Claytonius

Free WiFi. I’m here at the new home of Wheaton Bible Church, and I am blogging in our cafe. Pretty sweet, if you ask me. Of course, that could mean people surfing the web from their smartphones during the sermon. But of course, I don’t know anyone at our church who would do that.

I’ve got a friend. I’m not sure she would call herself a Christian, but she is around Christians enough to be curious. A while ago I asked her what I should write about on my blog. She said that she was thinking a lot about heaven, so I should write about that.

I appreciated the suggestion for a couple of reasons. First of all, heaven is one of the happiest topics in all of theology, which means it should be fun to talk about. Secondly, most people have a really lousy understanding of what Christians think about heaven. To be blunt, most of the popular conceptions of heaven are complete nonsense. Even the average churchgoer usually has a pretty skewed idea of what heaven is or what it will be like. Because of that, I am kind of excited to try and explain heaven here on the blog. I don’t know how long it will take, or how much detail I will go into, but I’ll try and do my best. So, let’s get started…

[Sidenote: N. T. Wright just published a book on the Christian hope for the future called Surprised by Hope. I have not read it yet. However, I have read enough Wright to guess what is in it, and I am willing to recommend it. You can see an interview with Wright on Colbert, discussing this book here.]

“Heaven” usually refers to the sky.

Heaven very often refers to simply the sky above, the place where birds fly, clouds move, and stars make their rotation. The term “heaven” or “heavens” is the same word as “sky” and sometimes it refers simply to what you saw when you looked up. The majority of time, when the Bible uses the word “heaven,” this is what it means. It is the place of air, birds, stars, clouds, rain, and the tops of mountains. In a very real sense any of us who have been to the summit of a high peak or flown in an airplane have been to heaven and back. That is the most common way for the Bible to use the term “heaven.” Much of the time, the Hebrew and Greek words for heaven are translated “sky” or “air.”

“Heaven” is where God is.

However, we have to remember that in ancient times, people assumed that their gods actually lived in the sky. To ancient eyes, it seemed that the top of the sky must be solid, like a big metal dome over the earth. They figured that the gods must live on top of the dome of heaven in a palace in the sky. Because of this, they could talk about the sky as the place where the gods dwelled. Where was the home of the gods? In the heavens. This was the common understanding in the ancient world, and so the term for the place where birds fly is the same as the term for where God lives. Although, we would not say today that God literally lives in the sky, the word has stuck, and the term “heaven” refers simply to the dwelling of God.

So this is where we will start our discussion of heaven, with the most basic fact: Heaven is the place where God lives.

This may seem very rudementary, but it will be important later on as I develop my understanding of heaven.

“There is such simplicity, such absence of display, or of any novel elaboration, in fact an absence of any costly trappings, when a man is plunged and dipped in water to the accompaniment of a few words, and then rises again not much cleaner, if at all; just because of this it seems to men incredible that eternal life should be won in this manner…We also marvel; but we marvel because we believe.” - Tertullian

Well, I think I have come to the end of my series on baptism. I certainly haven’t exhausted the topic. I haven’t even hit the real hot question on the topic. (Babies or believers?) But, I think I’ve covered a good bit, and hopefully stirred up some thinking on the topic. For so long, baptism has been one of the central acts of the Christian faith. It is not peripheral. It is not a nice side-topic. It is at the heart the wonder of the Christian faith. It is the way we all got into it.

I was talking with a friend the other day. He had mentioned that he thought people ought to be buried on church grounds. I wondered why he would say this, as it is an unusual conviction these days. He said that his main impulse for this was because the church is the place where you first died and rose again (in baptism), so it seems fitting that it be the place where it happens again (at the resurrection). Interesting thought. I don’t know that I have grown up accustomed to thinking of my baptism as an event as significant as being born or dying. I am beginning to think of it that way, now.

I hope that by thinking about baptism, you will begin to have some wonder. I hope that you marvel at the gift God has given us. We can experience the death Christ died for our sin, and it gives us faith. We can participate in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it gives us hope. We can be united with Christ and his people, and so we know love. This is the Christian faith. All of it is contained in the simple, unremarkable act of baptism. What a gift we have been given.

A few more baptism thoughts…

The ceremony of baptism is loaded with imagery from the Old Testament. For the early Christians, it was natural to think of baptism (and all of life) in terms of the story/stories of the Hebrew Scriptures. Baptism gathers up much of the narrative of the story of Israel, and, as someone receives baptism, they are caught up into this story. The story of what God is doing in history becomes their story. It is the narrative of their lives, in contrast with the plot-lines that the rest of the world demands we live in. Baptism is a ceremony that symbolically initiates you into God’s Story.

This became more clear to me this year during Easter. I attended the Easter Vigil at my sister’s Anglican church, which is a traditional time for baptisms. The liturgy included a reading of huge sweeps of Scripture from creation to Christ, hitting all the high points of redemptive history on the way. At the end of this reading, the baptisms occurred. The presentation of the Scripture was artfully done, and the effect of the liturgy was stunning. Baptism became more than a personal act by the time the readings were done. It was truly a part of God’s running narrative of salvation.

Here are some of the key points of the OT story that baptism symbolizes.

Creation

Go and read Genesis 1 again. Notice how the scene is set at the start:

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

The primeval chaos that existed before God brought order to the world is depicted as a churning ocean. Before God speaks, all is death, disorder, and purposelessness. When other parts of the OT, such as Job, Psalms, Proverbs, and the Prophets depict creation, they often use the imagery of water being restrained. Creation is pictured as God calling new life out of watery death. Baptism takes up this theme and the new Christian becomes part of God’s New Creation in Jesus.

