Author: Jefferson Vann

The apostle Paul taught that believers are “the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing,  to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.”[1]  We leave the scent of Christ wherever we go, and with whomever we come into contact.  Those who have never met Christ, can do so by meeting us.  Those who find a friend in Christ, find a friend in us.  Those who reject Christ, will probably despise or chose to ignore us.

Believers have a symbiotic link to the person of Christ. Every metaphor which describes his person and role has a corresponding implication for the identity and role of his disciples. The best way to get a grasp on the biblical view of the Church is to know clearly who Christ is and what he did, and then extrapolate our place and work based on his.

He is the Savior, we are the saved.

          The New Testament proclaims that Jesus is a Savior,[2] Israel’s Savior,[3]  the church’s Savior,[4] and the world’s Savior.[5]  Believers are delivered from the penalty of their sins as a result of what Christ did for us on the cross, so it is appropriate for us to identify ourselves as the people who were saved.[6]  We are also in the process of being delivered from the present power and consequences of our past sinful life, so it is appropriate to refer to ourselves as being saved.[7]  We also expect and anticipate a culmination of Christ’s saving work in our lives – a glorification at his return.  This means that it is also still appropriate to say that we will be saved.[8]  Jesus has saved us, is saving us, and will save us. 

          This relationship the church has with Jesus as her Savior helps answer one of the sticky questions that have emerged about us: “Can a believer sin all he wants to, and still be saved?” If salvation is seen as some kind of spiritual/mechanical event in a person’s life, we would expect the answer to that question to be ‘no.’  We would expect that once a person had been zapped by the salvation wand, he would no longer be under the influence of the flesh, but would be totally under the Spirit’s power.  He would find himself no longer wanting to sin, and no longer capable of sinning if he had the desire to do so.

          The reality is that Christians struggle with sins, sinning, and the desire to commit sins all their lives.  This is not to deny that a miracle takes place inside us when we come to Jesus.  It merely concedes that the initial miracle of regeneration is just the beginning of a process that will not be complete until our Savior returns.  Our salvation is secure – not because it has made us sinless, but because our Savior is. 

          The connection between the church and its Savior is seen clearly in Paul’s use of “a number of Greek prepositions to stress the close identification between Christ and his followers that bonds them together in union as a distinct community.”[9]  The saved have been immersed into the person of Christ, and are now growing up into him.[10]  Their lives are no longer destined to be what they were, because their spiritual DNA has changed to reflect his. Their destiny is now the destiny of their Savior. The saved are said to be “in Christ.”[11]  Their identities are somehow fused with his.  They have experienced all of the crucial events of Christ’s life, along with him, having been crucified, buried, and spiritually raised with him.[12] 

          These realities certainly affect how believers act, but they also affect how others act around and react to them.  The saved are expected to influence the world as the Savior did.  He is the light of the word, and now, so are his disciples.[13] The saved are not saviors themselves, but they are infected with and carriers of the salvation virus.  Anyone coming in contact with believers in the church is exposed to potential salvation.

He is the King, we are his subjects.

          The Bible describes both the present reality of salvation and the destiny of ultimate salvation using the metaphor of a king and his kingdom.[14]  One of the most important implications of this metaphor is that of authority and submission.  A king is only as powerful as his subjects let him be.  If a king has to deal with constant rebellion and ignorance of his commands, he cannot reign effectively.  Jesus’ teachings in the Gospels relating to the kingdom of God constantly encouraged his followers to stay true to him, to commit themselves to obeying his words.  Jesus’ sharpest criticisms were to those who only pretended to follow God’s word, but were secretly only interested in building their own kingdoms.

          The king/kingdom metaphor also reminds the church who the boss is.  A king is sovereign over his domain.  He is king regardless of whether his domain has accepted that fact or not. The subjects of the king do not make the rules, and they do not have veto power when the king commands them to do something.  His commands are their business. 

          King Solomon reigned for decades and was constantly building in Jerusalem and in other cities as well.  It was impossible to be a subject of Solomon’s reign and not be involved in some way in Solomon’s work.  The majestic temple and the royal palace could be seen from anywhere in the city, and were  constant reminders of what it meant to be in the kingdom of Solomon.  In the same way, it is impossible to be in Jesus’ kingdom without being constantly reminded of the Gospel and the church’s role in spreading it.  Jesus is building a kingdom.  We will either be involved in his work, or not.  The extent to which we are involved in his work determines our identity as his subjects.  Obedience is the more important way to profess that we are part of Christ’s kingdom.

