WHAT IS THE GROUND OF CHRISTIAN UNITY?

When the Lord Jesus brings us into His Kingdom by grace through faith, we may be unaware that we bring all sorts of things with us. Over time He will identify these things as the idols they are, things we have depended on, drawn our identity from, based our worth on and maybe even unconsciously looked to for comfort or hope consistently disappointing us. That “stuff” is the fodder of strife and division in the Body of Christ. We must accept that everyone of us has had our characters and personalities educated and developed in sin: going our own way. We were once dead, essentially dead, and are now alive because a radically new Life, one that does not derive from us, is being lived in us by the Holy Spirit.

Sadly, none of the “stuff” we drag alone will ever be the basis and ground of the unity the Holy Spirit has given us in Christ Jesus. It’s a unity that He intends to forge in us relationally. Political persuasion, education, economics, culture, ethne, gender…that and much more will never be the ground of our unity. The unity the church has been given, unity that we are commanded to preserve and protect, is found in the Person of Jesus Christ, following Him, making His Word and His ways the only things that actually matter.

We have been called into covenant with Jesus Christ and with all those who follow Him. All of us are at some stage in spiritual growth and maturity. Whatever point we are at in that growth and maturation process is due to the Holy Spirit working out in us the salvation given to us by God through Jesus Christ. We didn’t begin the process and we will never bring it to completion relying on human strength, ingenuity or resources. From start to finish, this “race” is won by His Life being lived in us. He is our hope of becoming fully human, leaving behind the distortion of humanity the world believes to be normative.

Our whole live must be put “on the altar” and left there; it is no longer to be in our hands, it’s to remain in God’s Hands. God’s Hands are the only place where life can be found and experienced. It is the only place where peace is found, where hope is found, where grace is found, where provision is found, for God is all and infinitely more than we could ever ask or imagine. Nothing can be left out. The whole of me, the whole of you must be relinquished and placed on the altar, surrendered to Him. We yield to Stronger Hands. God is looking for willing willingness. Following Jesus Christ with all you will result in radical change in perspective, in living, in doing, in giving and receiving.

Present-day cultural norms can never be the basis of unity or hope. Do not be deceived by spiritual-sounding, high-minded nonsense and wooly thinking. Fix your eyes on Jesus, the One upon Whom your faith depends, from start to finish.