What would the future be like?

For many, the pressure to engage a dark and dangerous world results in either an extreme position against it or an abandonment of their Christian convictions. We don’t want Christians abandoning their faith for any reason! Christianity, truly understood, is completely harmonious with love for the world. Not the system of the world, which is the very thing that we want to change, but the world that God loved so much He sent His Son to redeem it.

Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

2 Cor. 5:18–19

In the very early days of the church, the apostle Peter discovered—somewhat to his horror—that what happened when the Lamb of God was slain was of far greater consequence than his old system of theology had allowed him to see:

And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.”

Acts 10:15

What a blow that must have been to a good Jew like Peter, who had lived his life abiding by the Old Testament rules about what God considered clean and unclean. Those rules pertained to food, to animals, and to humans. And now God was asking him to throw all that out? He was to discover that what God has cleansed we may no longer call unclean. God calls things clean, even things that might seem unclean to us, not because He is taking a chance but because He knows the truth. Christ paid the price so that redemption could be offered to all. Faith is to see what God sees in the once-and-for-all sacrifice of Jesus on behalf of all humanity.

Grace and Truth

While Jesus was on earth He managed to interact with this very broken, damaged and sinful world with ease and without compromise. He was the most holy person who ever lived, yet He effortlessly connected with the worst of sinners. He had a fresh strategy that superseded the use of laws as a means of behavior modification.

'The Word became a human being and lived here with us. We saw his true glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father. From him the complete gifts of undeserved grace and truth have come down to us. The Law was given by Moses, but Jesus Christ brought us undeserved kindness and truth. '

John 1:14,17 CEV

He did not cover the law under a wrapper of grace – he gave grace and truth. For a graphic example of how the law is trumped by grace and truth you can refer to John 8:3-11. The law will stop the sin through death…grace and truth stopped the sin through life! May we do the same as we interact with the citizens of Babylon around us. Because, except for the grace of God, we might be among them and still under the curse of the law.

In a world where the laws of the land systematically get shoved away from the Judeo-Christian ethos, we need to refresh our appreciation for the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ which supersedes any legal effort to modify human behavior. Governments should and eventually will be accountable before God for their decisions. The church should be a disciple making machine that finds its power not in political positioning but in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our vision statement as a church reads as follows:

“To be a movement representing Jesus Christ, transforming lives and communities through the power of the gospel”

This is where we are headed…let’s get ourselves to have a laser focus on the gospel and its power in this season more than ever. This coming weekend on our Vision Sunday we will celebrate this by giving you context as to how relevant the gospel is regardless of where the world is at.

Vision Sunday – 31st January 2021

“The Gospel catalyses a movement that transforms lives and communities way beyond what any political or ideological regime can. That’s the power behind our Vision at BCOC! Come and invite this power back in your everyday life…”