He is the head, we are his body.

          Many of the implications of the metaphor of Christ as the head, and the church as his body will be examined more closely in another chapter.  What is important to see at this point is the symbiotic relationship which is communicated by this and the previous metaphors as well.  The Savior came to save.  The saved exist for the Savior.  The kingdom needs a king. We have not only been delivered from the penalty of our past sins, but also into the kingdom of our Savior. The head and body exist as a unit.  Our many bodies are now being assimilated into his one body. 

          Before coming to Christ, we were fairly comfortable with our own bodies, and found ways of utilizing them to meet our needs, bring us pleasure, and accommodate our interests.  Now, things are different.  Now the many have to become one.  Now the many wills have to become subservient to the one will. 

He is the Bridegroom, we are the espoused bride.

          The Bible uses the bridegroom/bride metaphor in a number of places.[15]  It speaks of preparation for and anticipation of the event of the wedding, and for the joy that both parties have in each other.  The church is seen in the book of Revelation crying out “come, Lord Jesus.”[16]  This is partly a cry for relief from all the suffering and battle she has endured.  But it is also the cry of a fiancé who has endured too long without her beloved.  To say that the church is a bride is to admit that longing in our hearts to see our Savior again – for the first time.

          Once accepting the proposal, the bride begins preparing herself for the day when she will no longer be single.  She has to orient her life around the anticipated new reality.  She begins to scribble her new name on table napkins.  Although she has had a lifetime of seeing the world from her perspective, she now has to ask what her future husband thinks.  Though she has limited her associations according to her own standards for friendships and companionships, she now has to adjust to her future husband’s associates and friends. 

          The church of Jesus Christ exists in this life as a preparation for the next.  Our life now matters precisely because eternity matters.  Jesus is returning to this earth to claim us for his own.  That makes it very important for us to use this time before his return wisely.  We find that every place we look there are preparations to be made.  As we get older, those preparations become more significant – more urgent.  We begin to realize how little we have accomplished, and how little time we have left.

          To be an Advent Christian is to embrace the preparation process because of the joy anticipated when our Savior comes for us.  We cannot help but evaluate all the possibilities that are around us on the basis of the reality that awaits us.  We will puzzle the watching world as we turn down this promotion (because it will take us away from our family), or accept this volunteer position (because it will help us spread the gospel to a group we could not reach otherwise).  We realize that the experiences we have, and the choices we make, are significant because we are being groomed for the Groom.

          Before we were saved, we tended to spend our lives looking out for number one.  Now, we do the same thing – except that number one is now our Savior.  He deserves to be first place because he rescued us from dead last place.  He has also given us a taste of the divine presence when he sent his Holy Spirit to reside within us.  That taste can make us hungry for more. 

Sanctification changes us. At first, we hope for Christ to come because we expect him to fix all of our problems.  As the maturation process continues, we begin to see that although his coming will solve our problems, it is not about us.  His coming will reboot the world to its original agenda – his agenda.  The more we stay stuck on ourselves, the less we enjoy the idea of being interrupted by his glory.  The more we concentrate on being like him, the more we anticipate our glorification at his return.  Most of our lives are spent in a kind of spiritual adolescence.  We are changing, but we do not always like it, and we do not always show it. 

As we all go through this process, the best thing we can do for each other is to encourage each other to give in to the transformation.  We need to be careful not to expect too much of our brothers and sisters in Christ.  Growth is a slow process, and it is not easy to adjust to the changes.  We know how often we fail ourselves, so it should make us that more forgiving to those around us.

The commands of the King are of utmost importance, and should not be trivialized.  It is not a coincidence that our Savior, while giving us his Great Commission –to MAKE DISCIPLES, used an explanatory participle – by teaching all that I have commanded you.  It is impossible to be a disciple without both learning and obeying Christ’s commands.  Our king expects us to be about his business, doing what he commanded. 

His commands are messy.  They will not allow us to stay comfortable in our social circles, our schools, our political parties, or our jobs.  They demand too much.  They cry out for justice for those whom we would rather neglect.  They cry out for work when we would rather rest.  They cry out for us to stay connected to this suffering world when we would rather zone out, and be entertained by fantasy.  It is just this messiness that reminds us that Christ’s kingdom is not yet fully realized.  We cannot seem to get it right.  That does not stop us from trying, but knowing that the King is not here yet does help console us when we blow it.

