Our Corporate Kingdom Identity

     Many Christians in my circles come from what’s called “low church” traditions like Baptists and Pentecostals. These traditions often emphasize individual salvation and although “going to church” is important it really has no bearing on your salvation. On the other side of the spectrum is called “high church” where some of you may have grown up in. This is where the church has at least equal authority with the written Word and salvation is tied to the compliance of the traditions and sacraments of the church. As with many filters we have inherited- through the lens of the Kingdom we conclude that “none of the above” was what Jesus had in mind for the church.

    Before we came into the Kingdom, we were once individuals brought up in an environment of nature and nurture that determined a certain personality trait, life orientation, worldview and subculture down to a person’s accent and syntax. Because we are homo sapiens “intelligent human beings”, squeezed into very finite parameters, the Bible rightly describes us as vessels of clay. Although you have ability and free will, there are limitations to that free will. There are so many limitations, in fact, that atheists and neuroscientists believe we have no free will. We are just a chemical soup being manipulated along by “this nature and nurture”. If this is the case, even truth loses its meaning. They would be correct, except that we are more than chemicals and electrical signals. What the Old Testament refers to as “heart” really has no English equivalent. It is the part of us that has the deepest connection to our true identity. We read that the heart is easily deceived, that it can become “hard” and resistant It can also humble itself and receive wisdom and revelation. Part of our new identity is that we receive a new one, one that closely works with the Holy Spirit so that when the nature and nurture of my chemical soup want to continue with their status quo. I have a new voice and power within me to not only sense this as outside the will of God but to choose otherwise.“ The mature have their senses trained to discern good and evil” (Heb. 5:14) is about practicing the life of the Spirit so that our nature and nurture get bent like a young tree to align with our true identity. Having said that, I am not going to focus on our identity at a personal level. I think we actually have a multitude of teaching about this- what life in the Spirit looks like. What I don’t hear a lot is how our corporate identity has radically changed. How does the Kingdom and specifically the Gospel of the Kingdom affect our corporate identity? These observations are really just is based in the whole narrative of Scripture and not any one particular passage.

I want to basically give 5 ways our identity has been changed corporately in the Kingdom of God:

1. From Egocentric individuals to adopted sons and daughters into a family who serve one another with the same love as the Father who adopted them

    No church would disagree with this reality. In fact, they would most likely have this somewhere in their mission statement. Yet what we actually see in not all but many churches is:

- An environment where egocentric individuals make “decisions for Christ as Savior” and for years attend meetings to hear Bible lectures and motivational talks.

    This stagnates the growth of the individual and completely renders that church impotent to bring radical change to their communities. I know people who are fed up with this, so much so that they leave the church. I was almost one of them. To tell you the truth, I’m still not very fond of our Western format. Ideally the church should look like Thanksgiving at grandma’s house. At least a third of our time together should be sharing a meal together. The Greek word agape comes from the Love Feasts of the Old Testament. This is how love is expressed. “meatings” not “meetings”.

    Before Constantine’s rise to power, Christian worship was relatively informal. After Constantine’s “conversion”, powerful people brought their former notions of worship with them as they professed belief in Christ and began influencing Christian communities. Worship began to incorporate elements of imperial protocol, including incense, ornate clothing, processionals, choirs, and pageantry. Worship became formal and hierarchical, relegating the congregation to mere spectators. Within a decade, the ekklesia ceased to be a movement. It was no longer an expanding group of people sharing a unique identity and purpose. It had become a location. This is precisely where we got the “high church” models. The Romans called each of these gathering places a basilica, the Latin word used to denote a public building or official meeting place. Gothic (or Germanic) cultures, also influenced by Christianity, used the word kirika, which became kirche in modern German. The word meant “house of the lord,” and was used to refer to any ritual gathering place, Christian or pagan. The Germanic term became the one used most often to refer to the ekklesia of Jesus, and from it we get the word church. The word church is not a translation from the Greek. It is a substitution for the Greek. And a bad one at that. This shift in vocabulary signaled a dramatic shift in emphasis and direction. The church was no longer a grassroots movement built upon the simple understanding of who Jesus is. The church became synonymous with a location.

