Get Your Pretense On!

Chapter 3: ”There’s Plenty Good Room” • 63

blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”) Indeed, the life and light of Jesus Christ penetrated our darkness, and now, through his incarnation, death, and resurrection, we Gentiles have seen a great light (Isa. 9.1-2). So then, we who believe in the Gospel together, both Jew and Gentile, are the new family of God (1 John 3.1-3), the body of Christ (Rom. 12.4-5), and the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3.16). We are the new dwelling place of God, built on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles, with Christ himself being the cornerstone, fitted together through the work of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2.19-22). Every little, homely assembly where Jesus is confessed as Lord, where the Gospel is preached, the repentant are baptized, where the sacraments are administered, and the discipline of the church enjoyed – each one of these congregations (a local church) is a true instance of the one, holy, apostolic, and catholic (universal) church of the living God. The church is central for in us God reveals his determination to redeem his creation from the power of the curse, and draw out of humankind a people for himself forever (Ps. 22.26-27). As a believer in Christ, you are a member of God’s forever family; you are an heir of the coming Kingdom of our Lord! As stated in the earlier part of this work, God almighty has been working from the start to redeem a new humankind from the Curse, Death, and the effects of the Fall. He intends to accomplish this through his Son, identifying all whom he saves with the person of Jesus Christ. Indeed, at the very heart of the universe lies a marvelous cosmic drama, authored by our triune God himself, which is nothing less than a divine romance, a marvelous and epic true myth and legend of an undying love relationship between an Almighty The Church Is Central in Comprehending God’s Heart for All Humankind