When you think about your church’s culture, you can likely identify positive and negative aspects. There’s no perfect church. So you involve yourself in Christ’s body not because a church has it all together or has attained human perfection but because you are, in fact, “involved” in Christ’s body.
Ephesians 2:19–22 (CSB) explains this about all believers: “You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household . . . being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.” Christians are joined together for a holy purpose. We’re “one body in Christ, and individually members one of another” (Rom. 12:5).
The question, then, is how imperfect people of all walks of life are joined together in Christ. And what does that mean for our assurance and our destiny?
Gospel Doctrine: We’re Saved by Grace
The word “gospel” means “good news.” It’s the message of God’s grace shown to undeserving sinners through the work of Christ’s cross. We’re saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone apart from all our works. God, through Jesus’s perfect life, atoning death, and bodily resurrection, rescues all his people from his wrath and into peace with him. And he promises the full restoration of his created order forever—all to the praise of his glorious grace.
That grace is a gift (Eph. 2:8–9). We don’t earn salvation by having it all together, and we’re certainly not meant to relate to one another under the guise of that terrible assumption. So how should what we believe about the good news of God’s grace doctrinally extend to the way we relate to one another in this life and into eternity?
Gospel Culture: Grace Leads to Loving Unity
Consider Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth:
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. . . . For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. (1 Cor. 15:1–2, 9–11)
The Corinthians had heard and believed the gospel of God’s grace. They’d been unified in Christ. Yet they were at odds with one another and operating in disunity. They, like all believers then and now, needed a reminder that grace changes everything—including our relationships within the church.
Grace changes everything—including our relationships within the church.
Paul was convinced having gospel assurance would lead the church to gospel unity. But can we truly have assurance? Jesus came to earth with a radical grace foreign to all we’ve ever known. His mercy for the undeserving can be hard for us to believe and hold on to. In a world where we’ve experienced performative and conditional love, it’s hard to wrap our minds around a different kind of love. But as unsteady and unsure as we may be, God’s steadfast love for us endures forever (Ps. 136).
In our instability, we believe Jesus is disgusted by the reality of who we are. We’re well aware of our failures, so our accusing thoughts insist he despises us. But we must cling to the gospel that says he loves us. We must choose to believe he has forgiven us, justified us, and adopted us. We must believe he rejoices over us—and always will. Why? Because it’s only when we hold on to the gospel of grace that we grow in unity with fellow believers. It’s only then that the risen Jesus’s presence and the sure hope of eternal life become felt realities.
Gospel Future: Grace-Filled Communities Offer a Taste of Eternity
When we embrace the gospel and find assurance in Christ, we’re set free to love one another. And our love foreshadows the grace we’ll experience for all eternity. Jesus is coming again (John 14:3). History isn’t drifting along out of his control. He’ll return to conclude it with dramatic judgment, and he’ll establish his kingdom for eternity. Jesus said of when he comes, “I will . . . take you to myself” (v. 3, CSB).
The new heavens and new earth will involve more than being transformed as individuals. Heaven will have a new community, a gospel culture where we’ll forever experience nothing but God’s love and grace.
Heaven will have a new community, a gospel culture where we’ll forever experience nothing but God’s love and grace.
That great hope has direct relevance to us as a church today. Every gospel-centered church is a model home for the new neighborhood Jesus is building. Church is a place where people can come and see what human flourishing can look like so they’ll want to buy in now. We invite them to come to safety now, before the final judgment. For this reason, much is at stake in the quality of our life together as local churches. We pursue gospel cultures so that by God’s grace, our churches will feel a bit like heaven on earth.
God calls us to bring this taste of heaven on earth so people see how Jesus changes lives. How do we live up to that high calling? We believe the gospel. We trust God’s promises so assurance of his love overrules our selfish impulses each moment. We hold to his promises as real so we can relax and rejoice and love and serve until he comes again.