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Pastor's Blog August 12, 2021
"View of God in Romans XXIII"
{Scroll over scripture reference to read the scripture or reference.
The idea that the church is the body of Christ is fairly well-known to those who follow Jesus. We talk about it all the time as a way to encourage unity and love among members in a congregation. But most of us miss what that idea demonstrates about God. Paul helps us see that being the body of Christ means God has put all of us together, connecting all of us to each other in Jesus Christ.
Romans 12:4-5 says, "For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another" (NASB). Appealing to the image of the body, Paul shows that it is self-evident to our daily experience of life and reality that the human body is comprised of several "members": feet and legs, hands and arms, ears and eyes, teeth and tongue, a mouth, a heart, a mind, etc. But do you notice what Paul states is a self-evident spiritual reality? "So we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another." Paul is entirely convinced that God has made us part of Jesus' body - that the church participates in Jesus and his life. But according to Paul, God has shown that we are not members of Jesus' body but rather members of each other.
God takes many different people who have no original connection to each other and he connects them to each other in Jesus, thus making Jesus their common connection and similarity. But instead of making these many different people pieces of Jesus' body, he makes them pieces of each other. Can you imagine that? God hasn't given us to Jesus, as much as he has given us to each other IN Jesus! You belong to Jesus - and because you belong to Jesus, you belong to each other.
Friends, it can sometimes be a struggle to maintain health relationships with fellow church members. During those difficult times, remember that God has shown himself to be the miracle God: in Jesus, he puts people back together; then, he endeavors to form a new group of people that is defined by their relations to each other in Jesus. What a strange-yet-marvelous God who shows himself to us!
God bless,
Pastor Nathaniel Gamble
