We must all grow in true Christian teaching lest we be “carried about by every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14). But we should use Scripture, and especially the preached Word, not as ammunition for disagreement but as a means of grace to strengthen our faith in Christ. Instead of looking for the preacher’s shortcomings (see Luke 11:54), we should listen like prospectors eagerly panning for gold, examining what we hear with Spirit-generated charity.

When you read in Scripture that church members must submit to their leaders (e.g., Heb. 13:17), do you cringe, imagining servile compliance to even unbiblical demands? When you hear Luke praising the Bereans for fact-checking Paul’s preaching (Acts 17:11), do you hear an endorsement for church members independently evaluating which parts of pastoral leadership they’ll respect?
Both those responses are wrong.
Yet Scripture does require us to be both submissive and thoughtful. These two principles are hard for us to harmonize; we mustn’t reject proper authority or abdicate our responsibility to be intelligent listeners. There must be another way.
The closing admonitions of the book of Hebrews call church members to submit to their leaders and practice discernment by refusing to be “led away by diverse and strange teachings” (Heb. 13:9). We must submit thoughtfully.
What Is Thoughtful Submission?
Thoughtful submission is the practice of respecting and obeying proper church authority while maintaining a biblically judicious walk with God.
God Requires Believers to Be Submissive
The author of Hebrews says, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account” (13:17). We must trust them, listen to them, and heed their biblical instruction. In traditional vows for church membership, members promise to “submit to the government of the church,” and “to its admonition and discipline” in the sad event of personal backsliding.
Church leaders are overseers under Christ (Acts 20:28), tasked by him to use the keys of the kingdom to bind and loose on earth as he does in heaven through the preaching of the Word and the practice of church discipline (Matt. 16:19). This is a challenging command. Our leaders are ordinary and flawed people; they’re peers who wield Christ’s authority. Yet as we love and submit to them, we show our love for and submission to God (see 1 John 4:20).
But submission isn’t servility.
God Requires Believers to Be Discerning
The Reformation rejected the Roman Catholic notion of implicit faith, or an uninformed trust in church teaching. Seventeenth-century Reformed theologian Francis Turretin argued that Roman Catholic leaders sheltered the Bible that they might “the more easily . . . subject the people to them by a blind obedience.” But God calls faithful Christians to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18). This requires more than simply accepting what a church leader says. 
The “noble” Bereans exhibit this discernment. “They received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11). By refusing to be ruled by human opinions, they exemplify the calling of all believers to share in Christ’s priestly anointing, striving “with a free conscience against sin and the devil,” as one Reformation catechism puts it.
Read More

Related Posts:

.kb-row-layout-id223392_4ab238-bd > .kt-row-column-wrap{align-content:start;}:where(.kb-row-layout-id223392_4ab238-bd > .kt-row-column-wrap) > .wp-block-kadence-column{justify-content:start;}.kb-row-layout-id223392_4ab238-bd > .kt-row-column-wrap{column-gap:var(–global-kb-gap-md, 2rem);row-gap:var(–global-kb-gap-md, 2rem);padding-top:var(–global-kb-spacing-sm, 1.5rem);padding-bottom:var(–global-kb-spacing-sm, 1.5rem);grid-template-columns:minmax(0, 1fr);}.kb-row-layout-id223392_4ab238-bd{background-color:#dddddd;}.kb-row-layout-id223392_4ab238-bd > .kt-row-layout-overlay{opacity:0.30;}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kb-row-layout-id223392_4ab238-bd > .kt-row-column-wrap{grid-template-columns:minmax(0, 1fr);}}@media all and (max-width: 767px){.kb-row-layout-id223392_4ab238-bd > .kt-row-column-wrap{grid-template-columns:minmax(0, 1fr);}}
.kadence-column223392_96a96c-18 > .kt-inside-inner-col,.kadence-column223392_96a96c-18 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;}.kadence-column223392_96a96c-18 > .kt-inside-inner-col{column-gap:var(–global-kb-gap-sm, 1rem);}.kadence-column223392_96a96c-18 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}.kadence-column223392_96a96c-18 > .kt-inside-inner-col > .aligncenter{width:100%;}.kadence-column223392_96a96c-18 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{opacity:0.3;}.kadence-column223392_96a96c-18{position:relative;}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kadence-column223392_96a96c-18 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}}@media all and (max-width: 767px){.kadence-column223392_96a96c-18 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}}

Subscribe to Free “Top 10 Stories” Email
Get the top 10 stories from The Aquila Report in your inbox every Tuesday morning.