The Flood

Genesis 6-9 tells the tale of Noah’s flood. The flood was a consequence of the intense evil of the humans at that time. They were wicked and full of violence. God was anguished by what humanity had become and the mess they had made of the world. So, God decided to wipe the slate clean, to purge the world of evil. In an act that was as much a cleansing as a judgment, the world was overwhelmed by the waters of chaos, returning to the state it was in just before God formed the world. But, as the waters of death purged the land of evil, new life came out of the destruction. Noah’s family was spared through the waters of judgment, and they lived to begin creation anew, with the blessing of God upon them. This story is mentioned in connection with baptism in the New Testament. In one of his letters, Peter says that just as Noah’s family was saved “through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” (I Peter 3:18-22)

Circumcision

When God first initiated his plan of salvation for the whole world, he approached Abraham. He called Abraham out of his old life, promised him a great land and a large family. Through this family, blessing would come to the whole world. God confirmed his promises by making a covenant with Abraham. As a sign of this covenant, Abraham and his sons underwent the act of circumcision. For the Jews, this served as seal, marking out who participated in the covenant with God and who did not. Any who joined in with the Jews in pledging themselves to God and trusting in God to fulfill his promises took on this mark. In the New Testament, circumcision is fulfilled in baptism. Baptism is now the symbol that marks off who is in and who is out of God’s people. Those who claim the promises of God in Christ undergo baptism, just as those before Christ underwent circumcision.

The Exodus

Abraham’s children moved to Egypt and eventually became slaves there. But, God supernaturally rescued them from their slave masters. He triumphed over the powers of death, the rule of a leader who thought he was a god. The final, climactic defeat of the Egyptians came at the Red Sea. God’s people were trapped, caught between the pursuing armies of Pharaoh and the shores of an uncrossable sea. The people were powerless, but God told them to simply be still. Through Moses, God parted the waters of the sea, and the people pass through on dry ground. The Egyptians however, were caught in the waves, and the water brought them down to death. In the New Testament, baptism is symbolically connected to this event. Paul says, “our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” (I Corinthians 10:1-2) Our baptism is just like this crossing of the Red Sea. In it, we are set free from the rule of sin. We are no longer slaves to the forces of death that dominate this world, but we are rescued to live a new life of freedom. We pass through the waters of death, but we emerge on the other side to a new life. The act is not our own, but it is the work of God. He brings us from slavery to freedom. He parts the waters. We only need to be still.

Crossing the Jordan

After Moses leads the people out of Egypt, they go to the promised land. When they arrive, spies enter the land to scout it out. They return, and most of them are too afraid to invade. They lack the faith to take God at his word that he will provide them the new land. This rebellious generation ends up wandering around the desert for 40 years, until nearly all of them are dead. Then, their children end up being the ones to enter into the Promised Land. Joshua replaces Moses as their leader, and he leads the entry into the new land.

The initial point of of entry is at the Jordan river. They approach the river during flood season, which makes the river impossible to cross. The story is quite dramatic, and you can read it yourself in Joshua 3. To sum it up, God tells the people that they are to cross the river while it is flooding, and that the priests were to go first, carrying the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark was the symbolic throne of God on earth, and the symbol of God’s presence with his people. When the priests’ feet touch the water and the Ark enters the river, the water is miraculously parted, and the river dries up. While the priests stand in the river, the people of Israel pass through it on dry ground. God enters the water, enabling the people to enter the land.

In the New Testament, baptism first occurs with John the Baptist. Where does he do it? The Jordan river, the same place where Israel first entered the land. What does he do? He calls people who are part of a rebellious generation to come and pass through the waters again, to repent, and truly become Israel again. God, he says, is about to fulfill his promises just as he did in Joshua’s day. His baptism is a re-crossing of the Jordan. And of course, like the first crossing, the presence of God on earth shows up. Jesus comes to enter the river, to stand in it with us, and be baptized.

Conclusion

The ceremony of baptism is not a private matter. It is the entry of individuals into a story much bigger than themselves. Baptism initiates you into the story of God’s work in the world. God is restoring creation, using his people. He has been doing it from the start. He has consistently worked to bring people out of death, slavery, and chaos. He does so by bringing them through the flood of death itself, giving them new life on the other side. God’s story is sweeping, covering the span of history. When we enter into this story through baptism, it redifines the narrative of our lives. The story claims us. We no longer live in the competing stories that the world offers us.

There are hundreds of false stories that we are called to believe in. The advertisers tell us that the plot of our life is one of consumption. The government tells us the story of the inevitable advancement of democracy around the world. We are painted a picture of career advancement, self-fulfillment, and status achievement. 20-somethings believe that they are supposed to take a few years to enjoy themselves before they take on responsibilities like family or ministry. Married couples are painted the picture of the happy, healthy family in a single-family home, with children who excel in school, music, and sports. This is the story they are told they are in, and their life is supposed to fit into that plot.

But baptism breaks this pattern. It brings us into the real story of the world. It brings us into God’s story and reveals that the others stories are lies and imitations of the world’s real plot. In baptism, God says, “You’re in my story now.”

