By sacrificing himself for us, God ascribes unsurpassable worth to people who in and of themselves have little apparent worth. In doing this, God reveals his nature, which is eternal, unsurpassable love. You’d never know this about God, however, unless your eyes were fixed on Jesus (Heb. 12:2). Hence, every mental picture we have of God must be centered on Jesus. He is also called the Word of God (John 1:1); when God expresses himself, he is Jesus. Along the same lines, Jesus is called “the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being” (Heb. 1:3). To know the crucified Christ is to know all we need to know about the Supreme Being.
The whole of Christian identity is found in Christ. When people enter into a relationship with Christ, this is how they truly are. Everything God is toward them and everything they are before God is found “in Christ.” In Christ, we participate in God’s own eternal love.
It is not by performing good deeds, successfully conquering certain sins, holding all the right theological opinions, or becoming “religious” people. These may be by-products of the change in reality that takes place in us (Gal. 5:22-23), but they are not the cause of the change. We participate in the eternal love of the triune fellowship by allowing ourselves to be placed in Christ by faith. It is simply a matter of saying yes to God’s desire to relate to us in the process of relating as the triune community.
The Holy Spirit brings us to the triune dance by working in our hearts to open us up to trust in Christ (Gal. 4:6). The Holy Spirit then abides in us (1 John 3:24), teaches us (John 14:26), transforms us (2 Cor. 3:17-18), empowers us (Acts 1:8), leads us (Rom. 8:14), sets us free from the law (Rom. 8:2-4), and mediates the abundant life of the Trinity to us (Rom. 8:26-27). Moreover, the Holy Spirit immerses us (baptizes us) into the body of Christ and into Christ himself (1 Cor. 12:13). For this reason Scripture teaches us it is the Holy Spirit who causes the love the Father has for us to abide within us and flow through us (Rom. 5:5).
When we yield to the Holy Spirit within us and are transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:2), Christ is increasingly “formed in” us (Gal. 4:19). We progressively see ourselves as we are in Jesus and thus increasingly look and act like Jesus. And this is how the world comes to know the reality of the triune God. They see him in us and experience him through us.
The Christian life is meant to be lived in intimate relationships with small groups of other believers. When all who are in Christ live out who they are in Christ in relationship with one another, we display a love that replicates the love of the triune God. Only in this way do we grow in Christ and display the social love of the triune God. Through the church, the world is supposed to literally witness and experience the perfect love that God eternally is.
The church generally has not left people with the impression that we are unique in the way we affirm the unsurpassable worth of each individual, regardless of how immoral and unlovable he or she may be. If the church is to be the witness God calls us to be, we must be ruthlessly honest with ourselves about the areas in which we are not where God wants us to be. In the face of the many competing agendas the church has adopted for itself, we have to become convinced that its central agenda is to love as God loves.
Boyd, Gregory A. Repenting of Religion – Turning from Judgment to the Love of God. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2004.
He Saves Us