MY PERSPECTIVE, Gary Damron
The New Testament uses metaphors to describe a gathering of believers, including a family, a body, a vine and branches, and a spiritual house built of living stones. It's no longer possible to see Jesus, but those who are His followers are visible while working together, and Christ can be seen in each. We may have family members who drive us crazy, but in our family we are to develop working relationships. The key is acknowledging Jesus Christ as the head, as Paul mentions in Colossians 1:8.
When seekers come looking for Jesus, they should find people who reflect Jesus. We keep our individuality, yet more and more we come to resemble our Lord. So there are two parts to becoming a part of the Body, or Church, of Jesus: 1) we should look like Jesus; and 2) we can only do that as we yield to the Holy Spirit. Paul also wrote, "For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.... Now you are Christ’s body..." (1 Corinthians 12:12-13, 27).
The amazing thing about being a Jesus follower is, "There is one body and one Spirit..." (Ephesians 4:4). Back in Genesis, the Spirit hovered over creation; the Spirit dwelt on Moses and the prophets; in the New Testament, the same Spirit fell on Jesus at His baptism; and now is available to us. The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, in His fulness, happened in Jerusalem. He is the breath and life of God, poured out on everyone who calls on the Lord. Peter quoted Joel 2:28 to explain the Spirit who came to "all mankind" and he declared, "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved". That day was the beginning of the Church, the spiritual community of believers that is to be “the body of Christ.”
Jesus spoke of Himself as the vine, through which life flows, and we are the branches. Peter described the collective group of believers as, "...living stones, ... being built up as a spiritual house" (1 Peter 2:5). God is gathering a people, a family, a body, into a spiritual house through which His presence on earth is seen, felt, and experienced.
Within a family, there is sometimes a person who thinks of "my needs, my desires, my responsibilities". Yet in building a family or in following Jesus, we learn that together we can do greater works. Becoming a follower of Christ is not just about saving ourselves or even becoming better individuals; it makes us part of a greater unity. God is creating something new in all of us together. We are God's presence on earth.
As a teenager, I remember coming home after a church service and telling my folks, "I want what those people have." And when I accepted Christ as my Savior, I became, not just a saved individual, but a living part of Jesus, joined in unity of the Spirit with all His followers. Jesus' ministry on earth was confined mostly to the small area of Galilee, but in the 2,000 years since He arose, the Church with the Holy Spirit within has spread around the world. Jesus said, "'Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to the Father'" (John 14:12).
How could Jesus say we will do "greater works" than when He was on earth? We can argue we're only human and Jesus is God incarnate! As an individual, I'm unworthy to untie the ties of His sandal. But together - with all of you - with His own Spirit making us more like Him - as the Body of Christ - we as a spiritual house can do greater things.
Lyrics to a song by Dennis Jernigan are, "You are my strength when I am weak; You are the treasure that I seek. You are my all in all." Colossians 3:9 says that we have "...put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him - a renewal in which there is no distinction, but Christ is all, and in all." By myself, I can do nothing, but as part of His body, Jesus fulfills the ministry of love, justice, and reconciliation.
When we choose to follow Jesus, we are baptized (saturated) with the Holy Spirit into His life. None of us carries the weight of the world alone. Each unique and important member of Christ's Body has a role to play, gifts to bring, work to accomplish as part of this greater family, inspired and empowered by the Spirit of God. Each faithful and courageous member brings vitality to the work Jesus is continuing to do.
We are the body of Christ, and a part of His family. Christ is the vine, and we are His branches. Not just scattered individuals, but a spiritual house made of living stones, joined and moved by the Spirit of God. So, let's offer our gifts, our voices, our lives, to do the work we were born to do.
