16 Jan 2021

After His resurrection and ascension, Jesus, together with the Father, sends the Holy Spirit as ‘another Advocate’; the Lord Jesus Himself comes in the Spirit (John 14:16,18). The Spirit of Christ the Son is the Spirit of sonship who reveals the Father, enabling us to cry ‘Abba’, the very word that was on the lips of Jesus (Rom. 8:14-15). In the Spirit the Father and the Son take possession of the church. Through the Spirit the church is united to Christ in the fellowship of His sufferings, and of His glory. The presence of the Spirit is therefore both promise and realisation (2 Cor.1:22; Eph.1:14). The Spirit comes to realise God’s promises. He makes the church the people of God as the prophets predicted, giving them new hearts in the New Covenant (Ezek. 36:25-28). He joins them to Jesus Christ; the church is therefore the people of God and the assembly of Christ because it is the fellowship of the Spirit.

Further, the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit joins the church together into one. There is but one holy temple of the Lord, one body of Christ where the Spirit dwells. The church as the body of Christ is to live as a unified community in sacrificial love and fellowship. Our being united in the body of Christ is the work of the Spirit, creating a new humanity. This new humanity functions as the body of Christ on earth under Christ’s headship through the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit who gifts, guides and graces the church ( Rom. 12:4-5). The nature of the church entails an interdependence among all the members. This interdependence is a function of the diversity of spiritual gifts that have been given by the Spirit for ministry by members. The church as the body of Christ is to live as a new community in dynamic, gift-shaped interdependence (Eph. 4:8-12).

The church, while earthly and human, is also spiritual and plays an important role in God’s cosmic plan, The church is a full participant in the power encounter between God’s reign and the forces of evil. God’s redemptive reign confronts the forces of evil; they were defeated in the work of Christ on the cross and the church continues this redemptive work of God by unmasking the powers that already have been defeated. It does this by exposing the powerlessness of the fallen powers in the face of God’s power. The church, because of its universal nature, makes an open declaration to the fallen powers that God reigns and has ultimate authority in heaven and on earth. The church’s universal nature anticipates the end of time when Christ will deliver the kingdom to the Father, and every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (1Cor. 15:24-25; Phil. 2:9-11). In the meantime,the church must never allow the powers of this world to seduce it into comfortable living or into building earthly kingdoms. The battle is cosmic in scope and conflictive in character.

To be “in Christ” is to be within the redemptive reign of God that is both already and not yet. The church is the creation of the Spirit. God’s divine power and presence indwell the people of God.This makes the church a spiritual community as well as a human community. It is both holy and human, both spiritual and social. The redemptive reign of God, present through the indwelling of the Spirit, makes the church holy by nature. Just as God justifies the individual believers and gives them a new nature, so also God creates the church through the Spirit and gives it a holy nature. It is a nature that is to display the reality of sanctification, a sanctification that is framed first and foremost in corporate terms. God expects the church to be holy because God is holy (1 Peter 1:16). The Bible presents this holiness as both a position we have received and as a process we continually engage in.

The church is both holy and human. In its humanness, the church is to demonstrate the full possibilities of redeemed living in its visible, earthly, historical existence. The church must live out its dual nature as both holy and human by structuring itself as a faithful covenantal community. Living in a covenantal relationship with God and one another requires more than a personal choice to be a committed member. It requires the transforming power of God working through the agency of the Spirit. The holiness of the church is a work of the Spirit. It is the Spirit’s power that indwells the community and its members. It is the Spirit who draws, leads, guides, teaches, counsels, and provokes the church into living by a redeemed set of values.

The church is a relational community because God is a relational God. Because believers have been reconciled with God, they must also be reconciled with one another. God is a sending or missionary God. God sent His Son into the world to accomplish redemption. The Father and Son sent the Spirit to create the people of God as a missionary people.

God first created the heavens and the earth through the full participation of the Son and the agency of the Spirit. It is this same creation, now fallen, that God seeks to redeem. The entire Godhead – Father, Son and Spirit – are dynamically involved in the mission of God within creation, re-creation and the final consummation.
The Father’s work is expressed most fully in terms of the plan and design of creation, re-creation, and consummation. The decision to create, the plan to restore creation to its rightful relationship, and the revealing in the end of the new heavens and new earth are all related to the glory of God within the purposes of the Father.
The Son’s work is expressed most fully in terms of accomplishing the purposes and plans of the Father. The act of creating, the inauguration of the kingdom reign of God, the accomplishment of redemption on the cross, being raised from the dead, and offering up to the Father the fullness of the kingdom in the end are all related to the work of the Son.

The Spirit’s work is expressed most fully as the agency for implementing the plan of the Father and the work of the Son. The formation of the initial creation, the forming of the church in relationship to God and empowering it for service in the world, and the indwelling of God’s presence throughout the new heavens and earth are all related to the agency of the Spirit.

The Son is sent by the Father. The Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son. The Son sends the church into His mission (Matthew 28:18-20; John 20:21). The church lives between the times. For the church, heaven has already begun. The full redemptive power of God through the Spirit has entered time-space history. Jesus’ inauguration of God’s reign was the beginning of the end.The future is an accomplished fact, even though it is still unfolding in human history. In a sinful world, the presence of the church demonstrates that heaven has already begun in terms of the presence and power of the Spirit in our midst.