The Object Of The Church

[dave c]

simpletruth #138ax Revisited 27 NOV 10 salicart@msn.com

HOSEA 10:12—Part Fifty: The Object Of The Church

by rev. dave c

Hosea 10:12, Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the LORD, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you (NKJV).

In Part Four we began to dig into this study by discussing the irony of being told to “sow for ourselves righteousness” in the face of knowing that ...all our righteous acts are like filthy rags…(Is 64:6; NIV). At that time I defined “righteousness” as conformity to God’s will in our relationship with Him, and with each other. I went on to state that ‘the first step of obedience to God the Father is the acceptance of God the Son as our Lord and Savior, and the receiving of God the Holy Spirit. Effectively, the decision to seek forgiveness and to follow Christ is our first act of righteousness, and, by Divine mercy, the result is salvation through justification. The rest of a Christian’s life while still in this flesh is the process of learning submission to the will of the Father. This is salvation today as sanctification...and it is “sowing for ourselves righteousness”. Finally, upon death and resurrection, we will be given perfected bodies so that we might spend eternity in the presence of Jesus as the Lord of All Creation—this is salvation as glorification.’ At this point I would add that righteousness (along with holiness, goodness, mercy, grace, and so forth) is an actualization of God’s glory where we see “glory” defined as God’s divine nature and eternal power (Ps 113:4&5); His manifested presence upon the Earth through various phenomena (miraculous events throughout Scripture); and/or the actions and attitudes of His Church within the commandments to love Him with our whole person (Lu 10:27), love our neighbors as we love ourselves (Lu 10:27), and to love one another as Jesus loves us (Jn 13:34).

Please consider the following quote from the New Bible Dictionary, Second Edition; Intervarsity Press, Leicester, England; Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois, USA; 1988; p 424: “Man, who was made as the image and glory of God (1 Co 11:7) for relationship with him, has fallen short of his destiny (Ro 3:23), which has been fulfilled only by Christ, the second Adam (Heb. 2:6-9). The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ is still to be seen and reflected by the church (2Co 4:3-6). It is the glory of the new covenant (2Co 3:7-11), and it is especially shared both now (1 Pe 4:14) and hereafter (Rom. 8:18) by those who suffer with Christ. The object of the church is to see that the world acknowledges the glory which is God’s (Rom. 15:9) and is shown in his deeds (Ac 4:21), in his disciples (1 Co 6:20) and above all in his Son, the Lord of glory (Ro 16:27).”

While Paul tells us in Romans 8:24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it (NAS), and in Galatians 5:5 the Apostle to the Gentiles says, But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope (NIV)—the use of “wait” in these verses is not to suggest that the Church is to be passive, or inert, during this lifetime. Quite the contrary. Throughout the New Testament we are told to be diligent in our sharing with each other (2Co 8:13-15), caring for the needy (Mt 25:31-40), and to the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ into all the world (Mk 16:15&16). In this manner the world will come to see the reality of existence within the promises constituted by the glory of God.

In and of ourselves, we are incapable of personal righteousness and/or righteous works, but through our faith in Jesus we are declared righteous and imbued with the Holy Spirit so that we might be fully equipped for every good deed to the praise of God the Father’s glory. In Second Peter, Chapter One, we read: 2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (NIV).

“The object of the church is to see that the world acknowledges the glory which is God’s.” The word “glory” is translated from the Greek word, “doxa”, and it can be thought of as meaning “very apparent”. This is to say that God is very apparent within the nature of His being—God is very apparent within His omnipotence, His omniscience, and His omnipresence regarding all of His creation—and God is to be very apparent within the prayer, the praise, and the purposeful attitudes and activities of His Bride and Body, the Church. As we grasp at programs designed in the cool, calculated, methods of worldly psychology and salesmanship—as we grapple with each other to fill our ranks from the pews of our neighbors—and as we greedily build, and build, and build our towers of Babel—to whose glory do we aspire? What has become very apparent to the unsaved and the uncommitted as they listen to our speech and watch our actions? In Matthew 15:8&9 Jesus laments: "'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men'" (NIV).