Vocation is another word for “calling.” Each of us must learn to “lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him” (1 Cor. 7:17). God has called you to do something special. And, while you don’t have to know exactly what that is, there is much you can do, right now, to get ready to flourish in that calling. 

This week the blog is sponsored by Reformed Free Publishing Association. Today’s post is written by William Boekestein, author of the  new book, Finding My Vocation: A Guide for Young People Seeking a Calling. William is a pastor and husband. He and his wife have four children: a college student, two high schoolers, and a middle schooler. He previously worked in residential construction and also taught in a Christian school. William has written numerous other books including Glorifying and Enjoying God: 52 Devotions through the Westminster Shorter Catechism.
What Should I Do with the Rest of My Life?
That’s a huge question, especially if you are young. You might have half a century or more of life in front of you. And the choices you make now can powerfully shape how those years are spent. A big chunk of those years will involve work, whether in the home or out in the world. You want your work to mean something. You don’t have to be rich or famous. But you were made to be productive, to impact God’s world for good (Gen. 1:28). 
At the same time, you can’t pin all your hopes on success in the workforce. Like all of life after the fall, work is “subjected to futility” (Rom. 8:20). It is vital that you understand what work can do for you, and others, and recognize its limitations. This is complicated! And if you consider all the options available to you, and the changing job market and uncertain economic future, trying to follow God’s plan for your work life can be intimidating, even scary. 
Read More
Related Posts:

The Eucharist is a true participation in Christ’s body and blood (1 Cor. 10:16). So to fake communion with Christ while having no saving interest in him is sacrilegious. We must examine and judge ourselves, respecting church leaders who either invite us to the Supper or insisting that, for now, we abstain (1 Cor. 11:28, 29, 31). Scripture requires us to heed warnings about the Lord’s Supper. But we mustn’t only focus on the negative. There are several things we must do to receive what Christ wants to give us in this meal.

After three years of walking with Jesus the disciples were about to face their greatest trial. God would strike the Shepherd and scatter his sheep (Matt. 26:31). Spiritual darkness would place the disciples under extreme pressure. They would not completely fail. But they would falter.
Knowing all this, how did Jesus prepare them for this dark hour? He instituted a special meal meant to remind them of who they were in him. This meal, called the Lord’s Supper, is also for us. The apostle Paul received from the Lord and delivered unto the church, the same institution that the first disciples received from Jesus shortly before his death (1 Cor. 11:23). Until he comes Jesus intends this meal to preserve our bodies and souls unto everlasting life.
What Is the Lord’s Supper?
The Lord’s Supper is “the sacrament of his body and blood.” “Sacraments are holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace” (WCF 27.1). This sacrament reminds believers of Jesus’ shed blood, and assures them that they possess all the benefits which his sacrifice secures. The Supper takes the place of the Passover which confirmed to believing Israelites that God had graciously spared them from the angel of death (Ex. 12:7–13). Since we, like the disciples, often suffer from many doubts and weak faith, the Lord’s Supper must be a regular part of congregational life. John Calvin thought the Supper so important, much like ordinary eating, that it should be celebrated “very often, at least once a week.” He thought that “no meeting of the church should take place without” it. [i] His conviction is worth our consideration. But however frequently we celebrate the Supper in terms of the its role in the Christian life we should think of it less like a birthday celebration and more like a family meal.
Scripture teaches us how to observe this meal. First, the church must hear Jesus’ words of institution. About the bread and wine we hear, “This is my body, which is for you, do this in remembrance of me. …This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:23, 25).
Second, the minister follows Jesus’ example and prays for the Lord to “bless the elements of bread and wine, and thereby to set them apart from a common to an holy use.”
Third, the bread is broken and the wine poured, and both are distributed to the professing members of Christ’s church. The result is a congregational celebration of the real, gracious presence of Christ among his beloved people. The Supper is not a mark of our obedience or personal worthiness but a testimony to the inherited riches that believers have in Christ.
Because this meal is so sacred we must approach it with care. 
How Might I Misuse the Supper?
Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 11 to correct the church’s table manners.
Read More
Related Posts:

God wants his people to know that we are part of his body. This is true even for the youngest members of Christ’s church. Long before they publicly profess their faith those baptized in infancy are part of Christ’s church and covenant. Baptized infants aren’t future church members but actual church members.

