Vision Glorious

hmmm. hmmm. another Bon-Bon with the community flavor.

If you missed it, you can read the first Bon-Bon here. Without further delay, let’s make a bee-line to the nectar: 

"Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this… It means that in Jesus Christ we have been chosen from eternity, accepted in time, and united for eternity.

The Christian is the man who no longer seeks his salvation, his deliverance, his justification in himself but in Jesus Christ alone…He lives wholly by God’s Word pronounced upon him, whether that Word declares him guilty or innocent…

The Reformers expressed it this way: Our righteousness is an "alien righteousness," a righteousness that comes from outside of us. They were saying that the Christian is dependent on the Word of God spoken to him…

Help must come from the outside, and it has come and comes daily and anew in the Word of Jesus Christ…But God has put this Word into the mouth of men in order that it may be communicated to other men. When one person is struck by the Word, he speaks it to others. God has willed that we should seek and find His living Word in the witness of a brother, in the mouth of man…He needs his brother man as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation. He needs his brother solely because of Jesus Christ…

And that also clarifies the goal of all Christian community: they meet one another as bringers of the message of salvation. As such, God permits them to meet together and gives them community. Their fellowship is founded solely upon Jesus Christ and this "alien righteousness." All we can say, therefore, is: the community of Christians springs solely from the Biblical and Reformation message of the justification of man through grace alone; this alone is the basis of the longing of Christians for one another.¹

1. Excerpts from Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community. Harper & Row Publishers Inc., 1954. pages 21-23

   [all bold emphases are added by Vision Glorious] [back]

You can’t talk much about community and discipleship without acknowledging some of the better authors on these subjects. One author whose heart was near and dear to authentic, Christian living was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Stories swirl about his life, ideas, theology, hair color, and if he ever watched Hogan’s Heroes. But whatever historical side of the fence you take, you can’t ignore the depth in some of his insights. We think Bonhoeffer hit the nail on the head in a number of areas. So, we occasionally want to share some of those spot-on nuggets with the VG community. Consider them “Deitrich-chewers” if you will. Written from an underground seminary in Germany during World War 2 - here’s the first:

Psalm 133:1 It is not simply to be taken for granted that the Christian has the privilege of living among other Christians. Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies…to bring peace to the enemies of God. So, the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the thick of foes. There is his commission. The Kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies. And he who will not suffer this does not want to be of the Kingdom of Christ; he wants to be among friends, to sit among roses and lilies, not with the bad people but the devout people. O you blasphemers and betrayers of Christ! If Christ had done what you are doing who would ever have been spared? (Martin Luther)

According to God’s will Christendom is a scattered people, scattered like seed “into all the kingdoms of the earth.” ( Zechariah 10:9; Deuteronomy 28:25)… “and they shall return” ( Zechariah 10:8-9)… Until then, God’s people remain scattered, held together solely in Jesus Christ, having become one in the fact that, dispersed among unbelievers, they remember Him in the far countries.

So between the death of Christ and the Last Day it is only by a gracious anticipation of the last things that Christians are privileged to live in visible fellowship with other Christians…Not all Christians receive this blessing…They know that visible fellowship is a blessing…The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer.

The believer feels no shame…when he yearns for the physical presence of other Christians…The believer therefore lauds the Creator, the Redeemer, God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for the bodily presence of a brother. The prisoner, the sick person, the Christian in exile sees in the companionship of a fellow Christian a physical sign of the gracious presence of the triune God…But if there is so much blessing and joy even in a single encounter of brother with brother, how inexhaustible are the riches that open up for those who by God’s will are privileged to live in the daily fellowship of life with other Christians!

It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God tha any day may be taken from us…Therefore, let him who until now has has the privilege of living a common Christian life with other Christians praise God’s grace from the bottom of his heart. Let him thank God on his knees and declare: It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren.¹

1. Excerpts from Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community. Harper & Row Publishers Inc., 1954. pages 17-20

   [all bold emphases are added by Vision Glorious] [back]