Just after posting about my friends who blog, I found out that another good friend of mine just started a blog. Her name is Jenna, and she is a friend from Ecclesia. She also participated in “the Experiment.” She is an elementary school teacher. I am looking forward to her blog because she has a good sense of humor that I enjoy. Check it out: Herding cats…

My church is moving into a new building in about a month. I have been going to our current building for my whole life. It is kind of weird to be moving out. As part of the process of celebrating the good things that happened in that building, they have asked each of us to share some memories, which they are posting on the church website and using in the final service in the current building. My wife recently posted her memories. Here are mine. (Note: Some of these memories are going to make more sense to people who have been a part of my church. For others, it may feel like inside jokes. Herd = Junior High youth group. Student Body = Senior High Youth Group. Project Serve = Summer mission trip for students. Main Street Chapel = Student Ministries Building. 209 House = Student Ministries Offices.)

There is not enough space for almost 26 years of memories.

I remember Awana, with all of the frantic cramming and hasty recitation of Bible verses. Mrs. Brown would always make me go back and try to learn them again because I never remembered the reference. Her patience and my desire for prizes combined into a real blessing from God, because most of the passages I memorized then are still with me today.

I remember Breakout, the junior high prayer meeting that met early before school. All the older boys would chase the 7th graders around, but I kept coming anyway because they served Lucky Charms and my Mom didn’t. I’m glad I did, because this is one of key places where I learned to pray.

I remember being baptized in the main sanctuary. It was scary and cold and one of the best moments of my life. I come and witness as many baptisms as I can at WBC because never get over the wonder of seeing someone embrace new life through Christ’s death and resurrection.

I remember as a teenager sneaking into every corner of the building, from the storage behind the sanctuary, to the closets between the bathrooms in the gym, to the roof of Main Street Chapel. I think I know this building as well as any home I’ve ever lived in.

I remember getting my first job at 17 as a Gatekeeper. That consisted of sitting at the front desk for hours on end, stuffing the pew racks with giving envelopes, and preparing the candles for the candlelight service on Christmas Eve. We used to always get collect calls from some crazy guy who said he was “Jesus.” We weren’t supposed to answer them, but I mean, when Jesus calls collect, you accept the charges.

I remember my first Project Serve experience. We were sitting in the lobby of the main building with brown paper bags on our head, waiting to be chosen by a leader to find out what sites we were on. At that moment I swore that I would be a student leader the next year so that I didn’t have to do that again. This year is the first time in 12 years that I haven’t been on Project Serve. I’m thankful for every one of those trips because they taught me the value of missional living and gave me a potent vision of what it means to be a worshiping, serving community.

I remember giving my first sermon in Student Body in 11th grade. I have no idea why Rob Rienow thought I could do it, but I’m glad he gave me the chance. It wasn’t a very good sermon, but it is how I discovered my calling to teach the Bible.

I remember volunteering to be a Herd leader when I was in college. Week after week, Chris McElwee had us filling rooms in WBC with unusual objects, from hundreds of over-sized inner tubes to tarps full of slippery slime to strobe lights, all so we could gather junior highers and tell them about God. Some of my best memories are the nights where we didn’t play any games or watch goofy videos, but instead taught 7th and 8th graders that the coolest thing of all is to worship Jesus. Some of those junior highers are now missionaries.

I remember hundreds of meetings with high school students in the 209 house, where we would pray and plot about how to reach their world. I remember showing up to Main Street Chapel very early every Sunday morning for two years to get ready for Student Body. I’d look over the notes for my lesson, track down all the misplaced tech equipment, and pray like crazy for the students that I would be teaching that day.

I remember the first meeting of Ecclesia in Main Street Chapel, a little experiment in doing church in a new way in the hope of reaching the postmodern, post-Christian world around us. Four years later, I still love gathering with that community, to celebrate, learn, pray, and break bread together.

My favorite memory of all is meeting Michelle Sokoloski in a student leader meeting for Student Body. I thought she was cute. She thought I was an arrogant nerd. I remember how five years later, I watched Michelle walk down the aisle of the sanctuary to become Michelle Keenon. I still think she is cute, and she still thinks I’m a nerd.

Some of the best moments of my life were spent in the buildings on Main and Franklin. I am truly thankful for all that God has done during my time on that campus. I’ll miss it. I hope the new campus will provide as many good memories for us as this one has.

Because I am currently in a slow season here on the blog, it felt like a good time to tell you about some of my friends who blog so you can check them out. They are all over the map as far as style and perspective, but they are all my friends.

Matt

Matt is a very good friend of mine from Ecclesia. He and I have been in a small group together for the last few years. He is an engineer who works with robots. He recently started blogging (again). So far, he is writing about all sorts of things, from personal finance to exploited workers in the third world to the effects of living together before marriage. He applies a focused analytical mind to everything he does, but he is one of the more authentically caring people I know.

Joe

Joe, likewise, is a friend from Ecclesia. Joe’s blog, from the looks of it, started as his thoughts while studying in England. I didn’t know Joe then, so I can’t tell you much about that. Recently, I found his blog and saw that he is posting again. I mentioned before that Joe made a couple of posts about N. T. Wright’s What Saint Paul Really Said. Hopefully, he will continue sharing his thoughts, because they are worth hearing. A while back, I posted some thoughts after a class that he taught in Ecclesia about holiness. Joe is sharp, funny, and a solid guy.

Dan

Dan grew up in the same church as me. Both my wife and I knew him when we were younger, as he was a leader for us in Sunday school and the youth group. But that was a while ago. He has gone on to study theology at some significant schools, under some important theologians, amassing some impressive degrees. His blog is covers issues in politics, theology, poetry, and music. On the surface, he and I may seem to have fairly different political and theological outlooks. However, if you can read between the lines, there are some fundamental theological positions we share. For that reason I find his blog stimulating and fun. Of course, I would recommend the blog simply because he has good taste in music and because he is a friend.