In places with a Christian heritage the weightiness of baptism can easily be underestimated. Many people get baptized, or baptize their children, out of impulse, or as a matter of custom. It isn’t usually a sobering decision.
Believers under persecution understand baptism differently. Immediately after Paul’s conversion Ananias said to him, “And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name” (Acts 22:16). We would understand if Paul was hesitant. Jesus had already told him how much he would suffer for his name. Being baptized would mark him as a follower of Jesus and an enemy of the world. Still, Paul “arose and was baptized” (Acts 9:18). He knew there was no other way; he was a disciple of Jesus. Baptism marked his new life in God’s Son.
To treasure baptism, whether we are living in times of persecution or peace, we need to know that it is commanded by Christ and offers rich benefits. 
The Command of Baptism
Baptism is ordained by Jesus as a sign and seal of the covenant of grace. Jesus himself did not baptize (John 4:2). But he commanded his disciples to do it (Matt. 28:19). And their example shows us what it looks like. Whether by immersion, pouring, or sprinkling, a baptized person receives the outward element of water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Jesus didn’t invent water baptism. The Jewish people baptized various household goods with water (Mark 7:4). They themselves were baptized in the red sea (1 Cor. 10:2); God bound them to himself and separated them from their former owners. This old symbol now tells of how Jesus’ blood washes away our sins.
So important is baptism for the Christian life that Jesus commanded his disciples to baptize the nations. This command is why Christian ministers baptize today. In fact, for baptism to be useful it cannot be performed by any but “a minister of the gospel, lawfully called thereunto.” This is not because he has special skill in baptizing or lends any virtue to the ceremony. But because, like the original baptizers, he has been called by Jesus with authority to speak and act for him. When a true ambassador of Christ baptizes it as though Christ himself is confirming his covenant promises (cf. 2 Cor. 5:20).
By Jesus’ command all disciples must be baptized. This surely includes adult believers. Throughout the book of Acts Luke records this pattern: adults who came to believe in Jesus were baptized. When the Ethiopian eunuch came to believe that he was healed by Christ’s wounds, he was baptized (Acts 8:36, 38). After God opened Lydia’s heart to pay attention to spiritual things “she was baptized” (16:15). When the Philippian jailer got saved by trusting in the Lord Jesus “he was baptized at once” (16:31). 
Read More
Related Posts:

Every true Christian agrees with the goals of God’s plan for discipline. We believe in rescuing sinners, protecting the congregation, maintaining a holy communion, preserving the honor of Christ, and preventing the wrath of God. We believe in church discipline. God wants us to believe in it so fervently that we would insist on being members in churches where discipline is affirmed and practiced. My brothers and sisters need it. But so do I.

“For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant” (Heb. 12:11). We don’t like discipline—in our personal lives, in the family, or at church—because it hurts. No balanced person enjoys giving or receiving corrective instruction. Correction wounds our pride and threatens our imagined autonomy. It can occasion resentment against authorities. Our natural instinct is to resist discipline.
But to dodge discipline is unwise. The writer goes on. “But later [discipline] yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Like many good things discipline proves its value over time.  And only a fool trades away long-term benefits for short-term pleasure. Discipline is for our good. So it shouldn’t surprise us that a loving God requires church censures.
What is the Premise for Church Censures?
Every organization has procedures for keeping order. For a soccer match or an election to mean anything there must be standards of conduct and penalties for misbehavior. So rules are an essential part of government, business, centers of learning, social clubs, and even families. Those who fault the church for censuring sin show their bias against religion. There is a commonplace argument for church discipline.
But more importantly Jesus requires the church to discipline sin. Jesus is both the Lord of creation and the “King and Head of his church” (see Eph. 5:23). According to his sovereign power Jesus has “appointed a government, in the hand of church officers.” Christ first called the apostles to rule, though not as the power-hungry gentiles, but through humble service (Matt. 20:25–28). The original apostles “appointed elders … in every church” (Acts 14:23), who were to appoint other elders to enforce the “apostles’ teaching,” down through the ages (Titus 1:5; Acts 2:42).
Jesus’ overseers rule through what Scripture calls the keys of the kingdom (Matt. 16:19). The image of the keys makes an important point: divinely appointed church leaders have no original or independent authority. They are simply stewards who execute Christ’s revealed will (Titus 1:7). Part of how church leaders watch over the souls of their members (Heb. 13:17) is by keeping discipline in the church. Through preaching and formal censures church leaders unlock the kingdom to the penitent and lock it against the impenitent. Here is one example. The apostles opened the kingdom to a man named Simon when he “believed.” But when it was clear that he was “in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity” Peter rightly insisted that Simon had “neither part nor lot” in the church’s business (see Acts 8:9–25); he closed the kingdom to him (cf. 1 Cor. 5:2; 2 Thess. 3:6).
The church must have spiritual doors with divinely appointed custodians manning the locks. Discipline is a necessary part of every organization. It is also commanded by Jesus and modeled by the biblical church.
Read More
Related Posts:

Sacraments are not magical. They aren’t a quick and easy replacement for sincere faith, and spiritual devotion. But by the power of God they sincerely promise “benefit to worthy receivers.” Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are central to God’s program for our spiritual growth. Let’s use them to think about Jesus and his benefits, to believe that by faith we have a saving relation to him, to walk differently.

Has the church has missed God’s plan for spiritual growth? Conventional wisdom promotes pragmatic self-help schemes, elaborate church programs, and charismatic leaders. But what if God actually authorized a simpler way?
Early Christians committed to expository preaching, fellowship, and prayers (Acts 2:42). They also believed that God had given them powerful rituals to help them walk with God. Baptism symbolizes everything believers have gained in Christ (Rom. 6:4). The Lord’s Supper, sometimes called “the breaking of bread” (Acts 2:42), helps God’s hungry and thirsty children feed on Christ.[i] The early church teaches us to be cautious about modern models for spiritual growth (1 Cor. 2:1–5) and to emphasize the role of the sacraments as God’s gift for pilgrims along the way.
What are Sacraments?
Sacraments are divinely instituted signs and seals of the covenant of grace.
Signs and Seals
God voluntarily condescends to make a gracious covenant with his people. A covenant is a binding agreement between two parties. In the covenant of grace God “freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ.” In turn he requires of covenant people “faith in him.” This is the most life-giving relationship you can ever enter. In the covenant of grace God promises “to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life his Holy Spirit, to make them willing, and able to believe” (WCF 7.3).
In fact, God’s covenant promises are so wonderful that we are prone to doubt them. We worry that we may not be among the number of those God has called out of the world. We are slow to keep our side of the covenant. We might forget altogether about covenant privileges and responsibilities. So our gracious God gives sacraments to point to (signs) and authenticate (seals) the covenant of grace. In Abraham’s life the sign of circumcision validated God’s promise that he was righteous before God because of his faith (Rom. 4:11). So today baptism and the Lord’s Supper signify and seal God’s covenant.
Divinely Instituted
God alone can authorize holy signs and seals of his covenant. Many things may feel spiritual but lack actual power for helping our walk with the Lord. As tangible indicators of the covenant of grace God has given us two sacraments, baptism and the Lord’s Supper. These are substantially the same as circumcision and the Passover in the Old Testament; they signify and exhibit the same spiritual things.
And like the Old Testament sacraments, baptism and the Lord’s Supper cannot be “dispensed by any, but by a minister of the Word lawfully ordained.”
Read More
Related Posts:

There are no other options besides heaven and hell. Purgatory is a baseless medieval invention. It is true that following death the wicked and the righteous will enter what is called the intermediate state, an in-between stage. The righteous will eagerly anticipate the redemption of our bodies; the wicked, like fallen angels, will enter a sort of “gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day” (Jude 1:6). But the time of testing is now. Death seals our fate forever. Everyone who dies will wait for the consummation of history in the return of Jesus.

Many people are uncomfortable thinking about death. That’s understandable. Death is hauntingly foreign, like traveling to a country from which visitors do not return. But we must think about it because we will travel there. Our discomfort with mortality cannot delay the inevitable. And the matters are vital. What happens when we die affects how we live now. And how we live now determines what happens when we die.
So we must think about death in the only way that will truly help us, by listening to the Bible. Our questions about what happens after death can’t be fully answered by science or experience. And personal opinions and theories are useless. So what does God say about the state of humans after this part of our lives is over? Let’s break that question into two parts.
What Happens When I Die?
Two main things will happen, corresponding to the two parts of our humanity.
My Body Will Deteriorate
This truth is observable. But why our bodies disintegrate can only be explained by revelation. These are the last words of the terrible curse that God spoke to Adam after the first sin: “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19). God forms us from the same particles that make up everything else on this planet. When our spirit leaves us our elements will again become dispersed.
Still, even in death the bodies of believers “continue united to Christ, and rest in their graves as in their beds” (Dan. 12:2; Acts 24:15).[i] This may seem a strange comfort but God promises that even the dead bodies of his children are in his care. Deceased believers are affectionately referred to as “the dead in Christ” (1 Thess. 4:16), or “those who sleep in Jesus” (4:14). God’s care of our dead bodies is an essential part of his commitment to swallow up mortality with life (2 Cor. 5:4; cf. Rom. 8:22–23)
My Soul Will Return to God
Souls cannot die. Nor do they go dormant after death. When my body returns to the dust my soul will go back to the God who gave it (Eccl. 12:7). It will have finished its probationary journey on earth and will then be sorted to its eternal destiny.
The souls of the righteous enter heaven. At death believers’ souls will be “made perfect in holiness” (see Heb. 12:23). Christians on earth gain only partial victory over sin. In eternity we will not grieve over past sin, commit new sin, or even consider sinning. Heaven is a place of righteousness; there sin is impossible (2 Peter 3:13).
Read More
Related Posts:

Councils may and do err because human leaders “stumble in many ways” (James 3:2). Even the apostles made poor decisions (e.g. Mark 10:13–16; Luke 9:49, 50). The conclusions of assemblies “are to be received with reverence and submission” only “if consonant to the Word of God.” There is some tension here. Not every side will agree with how a council “determine[s] controversies of faith.” But if a broad gathering of church leaders acts on the basis of sound biblical logic the nature of the gathering should fortify the decision. Among faithful churches Lutheresque stands should be rare if not unheard of. When the church speaks her real authority from Christ may not be ignored (Matt. 18:17–20).

Should leaders from multiple churches gather to consider matters of common concern? You might have an opinion on that question. Or it might seem irrelevant. How does church government affect my walk with the Lord?
But what if inter-congregational meetings could be for “the good of the church”? What if the most famous scriptural example of such a meeting is not exceptional but normative? Most Christians will never attend a meeting like that. But we should know how broader assemblies, or leadership meetings involving more churches than our own, can be used by God for building-up Christ’s church.
 The Nature of Broader Assemblies
Every congregation of Christ must have “a government, in the hand of church officers” (WCF 30.1). These officers must shepherd the flock, using “the ministry, oracles, and ordinances of God, for the gathering and perfecting of the saints” (WCF 25.3). Like fathers and mothers church leaders “love, pray for, and bless” church members.[i] Through them God may “instruct, counsel, and admonish us.”[ii] We thank God for local church leaders!
But God also intends to bless his people by the efforts of leaders outside the local church. Spiritual overseers should participate in assemblies that are broader than “particular churches.” The most obvious biblical example of a synod or a council is the meeting of the apostles and elders often called the Jerusalem Council. Clearly that meeting was “for the better government, and further edification of the church.” Here’s what happened. Antioch had a congregation with legitimate leaders (Acts 14:23). But the local church struggled to answer a divisive theological question: Is Jesus enough? Or must his work be augmented by ours? After local church teachers “had no small dissension and debate,” leaders from Antioch “were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question” (Acts 15:2). The council’s conclusion was definitive. Among many leaders God made clear what a local church struggled to discover alone (15:25). The answer is truly good news: To be saved nothing more is needed than the gift of Christ’s righteousness received by faith alone. Later Paul and Silas delivered to the churches “for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem (Acts 16. 4). For local churches, at Antioch and beyond, the Jerusalem council affirmed this truth: “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety” (Prov. 11:14).
This doesn’t mean that synods or councils are infallible. The Holy Spirit approved the Jerusalem Council’s decision (Acts 15:28). 
Read More
Related Posts:

We cannot rank the divine persons; they are distinct from each other but not divided from each other. They are not three parts that add up to a single godhead. John Calvin understood the name God to be “the one simple essence, comprehending three persons.” In our chaos we can come to a God in whom, as the Athanasian Creed puts it, “the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.” Such as the one is, so are the three. “None in this Trinity is before or after, none is greater or smaller” (arts. 6, 7, 25). We can trust one God in three equal, co-eternal persons.

