JESUS IS ALIVE IN HISTORY, NOT IN A BOOK

Now to him who by his power within us is able to do far more than we ever dare to ask or imagine—to him be glory in the Church through Jesus Christ for ever and ever, Amen! —Eph. 3:20-21 (Phillips)

By history I mean God's acts in the community of saints, the fellowship of believers, which has existed through the centuries. I am not talking about written history, which is really historiography, but the event of the church through the ages. This is a reality whether ever written about or not. We are all a part of that ongoing history as all our sisters and brothers have been since the time of the primitive church. Very little of what has happened has made its way into the pages of history books. It is history because God has made it, not because men have written about it.

Every prayer you utter to the Father, every victory and defeat you experience in the faith in this troubled world, every deed you perform so as to glorify Christ Jesus, becomes a part of that history, especially when viewed in terms of your relationship to the community of saints. God is in His church, in His family, doing things. This is history. Now you know what I mean when I say that Jesus is alive in history—the ongoing experience of Christ and his church. The verse from Ephesians says it well: his power is within us, his family on earth, not merely as individuals, but in each of us as part of his church. His glory is in the church—not in any institution, book, creedal system or philosophy. His glory in the church means his presence in the church.

Jesus is not and cannot be alive in a book. A book, or books (Old Testament) foretold his coming and disclosed the nature of the New Covenant that the Messiah would bring. But that New Covenant was not a book, but a relationship in community. It was written not upon stones but upon hearts. The soul of man became God's dwelling place in a new community, not in temples made by hands. God has never dwelt in a book.

Another book (New Testament) tells of how Jesus came and formed a new family for God, based of course upon the Jewish family that had prepared the way for the new covenantal relationship. All this is God in history, working in His community which began with the call of Abraham. Once Jesus called that new family, he breathed his Spirit into it and dwelt in it. "I in them and thou in me" is the way Jesus put it to the Father. "I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you" is the way he put it to his disciples. From that day till now Jesus has dwelt in his Body. He never has dwelt anywhere else. He is alive, a reality in his church, nowhere else.

The Bible is that precious revelation that lets us in on the Story. It tells us about Jesus and God's mission in history, and that alone makes it worth dying for and more. It does more in that it tells of the emergence of the new society of believers, its strength and weaknesses, its victories and defeats, its trauma in a world that was set upon destroying it. The history, God in community, has gone on and on through the years right on down to our own situation. We are now that "colony of heaven" (Philip. 3:20) and it is there, with us, that Jesus is alive. He dwells nowhere else. He is alive nowhere else. One will find him nowhere else.

The "power within us" does not come simply by memorizing the New Testament. Paul wrote those words to a congregation of saints, and he told them that the power within them, which could do far more than they could imagine, was the presence of Christ within them as his Body—"the fulness of him that filleth all in all." God is at work in you! is the way he laid it on the Philippians (1:13). In being filled with the Spirit they were filled with Jesus (Eph. 1:13-14). One can have his head filled with scripture and yet have a heart empty of Jesus.

We must come to see the church as the Body of Christ, the dwelling place of the Spirit. When people assemble with us, they are not to see an efficient organization at work, a system executed or a doctrinaire position defended; but they are to see saints of God molded after the likeness of Christ. This is really where the world is to find Jesus—in the hearts and in the assemblies of God's redeemed ones.

To speak of "his power within us" is strange talk to many of our people. We know little about personal spiritual power. It cannot be found in buildings, budgets, programs or gimmickry. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory! If the Church of Christ is not made up of Christ-like people, it cannot truly be his Body. This is the final and only real mark of the church: it is the fulness of Christ.

This is why those ordinances that the scriptures associate with the assembly are so dynamic -- there's that word power. The Lord probably intends that baptism always be public, though it cannot be made a hard and fast rule, for that ordinance inducts one (in a public way) into the community of saints. He takes his stand with God's family. He steps into what God is doing in history, as it were, in being baptized. The Supper is also a public attestation that the community believes that Jesus is alive and with them at the Table. It is a communal act in community. It is a communion with Jesus in the assembly and by the assembly. If one cannot fill his usual place when the Table is spread, he is excused. If he has to be absent, the Body still gathers and proclaims that Jesus is alive, in their midst. As part of that Body, he shares in that proclamation, even if he is too ill to be present. To take "the communion" to the sick may be a pious act, but it betrays the real intent of the Lord's Supper.

So with the Lord's Day. It is something special because it is inseparably related to the assembly and the Table. Baptism is induction into the community. The Supper is the continuing expression of fellowship with Jesus by the community. The Lord's Day is when the community meets with Jesus in assembly. These are the dynamics of our religion. Power! It is power, not because we do it right or punctiliously, but because in our hearts Jesus is with us. "His power within us" makes all the difference in the world. Without that power we are like the bridesmaids who go forth to meet the bridegroom, with lamps all trimmed but with no oil.  — the Editor