From Eternity to Here: Rediscovering the Ageless Purpose of God

by Frank Viola

According to the New Testament, salvation is not simply an individual transaction. It’s rather a translation from one community into another (Col. 1:13). It’s an incorporation into a collective spiritual reality, the body of Jesus Christ. And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women. (Acts 5:14 NKJV) And a great many people were added to the Lord. (Acts 11:24 NKJV) Throughout history, Christian leaders have constructed various methods for church membership. But in the above passages we have church membership according to the mind of God. And the latter varies dramatically from the former.

When we discover that our relationship to the Father is actually Christ’s relationship to His Father, it changes everything. Our souls find rest. Even our vocabulary changes. No longer do we say things like, “I’m working on my relationship with the Lord.” … “I’m struggling to be a better Christian.” … “I’ll eventually get to where I want to be someday.”

To restate it: You and I do not have a separate fellowship with God the Father. We have been called into the one unique fellowship of God’s Son (1 Cor. 1:9; 1 John 1:3). Christ’s perfect, unclouded relationship to His Father is the marvelous legacy that He has given to you and me.

I studied the apparent contradictions of the Bible and resolved many of them. (Today, I am perfectly content to leave them unresolved.)

YES! He LEAVES THEM ALONE!

As I survey the landscape of modern Christianity, it seems to me that spiritual things and objects have replaced the person of Christ. The doctrines, gifts, graces, virtues, and duties that we so earnestly seek have substituted for Jesus Himself. We look to this gift and that gift, we study this truth and that truth, we seek to appropriate this virtue, we try to fulfill this duty, but all along we fail to find Him. When the Father gives us something, it’s always His Son. When the Son gives us something, it’s always Himself. This insight greatly simplifies the Christian life. Instead of seeking many spiritual things, we seek only Him. Our single occupation is the Lord Jesus Christ. He becomes our only pursuit. We do not seek divine things; we seek a divine person. We do not seek gifts; we seek the giver who embodies all the gifts. We do not seek truth; we seek the incarnation of all truth.