Dahvede

Dahvede was a student of mine in junior high and high school. He is currently a missionary in New Zealand, working with YWAM. He blogs about his thoughts and experiences while doing this. I don’t know if he would use these terms for himself, but I’d characterize him as missional, reformed, and charismatic. In my book, that is a good combination. He is a man who is passionate about following Jesus wherever he leads.

Michelle (My Wife)

I saved the best for last. My wife, Michelle, has started a blog. It is impossible to be unbiased about your wife, but I think that even if I was not in love with her, I would recommend that you read her blog. She is both intelligent and wise. She is a high school English teacher. I’m not sure all that she is planning to write about, but I imagine she will write about faith, justice, simple living, family life, literature, and whatever amusing thoughts she has.

Also, check out my other friend’s blogs on the sidebar. Steve and Brian have good tumblelogs of interesting stuff they have found on the web. Kiley has some good recipes. Bryant and Dean have some good music. Chris is one of my pastors. Brett and Sam are former students. Jacob and Emily are friends from college. Wes, Jaemey, and Alison are friends from Ecclesia.

Also, don’t forget to check out my tumblelog as well. I post there more often than here.

Here is my recommendation. If you are not using a feed reader, get one. (I use GoogleReader.) Then, subscribe to these blogs.

I am going to be starting a series on heaven in the near future. But, before I get to that, let me give you a little preview of the sort of things I will be discussing. Actually, N. T. Wright and Stephen Colbert are going to help. Yesterday, Wright went on the Colbert Report and the two of them discussed theology. Basically, this was my ideal form of entertainment, theology and satire in harmony. (On a side note, I love that Colbert is actually a faithful Catholic, and he really does know his theology.) What Colbert and Wright discussed was the premise of Wright’s new book Suprised by Hope. It is a book about heaven, the end of the world, the resurrection, and the new creation. This is a quick summary, and frankly, if you don’t already have a grasp of Wright’s theology, you might not catch it all. But, I loved it, and maybe it will get things primed for my upcoming posts on heaven. Check it out.

Also, while I’m on the subject of Wright, a friend of mine from Ecclesia is blogging as he reads What Saint Paul Really Said by N. T. Wright. His name is Joe, and here is a link to his first post on N. T. Wright.

I just got done with my last Greek class, and I passed my competency exam. I officially “know Greek.” Of course, that doesn’t mean I can just pick up the New Testament and read it without some help, but I do feel pretty comfortable and confident. I didn’t feel like this the first time I took Greek five years ago. This is one of those times where I actually feel like I accomplished something. It is nice.

Of course, Greek is technically a prerequisite for my whole program. This fall, I’ll be taking the core classes, and they will all assume a knowledge of Greek. Which means, I’ll be continuing to sharpen my skills and learn new vocab over the summer.  But that is okay. I never thought I’d say this, but I really like studying Greek. It is kind of fun. [Clayton pushes up his glasses in a nerd salute.]

So, now that my Greek class is done, the rest of my summer consists of a pair of historical theology classes, (Early Church and Medieval), a couple of trips to see friends and family, and watching as much Lost as my wife and I can get through while maintaining a normal social life. Hopefully, I’ll squeeze some blogging in there too.

So, getting rolling on the summer blogging is taking longer than I thought it would. I have been taking an intensive Greek class over the past couple weeks, and it is fairly time consuming. Not to mention, Michelle and I started watching the first season of Lost. Hopefully I will get motivated and have time to start posting again soon.

The semester is done. Thank God. The summer will be a welcome break. I will be taking classes, but they will be one at a time and paced out so as to leave Michelle and I plenty of time to enjoy the summer.

This week, my youngest sister, Hillary, gets married. It is quite a big deal for our whole family, and we are really pumped. Although, I’m sad because she will be moving out of state. The guy she is marrying is a solid man, and I am really proud of them. Please pray with me for their wedding, that it would be meaningful, that as they make their promises to each other, that they would mean them and God would give them strength to keep them. Pray also for their marriage, that it would be full of grace, that they would help each other become more like Christ, and that their family would be a blessing to the people around them.

As far as blogging goes, this summer, hopefully will provide plenty of opportunity for that, that means I will be able to blog some. I have had some good requests of topics to write about. My foster sister asked me to write about heaven, because she is interested in that. Heaven is a fun topic, so I think I’ll tackle that. My other sister liked my baptism thoughts, so I think I might finish those and maybe post a couple of thoughts about the Lord’s Supper. Also, Tim left some good comments on my Ephesians paper, and I would like to respond to those. So, if all goes well, I hope to hit up those topics pretty soon.

Recently, I wrote a paper for my New Testament Theology class. The assignment was to trace a theme in one of Paul’s letters. I chose to write about Paul’s teaching about the church in the book of Ephesians. It is titled, “A Taste of Things to Come: The Church in Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians.” I posted it in parts, so as to make it easier to read in this format. It is an academic paper, not a sermon, so it might have some technical terms in it, although I think it should be fairly readable. If you have any questions, let me know.

• Introduction and Background to Ephesians
• The Context of the Church: Cosmic Unity
• The Composition of the Church: Racial Unity
• The Calling of the Church: Dynamic Unity
• The Conduct of the Church: Practical Unity
• Implications for the Church Today

What would it mean for Christians today to take seriously what Ephesians teaches about the church?

