new church life: march/april 2015
Because God accepts all of our
differences and forges unity with them,
we should perhaps hold lightly all the
differences within the Church – using
them to unite rather than divide us.
There are obvious implications for
current issues within the Church.
The crown of all churches is the
Lord’s crown, not ours. Churches come
to an end, he said, because charity fails.
Is there a lack of charity in accepting
different ideas within the Church
now? Where charity fails, we may
cause a broken crown. The “crown of
churches” can only come as we uphold
charity, and this is something we must constantly revisit.
(For a full treatment of this subject, see the article, The Crown of All
Churches: What Does That Mean?, in the November-December 2012 issue of
New Church Life.)
Day Two was devoted to how we need to be cooperating with the Lord in
achieving unity through “the New Covenant.”
Thane cited Arcana Coelestia 1812, in which the Lord, in His temptations
on earth, “did not fight to become the greatest in heaven,” but “fought solely so
that others might become something and might be saved.”
At the Passover before His crucifixion Jesus said: “This cup is the new
covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.” (Luke 22:20)
This “blood of the new covenant” is a “ransom” or redemption – a buying
back. This concept has been the basis for the atonement theology of some
branches of Christianity – buying us back from God’s wrath – but nowhere do
the Scriptures say this. Jesus actually redeems us to God, not from God. The
“ransom” is buying us back from hell.
God’s original covenant was the redemption from slavery in Exodus,
and was actually ultimately accomplished with the giving of the Ten
Commandments. (Compare Exodus 34:28) The new covenant – “to be written
on our hearts,” (Jeremiah 31:33) – lies in the new commandment to love God
and to love one another – indeed, to love one another as He loves us. (Mark
12:30-31; John 13:34)
The point of all this, Thane said, is not to make Christianity a club, with
some people in and some out. God is reaching out to everyone, “with fervent
desire,” loving our variety and seeing unity within it, especially as we worship
Him and do what He loves.
The lesson is that it
is okay to have our
differences, but that
we should hold them
lightly, with humility,
and let God build
something good out
of those differences.
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