The Great Commission and the Life of the Body (Part One)

The Great Commission and the Life of the Body (Part One)

By Jay Wegter

Christ owns the church which He purchased with His own blood; we must heed what Christ says about His master plan for His church.

The true Church is the Body of Christ. He built it; He owns it; He gives it its life; He rules it by His infallible Word; and He directs and empowers it by His Spirit. The unbiblical ‘attraction model’ makes Christ’s Master Plan of making disciples to be optional, as if the supreme problem facing the church is how to devise a service so attractive the people cannot stay away. The attraction model forgoes the power of Spirit-engendered deep community in favor of marketing. But, that results in seats filled with folks who consume what is offered instead of living as Christ-learners. As consequence, they are not there because Jesus is there (through deep community). Thus, today’s church growth methods seldom rise above ‘cloning through technique’. How are you ‘doing church’ is a critical question? For, what you do, and how you do it, IS your functional ecclesiology (Charles Jefferson, The Minister as Shepherd, p. 77).

Is it possible for an Evangelical church to have an heretical ecclesiology? John Stott states, “Our static and flexible self-centered structures are heretical structures because they embody a heretical doctrine of the church. Our structure has become an end in itself, not a means of saving the world; it is an heretical structure.” Stott is saying that church structure has been unhinged from the mission of the church as declared by Christ. “God’s purpose is centered in creating a new humanity in Christ—that is why Christ is building His church. Where God’s Word is not heard, chaos and darkness close in” (2 Cor 4:3-4). The rejection of God’s rule begins with the rejection of God’s Word—the Lie believed and acted upon in Eden was the inception of this darkness. When God called Abraham, His plan was to restore divine rule and create a new humanity. Paul calls it ‘the gospel announced in advance’ (Gal 3:6-9). God is reestablishing His rule through His Word. The lie of the serpent portrayed God’s rule as harsh and tyrannical. The reality that God’s rule is life, love, blessing, peace, justice, and freedom is the fruit of the gospel. In body life there is a constant mutual reminder by means of the gospel of God’s perfect, all-wise loving rule as our very life—life in Christ (Col 3:1-4) (Chester, Timmis, Total Church p. 25).

God has made us persons in community. The community of the Body is the vehicle through which He reveals His glory. But rebellious humanity has grasped for autonomy from God. Fallen man under the curse of God lives with fractured human community (interrupted and corrupted by self-ism and pride). As His image-bearers we fall short of His glory. But God’s plan is to create a new humanity (of ‘new men’)with His promise (Col 3:9-10). Community by the gospel heals the relational separations caused by sin (Chester, Timmis, p. 47). Paul Zahl states that the church in principle is in its ideal expression the coming together of two realities: the cross of Christ and Christian freedom. These two ideas jointly create families of love over and over again through time. Thus, to overestimate church as a value in itself is to objectify the non-objectifiable, and thus, seek to possess that which can never be possessed. Church in its ideality touches down in history, like a Texas tornado, with the appearance of caprice, making contact with time and space, yet withdrawing almost as quickly as it came (Paul Zahl, A Short Systematic Theology, p. 88). He is reminding us that the church is created, sustained, fed, and defined by the gospel. Christ is its living Head, Source Person, and Lord. When the church in any way is detached from its source and its life in Christ, as exhibited in the gospel, she begins dying an institutional death (Paul Zahl, A Short Systematic Theology, p. 88). The Church is not something optional; it’s at the heart of God’s purpose. Jesus came to create a people who would model what it means to live under His rule. The church is a glorious outpost of the kingdom of God, an embassy of Heaven (Jn 17:20-23) (Chester, Timmis, p. 50).

The gospel defines the doctrine of the church and the relationships within the body of Christ.

The gospel believed and obeyed prepares a person for deep community. We’re not saved by principles and strategies, but by a Person. Many today speak about doctrine, but are reluctant to speak about the Savior in intimate terms. The gospel Word and the gospel community are essential to the life and vitality of a believer. My heart needs to hear that Word often: it is among the community of God’s people that the Word would be brought to bear on my life frequently and perceptively (that’s body life). It is through the Word among His people that the Holy Spirit works to break the sinners’ heart, and renew it so that I love God truly, madly, and deeply. The gospel breaks my heart over sin, purifies my heart, makes it fit to receive grace and love, and thus makes me capable of being a new creature, who is part of a new humanity dwelling together in a supernatural community (1 Pet 1:22-25) (Chester, Timmis, pp. 206-207).

Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. What does this mean? It means, first, that a Christian needs others because of Jesus Christ. It means, second, that a Christian comes to others only through Jesus Christ. It means, third, that in Jesus Christ we have been chosen from eternity, accepted in time, and united for eternity. First, the Christian is the man or woman who no longer seeks his salvation, his deliverance, his justification in himself, but in Jesus Christ alone. He knows that God’s Word in Jesus Christ pronounces him guilty, even when he does not feel his guilt, and God’s Word in Jesus Christ pronounces him not guilty and righteous, even when he does not feel that he is righteous at all. The Christian no longer lives of himself, by his own claims and his own justification, but by God’s claims and God’s justification. The Reformers expressed it this way: Our righteousness is an “alien righteousness,” a righteousness that comes from outside of us. They were saying that the Christian is dependent on the Word of God spoken to him. He is pointed outward, to the Word of grace in Christ that comes to him.