At the most basic level, it would mean giving the church a central place in our thinking and life. For many American Protestants especially, there is a tendency to think of the church as a secondary feature of Christianity. We think the main thing in Christianity is personal salvation and growth. The church is at best sort of a helpful addition to assist this, providing means to personal salvation and growth. Ephesians shatters this small vision, placing the church in an essential place in the plan of cosmic redemption. A solid “theology of redemption should inevitably lead to a vibrant ecclesiology in so far as the essence of this redemption consists in the move away from the alienation…towards personal reunification in Christ with God and neighbour.”[1] The church is not an optional, secondary, or merely helpful institution. It is absolutely fundamental to God’s plan for bringing reconciliation to the world, both in heaven and on earth.

Furthermore, if we take Ephesians seriously, our view of the church will take on a much larger scope. If the church is “God’s pilot scheme for the reconciled universe of the future,”[2] then it is inappropriate to reduce it to an arena of personal devotion or even merely a spiritual support network. It is the place where God’s redemptive plan for all of creation is first enacted. This means the church must concern itself with all of life, from economics to politics to social issues. Our worship, community, and growth are all contributing to God’s display of his multi-faceted wisdom before the world and the spiritual forces. We dare not reduce this to mere private piety. The church does impact the world by making nice, “spiritual” people, but by radically re-orienting all the structures of life. Christ’s eschatological reconciliation will impact all of society, every realm of creation and human culture, transforming every institution. The church is the vanguard community for experiencing this transformation. If we fail to focus on the whole scope of human life, opting for an internal or merely ethical spirituality, we will fail to live out our identity in Christ.

Taking Ephesians’ teaching on the church seriously also means the direct confrontation of racism and the pursuit of practical unity. North American churches have grown content with congregational hegemony. The well-known quote is unfortunately accurate: the most racially divided hour of the week is on Sunday morning. According to Paul in Ephesians, this is an affront to the gospel because it denies the cosmic reconciling power of Christ. Bruce Fong says, “What Jesus initiated in the Church demands that there be visible unity regardless of race, language or culture.”[3] While it is not clear what this will look like in today’s context, it does mean we need to start having difficult and honest conversations with churches that are different from us, both down the street and around the world.

Even where race is not a factor, practical unity among Christians is a non-negotiable. From individual Christians to local churches to ministry organizations to denominations, Christians must promote tangible oneness. This includes the pursuit of forgiveness between divided Christians, tangible forms of cooperation in ministry, and participating in shared corporate worship across dividing lines. We must remember that in the end, all churches and Christians will be completely united in Christ. That is the inevitable result of Christ’s reconciling work. That means that right now, being one with our brothers and sisters should be a paramount concern. It is our responsibility as Christ’s people to pursue real, visible unity. To not do so “would be completely inconsistent with being God’s masterpiece of reconciliation and ultimately with his purposes of summing up everything as a totality in Christ.”[4]

The church is God’s new creation, foreshadowing the coming re-creation of the whole world. Let us live out the cosmic reconciling power of Christ so that angels, demons, and people all races will marvel at God’s magnificent wisdom and praise his glorious grace.

Conduct of the Church: Practical Unity (4:17-6:9)

Starting in 4:17, Paul launches into specific instructions on how the church should conduct itself, emphasizing the concrete, practical practice of unity. Throughout this section, Paul’s underlying logic remains firmly fixed to God’s unifying and reconciling purposes in Christ. He is calling “readers to live in a way that corporately expresses the cosmic unity God has inaugurated”[1] by renouncing “the old-creation patterns of alienated and alienating behavior”[2] His exhortations are aimed at things “which cause dissension and alienation within the body, that is, they are sins which work against the body’s unity.”[3] By targeting anger, brawling, unwholesome talk, sexual immorality, and drunkenness, he attacks sins that damage healthy community life. Likewise, he encourages behaviors that build up unity in Christ, such as forgiveness, corporate singing, compassion, and mutual submission. The communal logic of Paul’s instructions can be seen clearly when he condemns lying. He says “each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor.” This is not just a detached moral command. Rather, it is the natural outcome of believing that “we are all members of one body.”[4] If we belong to each other, then there is no reason to deceive each other.[5] This is an ethic rooted in our fundamental identity as people in community because of Christ.

All relationships are transformed in the context of the church, the arena of God’s redemption in Christ. This carries over into every relationship with a fellow believer, including the relationship between slaves and masters,[6] children and parents,[7] and husbands and wives.[8] These relationships all become tangible expressions of the eschatological cosmic reconciliation in Christ that the church experiences. Paul unpacks the marriage relationship most completely, connecting it directly to the redeeming work of Christ for his church by comparing the husband to Christ and the wife to the church. Marriage no longer exists in a vacuum, but instead becomes “a pledge of God’s purposes for the unity of the cosmos.”[9] Furthermore, by connecting Christ’s love for the church with God’s original picture of marriage in Eden,[10] we see that marriage is a specific arena where God’s new creation is exemplified.[11] The unity of the church which foreshadows the unity of all creation in Christ works its way into the unity of specific husbands and wives. Andreas Kostenberger explains:

“Marriage is not an end in itself; it is part of a life under God in the church and in the world. Marriage is a relationship in the process of restoration. To the extent that a married couple sees itself as part of the global eschatological movement toward ‘summing up all things in Christ’ (Eph 1:9), it will experience fulfillment and share the perspective on marriage Paul presents in the passage at hand.”[12]

Marriage is the most vivid example of this, but the same is true of all our interactions with fellow Christians. All our specific relationships are to be transformed in light of our participation in the church, the community that experiences now the eschatological cosmic reconciliation in Christ. One day God will sum up all things in Christ, and for the church that reality should begin filtering down into our specific, everyday relationships.