    One of my favorite quotes from John Wimber is, “The Church is not the building it’s the people, it's not just the gathering, it’s also the scattering.” In my study of the word “kindness” it has the same root as the word “kinship”- therefore it means to treat like family. It is the kindness of the Lord that led us to repentance. It treated us as family before we actually were. Therefore, we do the same with one another. Paul uses the word oikos in Ephesians to refer to a household to describe the people we have become. We’ve been adopted not just as a lone orphan to Daddy Warbucks, but into a family of rescued captives from every nation.

2. From exclusively Homogeneous to Heterophilous

    I am deliberately utilizing sociological terms, because our corporate identity cannot help but be sociological. Our Corporate Kingdom Identity meets our sociological needs and deficiencies far more holistically than any social justice or any strategy a sociology dissertation might come up with. In most evangelical circles it is generally thought that homogeneous connections are the only way to grow the church. Actually, explosive church growth movements have started from just the opposite- missions in our own backyard.

    There is no room for racism in the Kingdom. We all agree on that, but much more subtly we often don’t intentionally go outside our sphere to reach someone outside our political bend, our interests, or any subculture (ex., Goth teenager) not like us. Socially and scientifically we know that communication is based on overlap of interest, and as far as those who are likely to be long term friendships, sure, they will most likely share many things in common, but we all have the human overlap of being created as a God-imager. As a person with real needs, desires, hopes, dreams, and purpose. We no longer can use this argument to isolate ourselves to “my sphere” or even “my circle of influence”- I really want to challenge this!! I was taught this and have taught this before and I repent!

    Remember that the biggest initial hurdle for the early church was making the gospel inclusive of Gentiles. We see this heterophilous quality in Apostle Paul’s testimony in 1 Cor. 9:

19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.(ESV)

    Heterophilous means we love (befriend) even those very different from us. Today we have many opportunities to display this. As the different revolutions and agendas deliberately label us as all kinds of nasty labels- our battle is not with THEM. Our confrontation is with the gods of this age who are out to destroy God’s imagers. Our gospel is the only one that says, “Love your enemies”.

3. From Ethnocentric to Multicultural

We are familiar with the fulfillment of Joel 2 and Revelation 7:9

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

    Heaven isn’t a melting pot of culture that looks more like your culture than anyone else’s. In missions we use metaphorical spheres called E0, E1, E2, and E3. These represent the distance from one’s own subculture that is experienced as we move into cultures different than ours. Unfortunately throughout Church history it has been mostly involuntary movements that have forced the Church to move across cultural barriers. God has faithfully watched over His word as it has gone throughout the world, but most of this happened through forced displacement. The fall of Jerusalem and the Goths' conquering of Rome were two major events that ignited Christianity throughout the world. I propose that we not wait until we are fleeing for our lives to reach across cultures with the message of the Gospel. Certainly if we cannot display the Kingdom in our Jerusalem, why would extend ourselves to the nations? I think it was Ralph Winter from Fuller Seminary who said a church that has no vision to reach the nations neither will they reach their neighbors. Our view of social justice is through this Kingdom lens. Our view of race in general is through this Kingdom lens

4. A reversal of “the Fall” which caused men and women to work against one another. (This includes a defusing of passages used for misogyny and seeing egalitarian stewardship of Creation.)

    There is language in Genesis chapter 3 that suggests that as two people alienated from the life and will of God, they would now seek out ways to dominate one another. This domination definitely worked its way into the culture of the Ancient Near Eastern way of life- polygamy, adultery, and human subjugation to name a few. It is important to see God using individuals IN SPITE of all these distortions of relationships, but not condoning or sanctioning any of them Scot McKnight writes in his book “The Blue Parakeet”:

The fall turned the woman to seek dominance over the man, and the fall turned the man to seek dominance over the woman. A life of struggling for control is the way of life for the fallen. But the good news story of the Bible is that the fall eventually gives way to new creation; the fallen can be reborn and re-created.

    God’s best is oneness with Him that brings oneness with each other. Everything else is a distortion of his best. We believe God is displayed more fully in maleness and femininity. That’s what makes marriage even a thing. Not because we are wired hetero (although that was meant to help). Not because we are anti-every-other-expression of unions, rather because there is only One who has defined marriage as an expression of himself. The Kingdom is neither men-led nor woman-led but One Spirit-led. This is called mutualism- where we are unique but equally complete God’s mission. We’ve all been buried with Christ. My need to dominate is dead along with every other believer's.

5. An Apostolic Body- that is not aimed at categorizing people for programs but is releasing a dynamic of edification (the building up into perfect maturity) that no one leader or group of leaders could ever accomplish.

    The dynamic of Ephesians 4 is monumental. The sequence that Paul gives of Jesus' descent into the place of the dead to proclaim to the spirits of darkness immediately followed by Jesus releasing gifts upon His Church to enact what was just proclaimed. This is no coincidence. Essentially, the proclamation to the evil spirits was an announcement of the victory won and how that victory would be put on display through an inaugurated people, the Church, now empowered to enact the Kingdom here on Earth. This is a far cry from how we were taught about church. The priesthood of all believers is more than theoretical that is buried under a structure of hierarchy. In rediscovering the gospel of salvation by faith and grace alone, Luther started to reform the Church through a reformation of theology. In the 18th century through movements like the Moravians there was a recovery of a new intimacy with God, which led to a reformation of spirituality, the Second Reformation. This tended to emphasize “personal holiness” often erring in legalism. Now God is touching the wineskins themselves, initiating a Third Reformation, a reformation of structure.

    As we see the Evangel of the Kingdom as a story of victory that is transhistorical and has swept us up into this narrative, there is purity, a simplicity, in letting the Kingdom be the Kingdom and not force upon it what it should look like. A Pastor (shepherd) is a very necessary part of the whole team, but he cannot fulfill more than a part of the whole task of “equipping the saints for the ministry,” and has to be complemented synergistically by the other four ministries in order to function properly.In doing a puzzle, we need to have the right original for the pieces, otherwise the final product, the whole picture, turns out wrong, and the individual pieces do not make much sense. This has happened to large parts of the Christian world: We have all the right pieces but have fitted them together wrong, because of fear, tradition, religious jealousy, and a power-and-control mentality. We need the apostolic giftings to flow like water and avoid the two extremes of ice and steam.

    The five ministries mentioned in Eph. 4:11-12, the Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, Teachers, and Evangelists are also found today, but not always in the right forms and in the right places: they are often frozen to ice in the rigid system of institutionalized Christianity; they sometimes exist as clear water; or they have vanished like steam into the thin air of free-flying ministries and “independent” churches, accountable to no-one (from Wolfgang Simpson). As water best flows with the fluid version of water, these five equipping ministries will have to be transformed back into new—and at the same time age-old—forms, so that the whole spiritual organism can flourish and the individual “ministers” can find their proper role and place in the whole. If we want to thaw out the “Frozen Chosen” we need to take them out of the ice box. That is one more reason why we need to return back to the Great Apostle’s original blueprint for the Church

    No expression of a New Testament church is ever led by just one professional “holy man” doing the business of communicating with God and then feeding some relatively passive religious consumers. I call this the “Moses-style”. Christianity has adopted this method from pagan religions, or at best from the Old Testament. The heavy professionalization of the church since Constantine has now been a pervasive influence long enough, As you probably know it has been dividing the people of God artificially into laity and clergy. According to the Word (1 Tim. 2:5), “There is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” God simply does not bless religious professionals to force themselves in between people and God forever. The veil is torn, and God is allowing people to access Him directly through Jesus Christ, the only Way. To enable the priesthood of all believers, the present system will have to change completely. God seems to be in the business of delivering His Church from a Babylonian captivity of religious bureaucrats and controlling spirits into the public domain, the hands of ordinary people made extraordinary by God, who, like in the old days, may still smell of fish, perfume, and revolution (Simpson).