The body analogy can also be helpful.  Knowing that our Savior is separated from us physically, it is hard for us.  Remembering that he is the head of the whole body, the church, reminds us that there is still a connection.  We are his body, not his corpse.[17]  He is just as alive today as he was when his feet walked the shores of the Sea of Galilee.  In fact, his feet are still walking the shores of that sea, and the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.  His hands still heal, because he uses our hands.  His presence still does miracles, and he allows some of us to experience them.  Whatever he is doing, he wants to use us to do it.

The Saved, not the System

Jesus empowers people through the indwelling Holy Spirit to minister to the world in his name.  He has not ordained a particular system of government or ministry and the church.  Too often, believers – thinking that they are backing the “biblical” system, become defensive and divisive over issues relating to the various systems and the unity of the Holy Spirit becomes an illusory thing.  All systems are humanly contrived and humanly run.  Some may be more practical in some situations than others, but none have any kind of divine stamp of approval. 

The vast number of Advent Christian churches and conferences follow a congregational form of government.  Most are led by pastors in cooperation with a church board, or perhaps a board of elders.  This works for most of our churches because most of them were planted in countries with democratic governments, and our churches are more familiar with this kind of check-and-balance leadership.  Some of our mission fields adapted this structure wholesale, and in some it has worked well.  in others, not so much.  The structure of the organization is not the important thing.  It is the spirit of the people that matters.  Structures should reflect the people who are doing the ministry.  The people should not be slaves to the structures.  Most of our ecclesiastical structures are antiquated – including those that are called “congregational.” 

How we organize ourselves should be reevaluated every few years.  Making changes in our structure might free the people in our churches to be who they are called to be.  It might enable more of the saved to introduce their communities to the Savior.  Churches and conferences should not be afraid of making those changes. 

Of course, change simply for change’s sake might be just as counterproductive.  Some churches are constantly fighting battles having to do with their own self-identity.  The ministry of the gospel loses out, because the controversies distract.  Often that happens because both sides tend to think that there can only be one “biblical” solution.  But when it comes to structure, the bible describes many multi-level ministries going on, and thriving at the same time: apostles, prophets, elders, evangelists, teachers, etc.  Our systems tend to simplify those structures, but the Bible does not.  It just throws them out there and says “this is the way it was.” 

Old Testament history was like that too.  Most of the time, it was not clear who had jurisdiction over a matter: the king, the prophets, the priests, the elders …  It was usually clear when the Holy Spirit was acting, but it could not be easily mapped out according to the human political and social structures.  The people who usually got into the most trouble were those who assumed that they understood how God wanted to work, as well as what he wanted to do.  The Old Testament is filled with irony because the Holy Spirit refused to act according to human expectations.

It is this same – gloriously unpredictable Holy Spirit who resides within each believer in the church of Jesus Christ.  He ministers through anyone he chooses within the body, regardless of their status in the community or their experience in ministry.  He surprises us constantly, and intends to do so.  There is no hierarchy in his sight.  He looks on a saved soul and says “I choose to use her in this ministry” – without stopping to ask our permission, or to check her credentials.

Most of us who have been in ministry for decades are really frustrated by this.  We see people who are new in the Lord getting involved in ministry regularly, and it is unsettling to us.  We are afraid.  We find it hard to trust people who did not come up through the school of ecclesiastical hard knocks that we did.  We are tempted to assume that their zeal will not last, and sometimes it does not.  Yet, the reality is, the ministry of Jesus Christ is now being orchestrated by the omnipresent Holy Spirit.  He does not need our structures as much as we think he does.

The Aroma

Being the aroma of Christ is simply a matter of being authentically Christian.  Anyone who dares to have a personal relationship with Christ, follow his commands in scripture, and live what he believes is going to have that accompanying influence.  It does not mean that we always know the right thing to say, or do, to fix every problem.  It means we have decided to stop allowing the worldliness of our old self to block the scent of our new self.  We invest ourselves in that authenticity, and the investment is paying off.  People see the Savior when they look our way.

God loves you, but not just you. The Bible makes it clear in both Testaments that God’s plan for redeeming involves a people, not just individual persons. When theologians seek to explain this, doctrines of the church emerge. A biblical doctrine of the church has to answer at least three general questions:

1. what is the church? (the identity question),

2. what does the church do? (the mission question) and

3. how should churches be governed? (the leadership question).

