Gospel – That’s Why Community Matters

One of my main goals for this first series of posts (Why Community Matters) is to briefly explore the doctrine of community. I want to show why we are placing so much emphasis on community at Valley – that it is not just a passing fad, or the latest strategy from some church growth guru – but rather is foundational to the Christian faith. Last week we saw how the doctrine of the Trinity had major implications for our understanding of community. This week we will look at how the Gospel of Jesus is good news for our communities.

We are made in the image of God, but sin has marred that image. The result of sin is enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, and envy (Galatians 5:19-21)—notice how those words all describe broken communities and broken relationships. In the very first book of the Bible, we see sin dividing mankind from God, husband from wife, brother from brother, family from family, and nation from nation. Sin brings racism, classism, war, murder, divorce. We often long for true community but never quite seem to attain it – it is a longing for something that was lost in the Fall, and ultimately a longing for the Trinitarian God.

But we know the good news! Jesus lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died. In doing so, Jesus brings reconciliation between God and man (Romans 5:1-11). Jesus brings reconciliation between Jew and Gentile, husband and wife, even nation and nation. The sin that separates us has been dealt with, once and for all time, at the cross. Jesus makes true community possible again. That is good news for those of us who long for something more!

But that is not all; Jesus is saving a community – not merely a collection of individuals. Jesus loves you individually and personally, but ultimately, he is about the business of saving a people – a new humanity, his Church – to whom and through whom he reveals his glory. Peter rejoices in that truth: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:9-10). Our God is a God who creates people for community, and who also places people into community; our God is the God who “places the lonely in families” (Psalms 68:6), the God who ensures that widows, orphans, aliens and outcasts are cared for and welcomed (for example, James 1:27).

The New Creation is often described in communal terms: a glorious city; a wedding feast; a vast, diverse community worshipping Jesus. Heaven is more than just God and I; it is God and us. That is where all of history is heading – and that is good news for those who know Jesus! In the mean time and by God’s grace, we are called to reflect that heavenly, Trinitarian community together.

Cheers,

Will