    The “Body of Christ” is a vivid description of an organic, not simply an organized, being. The Church consists on its local level of a multitude of spiritual families, which are organically related to each other as a network, where the way the pieces function together is an integral part of the message of the whole. What has become a maximum of organization with a minimum of organism, has to be changed into a minimum of organization to allow a maximum of organism. Too much organization has, like a straight-jacket, often choked the organism for fear that something might go wrong. Fear is the opposite of faith, and not exactly a Christian virtue. Fear wants to control, faith can trust. Control, therefore, may be good, but trust is better. The Body of Christ is entrusted by God into the hands of steward-minded people with a supernatural charismatic gift to believe God that He is still in control, even if they are not. The mission of the Church will never be accomplished just by adding to the existing structure; it will take nothing less than a mushrooming of the church through spontaneous multiplication of itself into areas of the population of the world, where Christ is not yet known.

People of Reconciliation

In my studies of the theology and teachings of Saint Augustine, I have come to agree with other scholars that although a brilliant philosopher and thinker he inadvertently placed on the eyes of the Church glasses that represent an obstruction particularly concerning the Nature of God.

According to Augustine, we are each guilty of a sin we did not personally commit: the sin of Adam in which we are in some way seminally implicated. Other modern expressions of this that I hear among Evangelicals is that “zero sin is required to deserve hell” because you were born with one (the Sin of Adam).

You are not only born diseased with sin but you are essentially a corpse- with an unfree free will that cannot respond to God. Yet while being unable to respond to God -you are still left responsible.

Augustine was among a small percentage of theologians who in a sense got their “business” from interpreting scripture. Most of these scholars were very sincere in their work, but at the same time you had to stand out among your peers to increase your “business”. One way Augustine, I believe, did this is by taking a few statements made by his opponent Pelagius and building up a strawman argument- basically that Pelagius believed we are all good enough to save ourselves. Those that haven't really studied what Pelagius believed will be surprised to find out he wasn’t very Pelagian. He believed the grace of God needed to be received, but that in itself did not constitute a “saving of ourselves”. So there was this sort of kneejerk reactive position taken by Augustine that was aligned with philosophies that he had previously rejected.

That Stoic view of a meticulously deterministic God that required an utterly helpless mankind or else it diminishes God’s sovereignty. Especially in "Reformed" camps that hold this view of God, they love to equate salvation with the resurrection of Lazarus.

It’s a nice story right? From death to life.

I can tell you the story of Lazarus has nothing to do with salvation- it was a demonstration of God’s ability to resurrect our bodies in the Last Day- it was eschatological, it was proleptic.

Mary even says, “I know he will be raised in the last day”.

Even she knew Lazarus would not stay a corpse. But Jesus rolled the promise of the future into their present to demonstrate HE WAS THE RESURRECTION.

I guess technically we are saved from a life that leads to death.

Breaking up with Original Sin

Why should we break up with the Western idea of original sin? What’s the issue? Why is this nonsense?

Well if sin was the only issue, Adam could have just confessed it and ask for forgiveness.

God said, “in the day that you eat of the fruit, you will surely die”

These weighty kind of agreements are given to beings that know Him and experience Him.

Think of the spirit beings who have rebelled against God- eternally cast out from His presence.

He could have brought this consequence upon man, but God has always with “reckless abandon” (at least in our perspective) desired to have a family relationship with mankind.

Death was the promised outcome of breaking God’s Adamic Covenant.

Death was certainly the result of disobedience.

This disobedience was indeed a sin

But “Death” can be best understood as alienation, as being orphaned, separated from knowledge of God’s will.

When we look at what actually happened in the Garden this is the reality we see. (entropy, shame, guilt). And sin caused alienation- a state of separation from the Father.

But listen closely…It is now alienation that leaves us to our orphaned free will and the powers of the age.

And it’s no surprise that alienation results in sin (duh)

So, sin brought alienation and now alienation brings on sin. Some might ask, “why give us free will at all if it would end up trapped in this state of alienation?”Well, it wasn’t created to be that way- free choice shows genuine love

Immediately Covenants were put in place to begin the process of redemption.

And the Law wasn’t actually one of those avenues of redemption…

The problem with the Law is that exposes sin but without treatment to the alienation

In fact, once you are on board with the Divine Council worldview, you see that the Law was not given only because of man’s sin but also for the compounding effect of the rebellious elohim (the Watchers) bringing more and more wickedness into the nations (see Psalm 82).

The Law was a type of check-valve,“a Limiter” on Sin.

Again, the problem with the Law is that it exposes sin but without an actual solution to the alienation.

The sacrifices and peace offerings were provisional ways the alienation could be at least minimized (still filtered through judges and prophets, etc.) All during the time of the Law, the avenue of faith was still available to them that enabled them to draw near to God and find favor (Heb. 11). But these provisional avenues of reconciliation, especially the Day of Atonement were a foreshadowing of the Gospel.

We have inherited a very Western proclamation of law-court justice, an announcement of Sin. Evangelism in the West, especially as modeled by many street preachers, makes the proclamation of sin our first priority

We must make people convinced of their horrific damnable selves in order to bring a desperate fear of hell that leads to a decision of confession

I think where we get this is from places like 2 Peter 3, and I know we’re all dying to know how repentance fits in with alienation, but we’ll get there, I promise…

The emphasis in Romans on the Law exposing sin (that the Reformers really latched onto) was written to those who were confident that it was the Law that brought them into reconciliation with God. And really when you dig deep into the scholarship of Romans, Paul’s phrase “under the law” simply meant the children of Israel. Their confidence was simply on being a Jew

In fact when writing to Gentiles in the Letter to the Ephesians (2:12,13) Paul says, ...remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Then a few verses later he says:18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (I think “household” is how Paul pictures the Kingdom)

Almost like the nations of the Gentiles comprised a second-level alienated people. This sounds almost identical to the passage in 2 Cor. 5:11,14-19

11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord [the awesomeness of God], we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.

v14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all,that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Guess what Gentiles, you get to skip the Law and be brought into reconciliation through Christ and the law will be written on your heart and you will be given a new heart of flesh!!

So is everyone already reconciled? No…Paul makes that clear in verse 20:

20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

If you take verse 21 just by itself, you might think Jesus became sin, just so He could deal with sin and declare us righteous.

But context is important, and the key word in this passage is RECONCILIATION

Now there was a tendency in the East to make an overly gnostic view of spiritual reconciliation that often overlooks sin- almost like a non-issue. I’m not saying that is the answer either. But one thing the Orthodox community has right is the view that alienation is the main problem- not sin. Obviously, sin is an issue because Jesus had to bear it upon himself (1 Cor. 15)

So the forgiveness of sin and bearing of our iniquities comes as a result of the reconciliation that Jesus has so sacrificially and faithfully won for us. You had a life apart from me, now you are alive with Me! (v.15)

Eternal life= life into the coming Age

Reconciliation = the power to be brought near

It’s like when a child doesn’t have the words for a proper apology but they climb on your lap and feel right again in the relationship- love covers a multitude of sin. We are in the business of reconciliation, not just in our personal walk, but with everyone around us

This “being alive in Him” is echoed in Col 2:13

And you, who were dead [alienated] in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses...

Again, this is often used to say we were dead like Lazarus, but again the story of Lazarus has nothing to do with salvation. Dead means “cut off from life”. God made us alive with what? With Him!! If anything we are called to go into the grave with Jesus and be raised with Him. And how did he solve this issue of alienation?

Read on in verse 14:

14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

Legal demands of who? God? That’s what we’ve been taught. Some would say it is the Law. But the Law only shows us the impossibility of us breaking those demands. The following verses give us a clue what "demands" he's talking about.

This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities [2] and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. [3]

These are rulers because they held legal demand over us- He disarmed them. They are authorities because they had the authority to hold us captive- they are now shamed because He has triumphed over them. You were cut off from Life, now you have access to “Him” day and night. And if it’s still not clear where the legal demands came from, go back to Chapter 1 verse 13:

13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins

You see the message of deliverance brings with it redemption and forgiveness…Not because you were finally convinced how sinful you were…But because you now understand who has the REAL legal demand over you, and now you must answer this question, do you want to be free?

Sin is no longer FIRST in our proclamation of the Gospel and Sin is no longer FIRST in our sanctification process. We get so focused on cleaning up our failures, we fail to realize that it was our affections that were somewhere other than on the Father.

So let’s tackle the repentance part. What is the Gospel that John the Baptist and Jesus preached? It wasn’t Repent because you are headed for hell, it was repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

What would that have meant to their hearers? Confess all your sins before you can come into the Kingdom?

The Evanglion is actually a military and political cry that the King has defeated his enemy and he has come to take his dominion (this is a study in itself). The announcer of such a proclamation would be heralding to everyone in the newly conquered kingdom to prepare for the new rule, the new governance, and the new power operating within that kingdom. This is the same announcement when John the Baptist made his cry of repentance. This repentance wasn't a "making yourself right" but a submission, a change of allegiance, and a rejection of all other oppressors including ourselves. We prepare for the Kingdom by acknowledging who is the rightful King.

I mentioned 2 Peter 3 earlier

7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

But only 2 verses later it says

9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Then we’ve all read Romans 2:4

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

This comes after a pretty bleak picture for the ungodly in Chapter 1. How was God’s kindness shown? Through the work and faithfulness of Jesus. Repentance means we realize that we were focused on (and held captive by) something else other than God.

Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand= Wake up and realize you are held captive under a different kingdom and a new one has come!

Let me give you one more passage in 1 Peter 2:

22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed.

Listen to verse 25 which finishes this thought of why the cross was necessary…

25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Straying sheep? I thought we were damnable reprobates.

Sounds like a God who leaves the 99 for the 1.

We are now returned? Sounds like we were alienated, cut off from Him and are now brought near

Transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the beloved Son

We have re-branded that hammer of the Law exposing sin as the central motif in evangelism. The central idea of Romans (and Hebrews), however, is simply this: it is Jesus who has restored us to community.

We can can choose to explain the reason that we sin as something spiritually genetic that you inherited from Adam with a sin nature- depraved

OR, we can understand sin as direct consequence of a world and my will alienated from God, under legal demands of a domain of darkness and after the nature of that alienation.

I think you will find the later more in line with the heart of the Father.

Another aspect of alienation

Traditionally we have separated soteriology (theology of salvation) from ecclesiology (theology of the church). The Gospel of Kingdom that Jesus preached was that God has shown his power in His Son to bring us back into communion with Him AND with His people- these have equal significance. The fact that He is restoring you to Himself means He has dealt with your sins and has placed you in a family

So our soteriology must be overlapping our ecclesiology

Every day we are reconciled to the Father. We stir one another toward that reconciliation. We draw near to the throne of grace through the access that Jesus won for us. We come back to the God who has visited us before. We rediscover Him over and over. We’ve been called to point to the source of true freedom.

Out of all the interpretations of the Prodigal Son, the one that most resonates with me is that the Father is the central message of the story. That it’s possible the prodigal son represents the Gentile nations, and no matter how far they strayed from that Edenic place with the Father, the Father will always receive them coming home to Him, running out to meet them with a ring and a robe.

Thoughts about the Tithe

 The #1 scripture used to support the principle of the tithe for our New Covenant context ironically is taken from an Old Covenant passage in Malachi 3.

The passage in Malachi is a very specific context in post-exilic Israel, where God’s people were not only practicing idolatry and breaking the law (all the things that led them into exile in the first place) but they were neglecting to take care of the temple, and it was becoming very run-down and dilapidated. His charge was to see if their return to Yahweh as their true God would be evidenced in their obedience to the principle of the tithe- an outward expression of obedience to signify an inward change of the heart. There are certainly lessons we can take out of this, but reinstating the tithe is not one of them. For one, obedience in the New Covenant looks different. It is no longer about fulfilling requirements. Obedience to Christ now comes in the form of the Law of the Spirit, being led by the Spirit. We are motivated by love, not by legalism. Love is by nature giving not self-seeking. So, we should expect giving to be present and increasing in our lives but not because of a mandated percentage or a system designed to support Levitical priests.

 

What the Tithe is NOT

1.     The tithe is not justified based on the Levitical system of priests- because in Christ we are all priests, a kingdom of priests (1 Pe. 2:9)

2.    The tithe is not justified because of Abraham’s tithe to Melchizedek- this was a foreshadowing of the priesthood system

a.      Jesus is indeed a type of Melchizedek as described in Hebrews- but He never instructed his disciples to tithe to Him

b.     He expected that they would continue to tithe to the temple under the Levitical Law until his death on the cross would fulfill ALL of the Law- Sabbath, Tithes, Feasts, Circumcision, Eating instructions, washing instructions, all of it (613 laws)

3.     The tithe is not justified only because running a church is expensive

a.      Even in the New Testament church, the synagogue was a very low-maintenance building, no electricity, no running water- basically a roof over their head

b.     The apostle's main teaching activity was through house-to-house ministry

c.      We have created the need to be spectators in a comfortable building, therefore we should not use the tithe as an excuse to pay for all that overhead

d.     Neither is the tithe obligated because all our outreach programs cost money

4.     The tithe does not result in our blessing or our cursing

a.      It is ridiculous to think that we can do anything to put God in a position to “owe” us

b.     If it were not for Jesus, all the curses would come upon us. Because of the cross, we are free of EVERY curse of the Law.

c.      It is truly disheartening that we still try to manipulate believers to give by holding Old Covenant obligations over their heads

5.     The tithe is not justified based on silence in the NT because, like any other obligation of Law, a new way has been given under the New Covenant- giving generously as an outflow of Spirit-led living and the love of the Father working through us.

 

The Tithe was never instructed to the Gentile Church

1.     If there was ever a perfect time to instruct the Gentile church in the tithe it would have been at the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15.

a.      The issue was specifically about which laws or instructions to put on the new Gentile believers as universal principles

b.     The only two were to abstain from sexual immorality and food sacrificed to idols- most likely two of the most pressing cultural barriers to following Christ at that time. These two would be clear evidence that they had given themselves to the life of a disciple. Look at the Epistle to the Corinthians- these are the first two things Paul talks about.

2.     Nowhere does Paul, Peter or any other Apostle write to the Gentile church instructing them to continue the practice of tithing. Their only instructions are to give freely from the heart, not under compulsion.

a.      Acts 2:45, 46

b.     Acts 4:32

c.      Acts 20:34, 35

d.     1 Corinthians 4:12

e.     1 Corinthians 9:12-14 compares giving to tithing but does not equate the two and then declares he does not require it

f.       1 Corinthians 16:1, 2 weekly freewill collection (offering for a specific purpose)

g.      2 Corinthians 3:17

h.     2 Corinthians 8:2, 14

i.        2 Corinthians 9:5-15

j.        Philippians 2:4

k.      Philippians 4:10, 15

l.        1 Thessalonians 2:6, 9

m.   2 Thessalonians 3:7, 8

n.     Titus 3:13, 14

o.     Philemon v22

p.     The Implications of loving one another in the Epistle of John

So, if we no longer tithe how do we pay for all our modern organizational expenses?

1.     Believers need to understand that coming into the Kingdom means taking on a divine nature. Within that nature is the heart of giving to those in need. God doesn’t need the money, but He uses the local church to express His generosity and provision.

2.     Believers should cultivate the sensitivity of hearing the direction of the Spirit in everything, not just in giving.

3.     The direction of the Spirit is not burdensome. Galatians 6 indicates we each have a load in our work of service (v.5) and each one sometimes bears burdens (v.2). Supporting our organizational structures is mostly a portion of our load since we each enjoy the comfort and structure of all our facilities. At times supporting our local church organization is also “bearing one another’s burdens”. It is really both and they flow from a heart of service.

4.     Supporting the local church organization is more comparable to “first fruits” which were enjoyed by both the giver and the receiver.

5.     We therefore affirm cheerful giving after God’s own heart and as unto Him. The goal is not a percentage. The goal is to honor God in all things.

6.     All Old Testament views and teachings on tithing should be washed through the terms of the New Covenant. The New Covenant is a pact between Father and Son and can never be broken. As people who have been united with Christ, we are no longer “the responsible party” for holding to the terms of the pact- Jesus is, Jesus has, Jesus forever will.