The most important of these questions is the first, because biblical answers to the latter two questions only make sense in the light of a clear understanding of question one. The reason for this is that both mission and leadership emerge from a proper understanding of a person’s identity as a part of the whole, and the relationship that the whole (church) has to God.

When Jesus began to draw a community of believers to himself, he instructed them to pray to God by saying “our Father.”[1] He drew attention first to the relationship that these people had with God. The fact of that relationship was the most important thing for them to know. The same is true today. The most important thing anyone needs to know about the church is that it consists of people who have a relationship with God.

That relationship is described in images and with metaphors. Those metaphors are “the picture language of another century”[2] but still manage to speak the truth powerfully in our own. Even the term ‘father’ is a metaphor. While it is true that God is the creator of all humanity, we use the term ‘father’ to speak of a more specific relationship than the creator/creature one. God is the source of our existence, but he is more than that. He is the supplier of our every need, but he is more than that. He delights in our existence. We bring him joy by just existing, and greater joy when we reflect his nature by ours. Jesus taught that those who call God ‘father’ will act like it.

“let your light shine before others, so that they may

see your good works and give glory to your Father

who is in heaven.”[3]

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute

you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in

heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on

the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”[4]

“You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly

Father is perfect.”[5]

The term speaks of a dependence upon God as well. We do what we do because we expect to be rewarded by our Father who commanded it.

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before

other people in order to be seen by them, for then

you will have no reward from your Father who is

in heaven.”[6]

“when you give to the needy, do not let your

left hand know what your right hand is doing,

so that your giving may be in secret. And your

Father who sees in secret will reward you.”[7]

“when you pray, go into your room and shut

the door and pray to your Father who is in

secret. And your Father who sees in secret will

reward you.”[8]

“when you fast, anoint your head and wash

your face, that your fasting may not be seen

by others but by your Father who is in secret.

And your Father who sees in secret will

reward you.”[9]

The deeds themselves (and even the rewards) are not the point. Jesus condemned those who thought that good deeds themselves were what God wants. Jesus commanded that his church do acts of righteousness as a manifestation of the relationship we have with our Father. We give because he first gave. We love because he first loved us. God is the Chooser,[10] we are the chosen.

Family

The image of God choosing people to be his family begins in the Old Testament. He is the father of all in the sense of our creator, but “the usual biblical language speaks of him as Father in relation to his spiritual children.”[11] God called Abram, and renamed him Abraham: the father of many nations. This was true physically, as many nations trace their ancestry back to him – not just Israel. But it is also true because Abraham is regarded as the father of the faithful as well.

“in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through

faith. For as many of you as were baptized

into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither

Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free,

there is neither male nor female, for you are

all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s,

then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs

according to promise.”[12]

God’s sovereign and gracious choice of people from all ethnic, economic and social backgrounds, and both genders produces a whole new nation out of all nations. Being chosen suggests a special relationship which brings about a new identity with special status and responsibilities. It also implies a new destiny, an inheritance.

Being all in the same family, we now call ourselves brothers[13] and sisters.[14] God intends us to recognize and live according to that new distinction.

“Therefore go out from their midst, and be

separate from them, says the Lord, and touch

no unclean thing; then I will welcome you,

and I will be a father to you, and you shall

be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord

Almighty.”[15]

A church made up of children of God is expected to be different from the world from which it emerges.

“Do not love the world or the things in the

world. If anyone loves the world, the love of

the Father is not in him. For all that is in

the world – the desires of the flesh and the

desires of the eyes and pride in possessions

– is not from the Father but is from the

world.”[16]

We have been adopted,[17] and are therefore in the process of releasing the allegiances and habits of our old family, and learning those of our new family. This is not an easy process, and the Adversary wants us to cling to the old self/kingdom/family because that remains under his control.

New

Within the shell of the old creation there is now a new one. It gives us a new identity but also involves a struggle with the old one. All believers are encouraged to embrace the reality of their new selves. Paul taught “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”[18] Many aspects of our old life will remain, but they will be spiritually insignificant.[19] We can still be categorized by race, gender, social status, age, geographical background, etc., but those categories no longer need to limit our new identity in Christ, nor our relationships with other believers.