For all his emphasis on the cosmic, universal nature of church in Ephesians, Paul does not dodge the issue of concrete life in a local community of Christians. Paul does not want us to simply love other Christians with a vague or general sense of “oneness.” Merely having a pleasant feeling of “unity” is not enough. Paul will not let us neglect the more difficult and less inspiring work of specific relationships with a brother or sister who has a name, a history, real sin, and actual problems. How does the church display the cosmic reconciliation wrought by Christ? Through the nitty-gritty of seeking unity with our fellow Christians.

Calling of the Church: Dynamic Unity (4:1-16)

Because, in the divine economy, the church bears the special privilege of experiencing Christ’s cosmic reconciliation ahead of time, it also has a high calling which it must live up to, the call to unity. The foundation of this unity is the oneness of the blessings given to the church:

“There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”^[1]

Because of the unity of God and his gifts, the church must be one. Division is foreign to its nature and a contradiction of what God has called it to be. This unity is not a human accomplishment, but founded on the work of the triune God.

Paul is clear that this unity is not the result of uniformity, but harmonious diversity. God has given the whole church one Spirit, one hope, one faith, and so on, but he has given a plurality of gifts to the individuals that make up the church. “To each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”[2] Primary among these diverse gifts are apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers.[3] In the body of Christ, they “function as ligaments, providing connections between the various parts.”[4] These specific roles have been given to the church to “to prepare God’s people for works of service.”^[5] Everyone in the church has been given gifts by God that must be coordinated and used for the benefit of the whole church. Each part must do its work.[6]

It is likewise clear that the church’s unity is not a static reality, but a dynamic one. The church is constantly growing, being “built up, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”^[7] The church is pictured as a developing organism, “not a dead, unapproachable, mighty or rich body, but is Christ’s living and growing body.”[8] The church is a developing reality whose unity will one day be fully experienced. This is part of the tension between the church’s present experience of reconciliation in Christ, and the coming fullness of the still future cosmic redemption. At that time the body will reflect truly the image of its Head, Christ.

This dynamic, diverse unity of the church is not merely a side effect of Christ’s work. It is, as Max Turner explains, “not simply a matter of pragmatism…unity in love is the distinguishing mark of the new humanity over against the alienated world doomed to pass away.”[9] The unity of the church is at the heart of the gospel and a sign of the efficacy of Christ’s reconciling work.

Composition of the Church: Racial Unity (2:11-3:13)

In Ephesians, the foremost result of the church’s experience of the cosmic reconciliation in Christ is the radical transformation of the relationship between Jews and Gentiles. In 2:11-12, Paul discusses the status of the Gentiles before encountering Christ. Prior to Christ’s reconciling work, Gentiles were alienated from Israel. Using the law, circumcision, and other cultural markers, the Jews engaged in what Tet-Lim N. Yee calls, “covenantal ethnocentrism,” keeping themselves racially and religious separate from Gentiles.[1] Because of this isolation from Israel, the Gentiles were “separate from Christ” and “without hope and without God in the world.”[2] However, because of Jesus’ reconciling work, the Gentiles can now be “brought near through the blood of Christ.”[3] Not only does Christ’s work unite people with God, it also unites people with each other, breaking down racial and cultural boundaries. Christ’s “purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.”[4] This corporate “new man” is a part of Christ’s new creation, a restoration of the original unity of all people before sin. It is not merely a mixture of Jews and Gentiles, but a new “third entity” in which “the previous ethnic and religious categories have been transcended.”[5] This is not to say that people loose their ethnic identity in Christ. Instead they are united “without destroying what they possessed culturally, racially or linguistically.”[6] Gentiles are still Gentiles. Jews are still Jews. However, as the church models “the beginning of cosmic re-unification,”[7] Gentiles can “shed the stigma of being foreigners and aliens.”[8] The church is a community more fundamental than ethnic and cultural distinctions.

In 2:19-22, Paul makes the remarkable statement that this united group of Jews and Gentiles together make up God’s eschatological temple. They are being:

“Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”

Here is a startling way that the church is a foretaste of the ultimate reconciliation of the cosmos in Christ. God’s dwelling is no longer exclusively among the Jews, isolated to the temple in Israel where access is denied to people lacking the ethnic markers of circumcision and Torah. Instead, God lives among the racially mixed community he has created. Paul is acutely aware of the radical nature of this claim because he has been arrested for bringing Greek Christians into the Jerusalem temple.^[9] It was truly bold to claim that a group that included Gentiles could be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”[10] But, for Paul this was fundamental to the gospel. Christ’s reconciling work necessarily resulted in the creation of the church, a united, yet ethnically diverse people. That the “the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel”^[11] was a concrete display of God’s grace and “the fulfillment of the eschatological hope in its widest and most generous expression.”^[12]

In 3:10-11, Paul makes it clear that the reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles in the church also plays a crucial role in God’s plan to deal with the spiritual forces in the heavenly realm. The fact that earthly divisions are being transcended by Christ’s work is a sign to heavenly forces that Christ’s work will also bring them into subjugation. God brings about racial reconciliation so that “through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.”^[13] The church is a witness to the heavenly realm of the richly varied, beautiful wisdom of the God who is reconciling all things. Or, in other words, racial reconciliation is spiritual warfare.

Context of the Church: Cosmic Unity (Ephesians 1:3-23)

The opening of Ephesians presents a sweeping picture of cosmic salvation that sets the backdrop for Paul’s view of the church in the book. After greeting the readers, Paul opens his letter with an exuberant praise of God for the glorious salvation given in Christ. He paints an expansive picture of God’s grace over the course of his eleven-verse berakah, reaching the “high point of the eulogy” in verses 9-10:[1]

“And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.”

