Jesus Cropped from the Picture

The Kingdom of God

Christians are Rescued because there is a task to be performed . The Church participates in God’s mission to actualize his Kingdom on earth. God sanctifies believers, conforming them to the image of his Son, making them increasingly effective in the task of destroying the devil’s work (Rom. 8.28-29). But the Church needs weapons to do God’s work. The Holy Spirit gifts believers to make the Church more potent against the kingdom of this world. “The Spirit has come to empower us to continue the invasion of the kingdom.” 26 All elements of church life are rooted in the continual effort to reverse the devil’s work to steal, kill, and destroy (Jn. 10.10). Theology, worship, discipleship, and outreach should be integrated into the Church’s overall purpose to be the agent of Christ’s victorious Kingdom. In this light, social action and personal evangelism are important Kingdom activities. The gospel should be both demonstrated and declared. From this perspective, suffering can also be understood differently. Like Paul, believers can know the “joy of the fellowship of his suffering” (Phil. 3.10), by being baptized into his death, joining in the vigorous conflict Jesus began. This view leaves no time for laziness or easy-believism, because there is cosmic work to be done every day. Because Jesus released his people from a religious standard (Gal. 5.1), there is freedom in Christ to forgive others, exercise spiritual gifts, pursue relationships, and plot innovative ways to do good in the world, without overworking or burning out.

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