One of the best questions we can ask is also the most challenging: “What is God?”[1] As the Church has searched Scripture for answers it has consistently used a surprising word to describe the divine Being: simplicity. God is simple—not in the sense of “easily understood” but as “being free from division into parts, and therefore from compositeness.”[2] God is one (Deut. 6:4); He is both unique and indivisible.
The word simplicity, like trinity, is not found in the Bible, but reformed confessions affirm that the doctrine is biblical. The Lutheran Augsburg Confession states that “there is one Divine Essence…which is God: eternal, without body, without parts” (art. 1). Dutch Reformed believers confess the same thing: “There is a single and simple spiritual being, whom we call God” (Belgic Confession, art. 1). In the Church of England divine simplicity is taught in the Thirty-nine Articles, “There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions” (art. 1). The Westminster Assembly—which convened to modify these articles but then chose to replace them—retained the exact language of Anglicanism (Westminster Shorter Catechism 2.1), as did English Baptists (London Baptist Confession, 2.1). These confessions draw on the testimony of church fathers like Augustine, medieval theologians like Aquinas, and reformers like Calvin, Melanchthon, and Zwingli.
Divine simplicity is firmly embedded in the reformed confessional tradition. If we understand simplicity, we may come to join the doctors of the church in treasuring this doctrine.
What Is Divine Simplicity?
When God revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush He identified Himself as being—the “I am” (Ex. 3:14). Unlike everyone else, He is not from somewhere or the fruit of ancestors. He is not even a species within a genus. Instead, He is the God who is, “the ultimate principle and …category of all things.”[3] Herman Bavinck wrote, “God is the real, the true being, the fullness of being, the sum total of all reality and perfection, the totality of being, from which all other being owes its existence.”[4] God is truly “all and in all” (Col. 3:11). Drawing from texts like these, divine simplicity maintains that in God there is “no composition, no contradiction, no tension, no process.”[5]
No Composition
God is not a sum of parts, as we are, made up of body and soul, atoms and neurons, past, present, and future. God’s attributes do not add up to what He is. As a child I wore out a book that described a little boy’s attributes—quickness, loudness, bravery—that made him who he was. Here is the climax of the book: “Put it all together and you’ve got me!” That’s true for us. It is untrue for God. Each of God’s attributes is identical with Himself and His other perfections because each is infinite.
Read More
Related Posts:

Because of our fellowship with the Triune God believers are also joined to each other (1 John 1:3). We “are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another” (Romans 12:5). From Christ the head “the whole body” is “joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped” (Ephesians 4:16).

The visible church is an institution. Like any other organization the church has structure. Anyone who takes the Bible seriously realizes that the gathered community of God has leaders, doctrine, and rules for membership. As unpopular as it might be to say, Christianity is a religion and the institutional church is an essential part of that faith (see Chapter 25).
But Christianity is also essentially relational. The God-ordained organization of the church is also a living organism. And the religious and relational aspects of the church are not at odds. Scripture calls the church a body (1 Cor. 12:12); a human body has an intimate connection between its various parts and the head as the command center. To live well the parts must cooperate. The church is also a family (Mark 3:34, 35); in any well-functioning family there is both a form of government and loving communion.
To put it more personally, it isn’t enough to belong to the organization of the church—to be a member of what the Apostles’ Creed calls “the holy catholic church.” Within the church we must also practice “the communion of saints.” This raises two questions.
How Is Communion Possible?
Sin fractures every relationship. The works of the flesh are like acid that corrodes our mutual bonds; people given to enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions and envy do not make good friends (Gal. 5: 20, 21). To fellowship righteously we need to be changed. This means our most fundamental relationship needs to change. The key to holy communion is union with Christ. Nothing but the righteousness of Jesus could bring together people so naturally given to hatred and quarrelling (Titus 3:3-5).
Believers “are united to Jesus Christ their Head, by his Spirit, and by faith.” The call of faith is not simply to believe that Jesus is the Christ but, by believing, to gain life in his name (John 20:31). The gift of salvation is the gift of the life of Jesus. He has come to represent us, granting to us all that he possesses (Phil 3:10 Rom. 6:5, 6). Believers are also mystically united to Christ, like spouses who are no longer two but one. We are like branches that draw real life from our vital connection to Christ the vine (John 15:1-8). Jesus’ experiences are shared by believers. Baptism symbolizes our partnership in Jesus’ death and resurrection (Rom. 6:4). If we suffer with him, we will also be glorified with him (Rom. 8:17). And while Jesus is physically absent from us he is spiritually present. The faithful God gives his children the Spirit of Christ making us share his thoughts and desires and confirming that we are his children.
Union with Christ does not mean that believers are “partakers of the substance of his Godhead” or are “equal with Christ in any respect.” But by his promises we truly “become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4) in the sense that we share his “divine and blessed immorality and glory” and become “one with God as far as our capacities may allow.”[i]
Read More
Related Posts: