In The Economy of Worship, the Three Failed Pastors discuss what God saved us for.
Why is God saving people? What does he want for them and from them? We think he wants to make them a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. As God’s people live together in the economy of worship, his nature is revealed to the rest of creation.
Episode Notes:
Saved for what?
Those who have been rescued from this present evil age constitute a new society. We are “the called out” which is a literal rendering of the Greek word, “ecclesia,” which English bibles translate, “church.” This transition from the evil age into the new society is neatly depicted in Acts 2:40-41:
With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. (NIV)
First Church
Some have called this moment “the birth of the church,” but it’s not. If the church is the people whom God has liberated from an evil society, then we must look much earlier for that pivotal moment. After the tale of God’s judgment on a corrupt society in Mesopotamia,[1] we find these words:
The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
“I will make you into a great nation…
(Genesis 12:1-2a)
If we understand, “church,” to mean God’s called out people, it is with the call of Abram that the church began. God chose this person to be the progenitor of a called-out nation.
Fifteen years later, God spoke to Abram further about his destiny:
“As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.”
(Genesis 17:4-5 NIV)
Abraham would become the father of a nation and the father of many nations. While Abraham had other sons whose families formed other peoples, the Bible doesn’t again speak of those descendants except in passing. The Bible is the account of how God will save people of all nations through inclusion in the nation of Israel. This promise would be fulfilled when Israel became a single nation comprised of many nations. Paul argues in his letters that Christ expanded Israel’s borders to include the redeemed from every nation. Since the church is the Israel of God[i] a look at God’s purpose for Israel will reveal his reason for saving us.
Mission Statement
Four hundred-plus years after Abraham, God made his descendants a nation by rescuing them from bondage in a corrupt society.[2] At the crossing of the Red Sea their deliverance was made complete[3], but their journey didn’t end there. Moses brought them to God’s mountain to worship.[ii] When the whole church arrived at the base of Mount Sinai God told them:
“You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
(Exodus 19:4-6a)
God saves people to make them a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
Scripture makes clear that physical Israel failed to realize God’s vision since they continually broke the Sinai Covenant. By the time of Christ, physical Israel had become the corrupt generation from which spiritual Israel needed to be saved. Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled the Mosaic covenant and entered a relationship with God mediated by the Holy Spirit. Through the justification of faith that comes through the gospel, people from every nation enter Christ’s relationship with the Father by the Spirit. In Christ, we become realized Israel.
As Israel, we take up and express our identity as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. This call is political since we are a kingdom and a nation. We are also called “priests” and “holy,” so it is a religious call as well. The redeemed community must worship as a kingdom and represent God as a nation. The individual Christian participates in the kingdom of priests as she offers worship to God in loving service to his church which is his body and his temple. The disciple contributes to the holy nation as he identifies with Christ as a suffering servant to the world around him.[iii]
The Anointed ONE
This vision for living is contained in the simple gospel and accessed by God’s people when they know what they were saved for. Really, God’s vision for the church as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation is compacted into one word – “Christ.”
The title, “Christ,” comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew word, “Messiah,” which means “anointed one.” When reading that phrase we tend to emphasize “anointed” when the emphasis should fall on “one.” Through Israel’s history, the political and religious domains were kept separate under two mutually exclusive anointings – one for the king and another for the priest. Despite that practice, several passages in the Hebrew scriptures spoke of a coming priest-king.[iv] Rather than an anointed two there would be Messiah, the anointed one.
Through his sacrificial death Christ has become the true high priest. In his resurrection and ascension, he has been crowned king of all. Jesus is God’s chosen priest-king and those who belong to him are God’s kingdom of priests and holy nation. We obey the gospel[v] when we sacrificially love God’s people and live holy lives before the surrounding nations. In this way we will be fit for the coming kingdom and subdue Christ’s enemies for the day of his return.
This is what we were saved for.
And yet, as Israel’s history attests, this vision won’t be realized through human effort. We must learn to rely on God’s saving strength which means we’ll need to know how we are saved.
[1] Where Abram lived prior to the LORD’s call.
[2] See Exodus 1-14 for the account.
[3] Making baptism analogous to this event.
[i] Galatians 6:16
[ii] Exodus 3:12
[iii] Romans 12-13 contains a treatise on how to live as a kingdom of priest and a holy nation.
[iv] Psalm 110 and Zechariah 6 most notably.
[v] A little discussed phrase used by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 1:8 and by Peter in 1 Peter 4:17.