Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

142 • P LANTING C HURCHES AMONG THE C ITY ’ S P OOR : V OLUME 1

c. As the dawn follows night, so our Lord will surely appear in power and glory to gather his own to himself, to make an end of war and sin, and to restore creation under God’s will. This is a season of the hope of Christ’s soon return. d. According to Scripture, Christ will return and finish the work he began on the Cross, to judge the world and save his own. The Feast of Christ the King, the last Sunday before Advent, points to the day when Christ will reign supreme. 5. As to Spiritual Formation : Come, indwell us Holy Spirit and empower us to advance Christ’s kingdom in the world. Let us live and work in expectation of his soon return, seeking to please him in all things. A Christian is, in essence, somebody personally related to Jesus Christ. Christianity without Christ is a chest without a treasure, a frame without a portrait, a corpse without breath. Christ comes to each of us with an individual summons: ‘Come to me’, ‘follow me’. And the Christian life begins as, however hesitantly and falteringly, we respond to his call. Then as we start following him, we discover to our increasing and delighted surprise, that a personal relationship to Christ is a many-sided, many-coloured, many-splendored thing. We find that he is our Mediator and our Foundation, our Life-giver and our Lord, the Secret and the Goal of our living, our Lover and our Model. Or, bringing together the prepositions we have been considering, we learn that to be a Christian is to live our lives through, on, in, under, with, unto, for and like Jesus Christ. Each preposition indicates a different kind of relationship, but in each case Christ himself is at the center, the symbol of Christ’s victory. IV. Benefits of Fleshing Out Christus Victor in our Worship and Mission

~ John Stott. Focus on Christ . New York: William Collins Publishers, 1979, p. 155.

A. The answer to fragmentation and idiosyncratic emphases

1. Christus Victor saves us from the distraction of themes, concepts, and emphases which are more twigs than branches, trunk, or root, to the biblical story of God’s love in Christ.