity
Using the figure of music, I think God is looking for something more like an orchestra: diversity within unity, all sorts of different kinds of instruments.
That is much more satisfying than reproducing the same melody on the same kind of instrument over and over. Take any two instruments from a philharmonic, and they may seem incompatible. One would not normally commission a duet using a tympani and a piccolo. But all the instruments can be drawn together into an organic whole and, with a skilled conductor, perform a symphony. He wants something that mirrors the Trinity, that mirrors the kind of relationship that we are going to have in heaven.
The true church, as the body of Christ in the world, should be one of the greatest apologetics for Christ. Regarding the death and resurrection of the Son of God, Tertullian wrote that “It is certain because it is impossible.”
The Church’s Cross Purpose
Could not the same be said of the church? Imagine the most complex jigsaw puzzle ever devised, with a million pieces that changed shapes right before you laid them down. That is the church. The whole point of the church is that it is supposed to be impossible. Thus when the world sees it, when they all see these different people coming together, under the leading, direction and empowerment of the Spirit, loving each other, fitting together, and harmonizing together, they are supposed to say: “That is not possible. God must be among them.”
How is it possible? There is only one way: the cross of Christ.
We read in Ephesians chapter 2: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For He himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility” (vv. 13, 14). Which barrier?
The cross miraculously dealt not only with the barrier that existed between God and ourselves, but also the dividing wall of hostility that has existed between human beings. We all arrive at the cross in the same condition. We come before the King and see the incredible debt that we owe—and it is taken away from us. We are forgiven and cleansed. Then we turn around and meet each other. What other way is there to respond but to embrace each other as we meet at the cross?
The Lord desires more than just simply taking people throughout the world and connecting them individually with Himself so they can enjoy that communion independent with others. Some of us visualize the Christian life this way: we stand in our own little tube connected to God through which he dispenses His love to us alone. Eventually God is going to take us up through that chute to meet him in the sky. Jesus came to the cross to unite us to the Father and by that one act to also unite us with one another. He filled us with the Spirit to unite us with the Father, baptize us, and unite us with one another so that we share in the same spirit and become one spiritual body. The body of Christ on the cross is therefore the body in which the church is united and redeemed (Eph. 2:16).
Category: Ministry, Summer 2001
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