The people of God are fresh new wineskins into which the Master Vintner is pouring his new wine.[20] They are scribes trained for the kingdom of heaven, new treasures that the Master brings out of his house.[21] They are a new garment, capable of taking a patch without tearing.[22] They are participants in the new covenant.[23] They are recipients of the new commandment.[24] These images speak of the church as a fundamentally different way that God intends to do things in the new world,[25] and we begin following those new instructions now.

Old

But there is continuity with the people of God manifested in Old Testament times as well. It is best not to make such a clear distinction between the New Testament church and the Old Testament saints. Movements within Christendom sometimes insist that the Church was born at Pentecost, and did not exist before then. Yet this New Testament Church had the same Old Testament Scriptures for its Bible, the same God for its father, and the same Messiah for its Savior as the Old Testament saints did.

Paul described it this way: he described the people of God as a tree. The Old Testament saints are its root, those descendants of Abraham who rejected Jesus as the Messiah are natural branches that have been broken off of the tree, and the Gentiles who come to faith are wild branches grafted into the tree.[26] There are plenty of Gentiles in Old Testament times who, by faith, were grafted in to Israel.

There is both continuity and discontinuity in the analogy. The continuity is found in the faithful who have a relationship with God. The discontinuity is found in the “natural branches” which do not have a relationship with God, and therefore were broken off from the tree, and the fact that Jesus commanded his church to target all nations with the gospel.

Implications

1. There is only one Church. We may call ourselves by many names and trace our existence to various traditions, but all true believers are united in our relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

2. The Church consists of many individuals, all of which have the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives, and each of which has a ministry to perform as part of the body of Christ.

3. The temptation has always been for some individuals to “lead” by downplaying the gifts and ministries of others while promoting their own. This kind of leadership is disastrous, and does not reflect the reality that God wants to reach the world through all of us, has chosen all of us, and called all of us to ministry.

4. Change is to be expected. One of the most dangerous things that any church can do is try to decide what the original “biblical” church did, and force its membership to comply. Such attempts always produce division and stifling of the Holy Spirit. The Church at Pentecost was a product of both continuity with the old traditions, and radical changes brought on by the new wine, which required the development of new traditions.

5. The most important question any church movement should ask is not “Do we conform to the patterns of the past?” The most important question is “Are we accurately reflecting our relationship with God?” The people of God has undergone numerous changes since Old Testament times, yet has survived those changes because of its relationship with God. Therefore, believers should be less worried about conforming to some artificial standard, and more concerned with the reality of their individual relationships with the Lord.

6. Believers need to be more comfortable with the diversity that exists among themselves, and less inclined to correct each other’s faults. Paul taught the Romans “Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.”[27] That certainly applies to the issue of interdenominational cooperation. We should feel free to support and work with any true believer, and any organization of true believers, regardless of their historical background or chosen affiliation.

7. Believers should look on each other not according to the limits and preconceptions inherent in who they are “in the flesh” but according to who they will be for eternity thanks to their new relationship with God through Christ. The limiting factors of our “in the flesh” existence will not survive the new age, when Christ comes and gives us our immortality. Instead, we will be “like angels”,[28] — no longer defined by the things that limit us now.

[1] Matthew 6:9.

[2] Paul S. Minear, Images of the Church in the New Testament. (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960), 17.

[3] Matthew 5:16 ESV.

[4] Matthew 5:44-45 ESV.

[5] Matthew 5:48 ESV.

[6] Matthew 6:1 ESV.

[7] Matthew 6:3-4 ESV.

[8] Matthew 6:6 ESV.

[9] Matthew 6:17-18 ESV.

[10] chapter 49.

[11] Everett Ferguson, The Church of Christ. (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1996), 114.

[12] Galatians 3:26-29 ESV.

[13] Romans 16:23; 2 Corinthians 1:1.

[14] Romans 16:1; Philemon 2.

[15] 2 Corinthians 6:17-18 ESV.

[16] 1 John 2:15-16 ESV.

[17] Romans 8:15, 23; Galatians 4:5; Ephesians 1:5.

[18] 2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV.

[19] Galatians 6:15.

[20] Matthew 9:17.

[21] Matthew 13:52; Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37.

[22] Mark 2:21; Luke 5:36.

[23] Luke 22:20.

[24] John 13:34.

[25] Matthew 19:28.

[26] Romans 11:16-21.

[27] Romans 14:4 ESV.

[28] Matthew 22:30; Mark 12:25.