But God has put his Word into the mouth of men in order that it may be communicated to other men. When one person is struck by the Word, he speaks it to others. God has willed that we should seek and find His living Word in the witness of a brother, in the mouth of a man. Therefore, the Christian needs another Christian who speaks God’s Word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without belying the truth. He needs his brother man as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation. He needs his brother solely because of Jesus Christ. The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain, his brother’s is sure. (Bonhoeffer, regarding our need to see the faith of others, is indicating that real edification takes place when we see the gospel believed by our brethren—see Romans 1:11-12.).

And that also clarifies the goal of all Christian community: they meet one another as bringers of the message of salvation. As such, God permits them to meet together and gives them community. Their fellowship is founded solely upon Jesus Christ and this “alien righteousness…” Second, a Christian comes to others only through Jesus Christ. Among men there is strife. “He is our peace,” says Paul of Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:14). Without Christ there is discord between God and man and between man and man. Christ became the Mediator and made peace with God and among men. Without Christ we should not know God, we could not call upon Him, nor come to Him. But, without Christ we also would not know our brother, nor could we come to him. The way is blocked by our own ego. Christ opened up the way to God and to our brother—‘mediating’ our relationships (justification by faith means that Christ, not self, carries our status before God; that is foundational to true community).

Third, when God’s Son took on flesh, he truly and bodily took on, out of pure grace, our being, our nature, ourselves. This was the eternal counsel of the triune God. Now we are in Him. Where He is, there we are too, in the incarnation, on the Cross, and in his resurrection. We belong to Him because we are in Him (Col 2:9-15). That is why the Scriptures call us the Body of Christ. But if, before we could know and wish it, we have been chosen and accepted with the whole Church in Jesus Christ, then we also belong to Him in eternity with one another. We who live here in fellowship with Him will one day be with Him in eternal fellowship. He who looks upon his brother should know that he will be eternally united with him in Jesus Christ. Christian community beams community through and in Jesus Christ.

One is brother to another person only through Jesus Christ. I am a brother to another person through what Jesus Christ did for me and to me; the other person has become a brother to me through what Jesus Christ did for him. This fact that we are brethren only through Jesus Christ is of immeasurable significance. Not only the other person who is earnest and devout, who comes to me seeking brotherhood, must I deal in fellowship. My brother is rather that other person who has been redeemed by Christ, delivered from his sin, and called to faith and eternal life. Not what a man is in himself as a Christian, his spirituality and piety, constitutes the basis of our community, no, what determines our brotherhood is what that man is by reason of Christ and union with Him. Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ has done to both of us (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together).

The priesthood of every believer is essential to disciple-making and essential to the true community inherent in the body of Christ.

The priesthood of believers (inherent in our identity in the gospel) is incredibly important to disciple-making. It affirms the work of the Spirit in the lives of all believers, it affirms the ministry potential of all believers, it affirms the responsibility of all believers and it empowers all believers to function as needed for the ministry of the church. By contrast, what do we see today? We see a strengthening of the priesthood of the pastoral staff only. Somehow all the ministry of the church has been focused in one position even though the Bible is clear that there are multiple leadership roles (Courageous Disciple-making, Watson and Watson, p. 51).

An exclusive pastoral leadership role is detrimental to the mandate to reach the nations for Christ. By strengthening the authority of pastoral leadership, the church has weakened the responsibility of all believers to function as priests. A professional leadership has resulted in a reduction of those who feel qualified to minister. The net result is a weaker church lacking the infrastructure to multiply, expand of grow. The Bible is clear; leaders are servants to equip the saints for the work of ministry (Eph 4:12). The more the role of the pastor is highlighted, the less relevant the church will be in reaching the world for Christ. It’s time to stop warehousing believers by widening the clergy laity divide. Pastors should be equipping people for every ministry in life and pushing them out into the lost world to make a difference, rather than locking them behind doors with church forms designed to weaken the believer (Watson and Watson, pp. 52-53). Our Lord’s pattern and Paul’s pattern for the church is an ‘every member ministry’. All believers are priests (Heb 13:15; 1 Pet 2:9; Rev 1:6)—thus the biblical model for the work of ministry is the team approach. Full congregational participation is the biblical model of ministry. But, if men and women are to be functionaries in their local church, someone is going to have to equip them for such service. That is the biblical role of shepherds (pastors/teachers/gifted men/ spiritually mature disciplers). We must be honest and courageous concerning our departure from the biblical model of ministry (Bruce Stabbert, The Team Concept, Preface).

The church is a spiritually gifted body. The church of Jesus Christ is a supernatural, Spirit-indwelt, Spirit-empowered, living community of Christ-like servants who minister Christ’s love and care for one another (1 Cor 12:7; 1 Pet 4:10). The same Spirit who grants life in Christ in common and links us together, also empowers and enables every believer. Ministry is the sacred privilege and duty of every member in the body. All the members are to perform a vital function; caring, building up, ministering to one another. With each member functioning as God intended, the body/community of believers will grow, and an amazing interplay of gifts and services will result. Christ’s pattern is a ministerial body—this is the Master’s Master plan. How can we in good conscience say our plan is superior to His? By contrast, a professional ministry can be harmful to the sanctification of the members. Shared, brotherly leadership by ordinary men who are empowered by the Spirit is the structure established by the Apostles (Acts 20:28). The ‘nature’ of the church is seen in its NT metaphors: a temple, family, body, flock, and bride—in each case, Christ is Lord and Source; He is the Head, the Husband, the Cornerstone, and the Shepherd. The church as a family/community captures the fact that only the most intimate human relationships could express the love, closeness, privileges, and new relationships that exist between Christ and the members of His body (Strauch, Biblical Eldership, pp. 15-17).