GREAT CHANGE IN THE CHURCH

GREAT CHANGE IN THE CHURCH

Great change is indeed coming to church-life, as we know it. Multitudes of believers find a fresh expression in a smaller home environment rather than the clumsy impersonal big building context (Often spelt, contest!). What needs reformation though, is not the size or structure of church expression, but the content of its message! Unless the fundamental ingredient of our understanding of the finished work of Christ is grasped by engraved spirit revelation, the smaller compact package of the home-church will soon become the same baggage that neutralised and paralysed believers for ages. ‘A little leaven leavens the whole lump’ says Paul in Gal.5:6-10. He clearly refers to religious tradition, in this case, circumcision that represents personal contribution and performance in order to distinguish and qualify the individual. Even the slightest emphasis on personal effort and contribution, nullifies the faith that grace reveals, and makes gratitude phoney. Any presence in our belief, even insignificantly small, of something we still have to do in order to obtain favour from God nullifies the power of the cross and puts us back under the law of performance. ‘While we compete and compare with one another we are without understanding’ 2 Cor.10:12.

Most Christians do not have a problem with the fact that Christ is revealed and received by faith, the problem comes with the practical walk which so easily becomes cluttered by all the performance-related emotions that the law triggers, such as boasting, competition, guilt, fear, suspicion, sin-consciousness etc. Any form of doing not inspired by the revelation of grace results in dead works! It is the faith-inspired and faith-sustained walk that triumph in life! Gal.3:2,3.

Faith is fuelled by revealed value; (Gal.5:6) love sees that something has happened to mankind in Christ that is of far greater authority and consequence than what happened to humanity in Adam’s fall. Rom.5:14-21, 2Cor.5:14-21. It is also as much superior to the prophetic shadow sustained by tradition, as the child that is born is superior to the placenta that held and sustained the seed and foetus of promise. Col.2:8,17, Gal.4:1-10. Faith understands that the conclusion of grace is mankind’s inclusion in Christ.

Part of a booklet by Francois du Toit
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