Kingdom People: Part II

Through Christ we have been given a new nature (2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 4:22-24) and everything we need to live a godly life (1 Pet. 1:3-4). However, we must choose to partner with the Holy Spirit in renewing our minds so that in every situation we know, agree with, and carry out God’s will. Throughout the New Testament Paul writes of the battle within people’s minds and contrasts it with the mind set on the Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 2 he writes of how the Spirit makes the mind of Christ available to believers “so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.” Only through the ministry of the Spirit can we understand truth about the new identity God has given us in Christ. 

One foundational truth of our identity is that God has “made us to be a kingdom” (Rev. 1:6a). According to this verse, we are not just apart of the kingdom, we have not just inherited the kingdom, but together we are the kingdom. The realization of our individual identity in Christ is not an end in itself but rather leads us to an understanding of our identity as a community, as Scharen writes, “the aim is not to self-maximize or self-realize but to respond to God’s call to community in which a genuinely ethical and spiritual life can be lived.”[1]

Through knowing who we are and who we are to be together, we can know what we are to do as a kingdom community.  God has given us the same mandate in Revelation;  “…you have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God, and they will reign on the earth” (5:10) as in Genesis “…fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on earth… I have given you every plant... [and] everything that has the breath of life…” (1:28-30). 

The believer’s identity is as a new creation and our purpose as the kingdom community is to reign in life.  As our minds are renewed to align with this truth we will find ourselves living in a way that reenacts the ministry of Christ in every area of our lives. We cannot simply focus on what we are to do as believers but on who we are in Christ for this is our primary identity.  When we as believers and churches understand who God has designed us to be, we will consistently experience Kingdom mission in every area of our lives.

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[1] Scharen, Faith as a Way of Life, 468.

[2] Scharen, Faith as a Way of Life, 125.

Kingdom People: Part I

When I picture believers living out their faith as citizens of God’s kingdom I see the ministry of Jesus reenacted through his church; the lame walk, the blind see, the demonized are set free, the dead are raised and more disciples are brought into the kingdom.  In this picture kingdom equals mission. When we do the work of Christ we are living the kingdom life.  The problem with this scenario is that God doesn’t “do” mission – being missional is a part of his nature.  Giving believers a “to-do” list of principals to follow and good deeds to perform falls short.  If we are to live kingdom minded, missional lives we must first recover an understanding of our identity not only as created in the image of God, but as recreated through the blood of Christ.  Secondly, we must embrace the identity of the church as a kingdom community. Believers and churches must first be who God has designed them to be before they can consistently experience Kingdom mission in every area of their lives.

In his book, Faith as a Way of Life, Christian Scharen correctly gives the reason for our loss of identity being “that the spheres of modern life have semi-independence, each operating according to its own logic and values. Because we each live in and through them all, we internalize the value conflicts between them and compartmentalize as a mechanism for surviving the tensions.”[1]  Values and therefore identity are a result of exterior environments rather then inner knowing.  We are who our environment tells us to be. This leads even Christians to experience a fractured self.  Caring mother, charismatic church leader, shrewd businesswoman; the primary self is whoever is needed at that moment.

This kind of life is in direct violation of our design as believers. God desires to be the one who defines us and from that place of knowing who we are, we can do what he has prepared for us to do; “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life” (Eph. 2:10, NRSV).  He created us in his image to be stewards of his kingdom in every environment (Gen. 1:26-31). After the fall we became powerless to live up to the ideal design God had for the masterpiece of his creation. God’s goal wasn’t just to save us but also to restore us to his original purpose. This is why Jesus was incarnated and why “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). Through Christ we can become who God has created us to be – as the saying goes “Jesus became like us so that we could become like him.”

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[1] Christian Scharen, Faith as a Way of Life: A Vision for Pastoral Leadership, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2008), Kindle E-book, Location 220.