From the very beginning, God’s plan has been for all things to be summed up under the rule of Jesus Christ. Because of sin, the world is currently in a state of alienation, brokenness, and hostility, rather than the original harmony of Eden. Just has he promised in the Old Testament, God is reversing this state of affairs, bringing creation “back from warring alienation into peaceful unity.”[2] More than simply saving individuals, Christ’s work accomplishes large-scale healing for the entire created order, both in heaven and on earth. It ultimately brings about “the reintegration of the whole cosmos rent asunder by sin” in which all things find their proper place under the rule of Jesus.[3]

The benefits of Christ’s cosmic rule are focused on the church. Paul asserts that “God placed all things under [Christ’s] feet and appointed him to be head over everything,” a huge claim of the supremacy of Christ. He continues, however, saying that the benefits of this accomplishment are “for the church.” Why? Because the church is “his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”[4] The wide-ranging effects of Christ’s cosmic redemption bless the church because it is the community that has been joined with Christ and is filled with his powerful, reconciling presence.

Although this cosmic reconciliation is primarily eschatological, occurring “when the times will have reached their fulfillment,” because it has already been achieved and inaugurated in Jesus, it can be experienced, in part, right now. Because of the presence of the Holy Spirit, God’s people can have both an assurance and a foretaste of the coming cosmic redemption.[5] Thus, the church is the arena in which the eschatological reconciliation can be seen and experienced ahead of time. It is “the first installment of cosmic reconciliation.”[6] The entire book of Ephesians can be read as an exposition of this reality, as it depicts what the life of the church looks like in light of the church’s present experience of future redemption in Christ.

The church is a foundational reality in the thinking and ministry of the apostle Paul. Unlike most modern readers, whose instincts are often individualistic, Paul has communal and corporate realities at the forefront of his thought. In each of his letters, Paul consciously spoke into the lives of Christian communities, not merely individual Christians. In his letter to the Ephesians, it is clear why the church is so important to Paul. Max Turner says that “in no Pauline letter is the church so remarkably prominent.”[1] Markus Barth says that “Ephesians is in its very essence a church letter.”[2] Ephesians shows us what a high view of the church Paul actually had. As Kevin Giles puts it, “Nowhere else in the New Testament do we find such a lofty ecclesiology.”[3] For Paul, the church was not a mere side-effect of the gospel, but an integral component of God’s unfolding salvation-history. This paper will explore the theme of the church in Ephesians, showing how it fits into the book’s cosmic vision of salvation in Christ and how that context impacts the concrete life of the church.

Background to Ephesians

Among Paul’s letters, Ephesians yields the least amount of information about the specific situation it addresses. In fact, it is not even certain that the letter was written to the church in Ephesus, as the label “in Ephesus” is missing from 1:1 in some of the best manuscripts.[4] Because of this and the general lack of specific names, places, or problems in the letter, scholars cannot come to a firm sense of what circumstances, if any, Paul aimed to address.[5] It is likely that the letter was at least partially intended to be circular, going to multiple churches in a region. As a result it lacks the specificity of other Pauline letters, like Galatians, Corinthians, or even the very similar letter to the Colossians. At best, some have suspected that Paul was addressing a church where some tensions existed between Jews and Gentiles, as this is a prominent theme in the book. Even so, it is difficult to read Ephesians against any particular background, and the letter functions as more of a general overview of Pauline teaching. This is probably why, when discussing the church, Ephesians tends to focus on the universal church, rather than a specific congregation.[6]

A week ago, Michelle and I moved into a new apartment. “The Experiment” is over, but the data is still being processed. The reason I haven’t posted much about it for the last six months is that most of what we learned and experienced was not interesting enough to share online. On the other hand, the interesting stuff is probably too personal to share online. So, there is not much left to say. Overall, I’d say it was a good experience, and under the right circumstances with the right people, I’d do something like it again. But, Michelle and I are happy to be in our own place again. We’re just a few blocks from Wheaton College. I can walk to class, and I am enjoying that a lot.

Because the last couple weeks were spent moving and unpacking I haven’t been able to blog much. I will slowly get back into the swing of things, I hope. Although, it may still be a month before I get rolling completely. I have final papers and exams coming faster than I like.

I have more thoughts on baptism, especially after going to the Easter Vigil at Church of the Resurrection, where they performed baptisms and recounted the rich Biblical imagery for baptism through Scripture reading. However, the series has gotten long, and probably less than interesting for most people. Plus, I’ve been getting comments from weirdo’s on the internet, and I don’t want to get attract any more of them.  So, unless I have a request from someone reputable to continue on the topic, I’ll move on.

As more people are reading my blog, especially from my own community, I feel like I should start using it to address more of the particular concerns of my community, rather than just what tickles my fancy. I get a lot of questions emailed to me, and I love addressing people’s concerns. I might try and tackle more of the issues I get asked about here on the blog.  So, if you have a question or an interesting thought, let me know, and we’ll talk about it.

All this is to say, real posts will be coming again soon. Stay tuned.

There are just a few more biblical images I want to highlight about baptism. The first I have discussed already. It is found in Romans 6:

We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?…For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. (Romans 6:2b-3, 6-7)

The image Paul associates with baptism is dying. More than that, it is being crucified. These are such common terms in religious circles that sometimes we fail to see the violent force of these images. Baptism is a crucifixion of our old selves. It is a lynching, a bloody, brutal murder of our old selves. When we are baptized, our old self is killed. In the violence done to Jesus on the cross, we also are killed, that is, our old lives. Baptism enacts this death on us. Down into the water we go. We are buried. We die.

