One Beauty One Glory
Introduction
When “what is first in intention is last in execution.” (Aquinas) is applied to the Bible, contemporary Christianity has a foundational problem. Most pastors and their congregations are indoctrinated with a desire to grow the Church rather than to “make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:19). Many parts of Africa, for instance, are “Christian”, but in name only. Despite church prioritising practices, God’s kingdom creates the Church, rather than the other way around. Jesus told parables of the kingdom and never taught us to pray, “your church come”. As such, the local church is not “the hope of the world” (Bill Hybels). This explains why the multiplication of megachurches has failed to stem the growth of unbelief and depravity across our nations. Jesus is the sole founder and builder of a Church (Matt 16:18 cf.1 Cor 3:6) whose ultimate destiny is to become the city which fills the cosmos. The holy angel shared with the holy prophet this vision of the End, “ “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.” (Rev 21:9-12). The mystery revealed (Rev 10:7) is that the end-time future of the Church is the to be life a holy City. This has enormous implications for how we are to do church today.
Lost Glory
In the likeness of Christ (Rom 5:14), Adam was created to rule over the world as its king (Gen 1:26-28), guard it as its priest (The key words in Gen 2:15, “work and keep” are later applied to the guarding of the tabernacle (Num 3:7-8; 8:26; 18:5-6).) and convey God’s Word as its prophet (to Eve and their descendants (Gen 2:17). As the son and image of God (Luke 3:38) he was to steward the extension of God’s glory as Creator-Father over all things (Ps 8). This is the human vocation indelibly stamped on our souls. The Fall in Eden did not diminish our power to “multiply and rule” but disfigured it. Technology, for example, originates in the cursed line of Cain (Gen 4:11-22). In God’s sovereign plan (Eph 1:11), we live in the first age (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropocene) when many believe that we could annihilate all life on earth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_Rebellion ). Severe “climate anxiety” is the fruit of unbridled human arrogance (Isa 14:13ff.), and the younger a person the more “normal” such severe and seemingly irreversible distress (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02582-8)! This creates an immense opportunity for the spread of the gospel of the kingdom, but the organised religion we have inherited cripples our ability to respond to what the Lamb is doing today (Rev 6).
Resemblance
Since the final destiny of the Body of Christ is to be a heavenly city who is already “our mother” (Gal 4:26; Ps 87; Heb 12:22), churches are named by the cities in which they live (Rome, Corinth etc.). Since however compromise with the world means we take on its local character, the global Church is commanded to “come out” (1 Pet 2:11) of the global city of this world, Babylon (Isa 48:20; 2 Cor 6:17; Rev 18:4). The delusion the institutional megachurch is clearly illustrated by an Australian example, “The Church that I see is a Church of influence. A Church so large in size that the city and nation cannot ignore it. A Church growing so quickly that buildings struggle to contain the increase”. Brian Houston’s words have come true, but not as he ever intended. The plan of God to free us from allowing the world to “squeeze us into its own mould” (Rom 12:2. Phillips translation) calls for a reformation more radical than any preceding our time
The Sin of Neglect
“God has so composed the body, giving greater honour to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.” (1 Cor 12:24-25). We spiritualise these words, because we have inherited a non-biblical culture that places the world in the secular sphere and the church in a spiritual realm. My readers expect me to confront corruption in the Church, but very few anticipate the elevation of the marketplace, understanding this to include business, arts, medicine, media, trades, politics, law etc. I once rebuked a pastor-friend for saying such and such “feels called to go into ministry”, meaning exclusively a call to training as a full-time pastor. Was Jesus less a Son when at the carpenter’s bench (Mark 6:3) or Paul less anointed when tent making (Acts 18:1-4)? Do you know that the violet tassels to be worn by all Israelites were a sign that they were all called as ruling priests of God in the cosmos (Num 15:38; Ex 19:6-7; Num 4:6-7)? The called “clergy” (chosen ones) have robbed the “laity” (Greek laos means people) of their equality with themselves. No denomination nor form of spirituality seems free from this scandal debasing most of God’s Church!
Seeing the Unity of the Glory
In the presence of the glory of Jesus (see John 12:41) the seraphim cry, ““Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isa 6:3). This prophetically points to a vision of the restoration of “all things” through the blood of the cross (Matt 19:28; Acts 3:21; Col 1:20). All the followers of the Lamb (Rev 14:4) can see into this final vision NOW. The glorious unity (John 17:22) into which we have been immersed by the gift of the Spirit (John 7:37-39) opens a seeing that all the “mountains” of culture are, in their Lord (Acts 10:36), essentially one. Growing in our communion with God in Christ (2 Pet 1:4) we see more and more into these heavenly truths (Col 3:1-3). Such seeing into the beautiful array of majestic glory (Ex 28:2, 40) requires an unparalleled humble wisdom, one fiercely hated and resisted by “the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” (Eph 3:10). The vision of the one creation in Christ as the foundational secret of the universe depends not on natural education nor intellect, but on the unifying wisdom the blood of the cross imparts to the heart and life of even the simplest believer. The unity of work/marketplace/Church comes through an ever-deeper share in the glorified humility of Christ (2 Cor 10:1).
Conclusion: Beauty will Save the World (Dostoyevsky)
That underlying the “very goodness” of the first creation (Gen 1:31) was the glory of the Lamb “slain from before the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8), was a reality hidden both from Adam and the men of the Old Testament. In Christ we are given to see his beauty brings to completion the work of all prophets, priests and kings before him. For in Jesus, “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14), God is united to humanity as man as the peak of the Father’s highest vision. The new creation (2 Cor 5:17) is one and indivisible and in it we all share through our union “in Christ” as priest-kings in the spheres of work and culture (Rev 1:6; 5:10; 20:6). Whatever your vocation, you will bring into the radiant city of God “the glory and honour of the nations” (Rev 21:24, 26). You will bring in a measure of the glory of Jesus imparted through prayer and costly obedience in the marketplace, or church. Not easy to understand, but wonderful beyond description. “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of hthe glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Hab 2:14)