We see the image again in Colossians:

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. (Colossians 2:11-12)

This time the image of death and burial is connected with another bloody image, that of circumcision. The significance of this image, primarily, is in how circumcision functioned in the Old Testament. The ritual of circumcision is the way someone entered into the covenant with God in the Old Testament. It was the ceremony that made you a part of the Jewish community. So now, baptism does the same thing. In baptism, not circumcision, we are brought into covenant with God and union with God’s people. The image of circumcision is a violent, painful one. In circumcision, one is marked by the cutting of flesh.

Together, the images of crucifixion, burial, and circumcision show the harshness of baptism. The break between our old life and our new life is so sharp that it can be compared to death. Our old selves must be murdered. They must be cut off. We must make a very painful break with our old ways of thinking, living, and relating to God and the world. In baptism, God kills us. This is the only way that we can live a new life. It is a violent image.

But there is another image used for baptism. It is found in Paul’s instructions to husbands about how to treat their wives. Paul says that a marriage is to reflect the relationship that Christ has with his Church. Husbands are to love their wives self-sacrificially in the way that Jesus loved his people. In describing this, Paul elaborates on the way Jesus loves the Church:

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:25-27)

That image of washing with water is an allusion to baptism. First of all, note that it is connected to the word, that is the message of the Gospel. Baptism cannot be an empty ritual, it must be connected with the proclamation and belief in the Gospel. Otherwise, it is just a bath, not a baptism. Secondly and primarily, I want to highlight that the image of baptism is of Jesus washing his wife. Think about that. It is an incredibly intimate picture. It is a groom on his wedding night, gently and tenderly bathing his bride. Pay attention to the care, love and closeness in that. It is an act of supreme intimacy. In baptism, Jesus tenderly and lovingly washes us. He prepares us for himself, so that we can be presented in splendor, without blemish, holy and beautiful.

This is the love of Jesus! His touch murders me and cleanses me. I drown. I bathe. A burial and a wedding happen all at once. Oh, how he loves us. So tenderly, so violently.

Why do some Christians not get baptized? Here are some of the reasons I have heard.

“I don’t see the big deal. It isn’t that significant.”

Some Christians haven’t been baptized simply because they have never been taught about it. They go to a church that does not have a high view of baptism or a rich understanding of it. Because the community marginalizes baptism, the individual does too. The fault here, I think, is more on the church for failing to instruct someone about the importance of baptism. The solution? Explain a rich, deep understanding of baptism to them and encourage them to do it.

“I’m waiting until I’m more mature in my faith so that I know what I am doing more.”

I hear this all the time, especially among students, but also in adults. I can understand, at least, the motive for this. For someone who wants to understand and value baptism rightly, it makes sense that they might want to have a little more time growing and learning before doing it. Baptism is not a light thing, it is a big deal. I wouldn’t want someone to rush into it without taking it seriously.

And yet, at the same time, I think this thinking really misunderstands baptism. It is the same reasoning that people use to justify living with their boyfriend or girlfriend but waiting to get married. They want to grow, see how it will work, make sure they really mean it, have a more mature relationship, etc…and then they’ll get married. But this is not how it works. Getting married is the foundation and the commitment that forms the context for a lifelong relationship to grow. The same thing is true of getting baptized. When you first get married, the truth is, you don’t know your spouse as well you think you do. You spend your whole life getting to know them better and getting closer to them, just ask someone who has been happily married after 25 or 30 years. Your relationship can always get close and richer and deeper. Getting married is what makes this growing, deepening relationship possible. This is even more true with God. You will always have a growing understanding of who he is and what it means to be in relationship with him. Your baptism is the supposed to be the start of this growing relationship. It is the foundational commitment that creates the context for your relationship to God.

The truth is, when you get baptized, you cannot fully understand the commitment you are making, just like someone can never realize what the commitment of marriage really means until they start living it. For Christians, we learn the meaning of baptism over the course of our lifetime. Every week, when we hear the Word preached and share the Lord’s Supper, we hear again the promises God made to us in our baptism. Every day, when things are difficult or easy, joyful or discouraging, we learn what it means to be committed to Christ for the long haul. The truth is, we won’t really understand baptism until we are raised from the dead and united with Christ for eternity. We must grow in to our baptism.

Part of the symbolism of baptism is that you are being initiated into a mystery bigger than yourself and beyond your understanding. If we wait until we “really understand it” or “really mean it,” we will never get baptized. Plus, if we fully understood what it really meant to be “united with Christ in his death” at the start, we might not do it. The life baptism requires would seem too difficult, and no one would do it.

That is why I tell people, if you know enough to commit your life to Jesus and mean it, you know enough to be baptized.

“I’m afraid of speaking in front of people.”

Baptisms are public. They are for any and all to see. They are a commitment before the world and the Church that we are publicly accountable to. Because of this, a real hindrance for some people is stage fright. This is especially true for school-age children who want to be baptized. It is even harder in my church where people being baptized usually share the story of how they came to faith. This sharing of a “testimony” is not required anymore than a history of a couple’s courtship is necessary at a wedding. However, it can be a good way for someone to express their love and commitment to Christ. All that is needed, though, is a confession of faith in Christ. Baptisms do not require major public speaking. Most churches have some formula (similar to the written wedding vows that people use when getting married) to help people express their trust in God. I think this is g