The Kingdom of God: 5 | Sacred Community

The first thing God says that was not good, was for man to be alone[mfn] Gen 2:18[/mfn], even though man was never alone in the sense that God was always with him, God saw that Adam needed to connect and have an intimate friendship with a created being like himself, a person of flesh and bone, spirit and soul.

God could have met the need, after all, he is God and can do whatever he likes (that is, whatever is consistent with his character), but he decided to limit himself towards Adam in such a way as to allow Adam to feel a longing and a desire that God wasn’t meeting. The desire for human companionship being unfulfilled was deemed not good by God. Loneliness and isolation are some of the biggest causes of stress, anxiety, and rejection in people’s lives today. This is something that God never intended, never wanted, and had a premeditated plan to ensure Adam didn’t go down that depressing, lonely road. God put Adam into a deep sleep, removed one of his ribs, and from Adam’s own flesh and DNA, formed and breathed life into the first woman, Eve.

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.  And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.  Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones
    and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
    because she was taken out of Man.”[mfn]Gen 2:21-23[/mfn]

A wife was God’s answer to Adam’s longing for companionship (which we discussed in detail in the previous post, Perfect People). Together they would start a family and increase the sphere of intimacy and love that was to be fostered within the confines of a trusted, faithful relationship. ‘Marriage’ and ‘Family’ was God’s idea, it was God’s answer to loneliness and longing. God designed us for relationships and designed marriage and family so that we would find ourselves loved and loving others in a mutual exchange of rich friendship, devotion, security, and enjoyment. In the forming of Eve, we discover the birth of community, and family was at the centre of it.

Out of the body, came the bride

On a deeper level, we see a prophetic picture of how God had planned to create the church, even before the fall (knowing it was coming). God had no plan B. The cross and the church was not God’s response to the fall, but his premeditated contingency plan. God foresaw all that would take place and factored human disobedience and rebellion into his plan to bring people into his Love and into his family.

Eve, the bride of Adam was created out of Adam’s own body which was broken for her as God removed one of his ribs. Jesus, the second and the last Adam had his body broken too, and out of his sacrifice the church was birthed, a bride for the King. Let me explain by considering how the Apostle Paul puts it to the Corinthians,

Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven [mfn]1 Cor 1:45-49[/mfn].

Adam reproduced after himself as the man of the earth, creating the natural family, Jesus has reproduced after himself as the man of heaven, creating the spiritual family; the family of God[mfn] Eph 2:19[/mfn]. We are born once naturally of the earth, of flesh, and born again supernaturally by the Holy Spirit[mfn] See John 3:1-8 as Jesus explains the necessity of being born again[/mfn]. Let’s come back to Eve being made, as the imagery and symbolism in the forming of Eve is incredible.

In the wisdom of God, Eve could not be made without Adams giving of his own flesh. While God could have made her from the first like Adam, he wanted and needed her to be from Adam, made in God’s likeness, yet taken from Adam. In the same way, the church, which is the bride of Christ, or the ‘wife of the lamb’[mfn]Revelation 19:7, Revelation 21:2, Revelation 21:9, could not exist apart from the giving of Christ’s own flesh[mfn]Acts 20:28, Hebrews 9:11-22[/mfn], in order that we might be of and from Christ. The first Adam gave birth to the beginning of the natural human family, the second Adam gave birth to the spiritual family of God! The sacred community!

God wanted a Family

Two great mysteries of scripture are this, that God wanted a wife, and that God wanted a family. We must be careful with this revelation though, as we have a propensity to over humanize the nature of God in order to understand these mysteries. If we mishandle this revelation we can, as some do, romanticize the love of God, personalising his love as though he is the ‘lover of my soul’. However, the unique, personal love of God toward the individual is that of paternal, fatherly love, whereas the love of God toward the collective Church is that of a groom towards his betrothed. This is the mystery of marriage, says Paul, that the image of husband and wife speaks of Christ and the Church[mfn]Ephesians 5:32[/mfn]. The application here is that we ought to cherish, support, love, defend, and champion the Church because Christ purchased her with his own blood and looks upon her as his bride. It would be awfully difficult to have a friendship with someone that does not like my wife or speak kindly of her. It wouldn’t happen. Friendship with me, in part, is contingent on the acceptance and encouragement of my wife and my relationship with her. This is part of the mystery Paul was speaking of. No Christian can claim love for Christ without also claiming love for his bride, the Church[mfn]We are talking here about the global Church, not the local church. Some local churches do not represent the Kingdom of God, they preach a false gospel and deny the scriptures, they are among the lukewarm churches Jesus will spit out of his mouth. The bride of Christ, the true Church, is comprised of every authentic, born again believer that submits to Christs Lordship, relys on grace for Salvation and is doing their best to faithfully follow Jesus according to scripture. You cannot reject this Church, The Church, and claim to love Christ[/mfn].

Glory sons

The suffering of Jesus was not just for the Church as the ‘bride’, but for the individuals who make up the bride, you and me. As stated above, the way in which God loves us and relates to us on this level is as a Father with his Sons.

In the ancient world, sons received honor and favor within the family structure, and daughters did not. This was not as some might think. It was not about saying men are better, or daughters don’t matter. It has to do with position, not value. A son would inherit the father’s name and possessions, carrying on the family legacy, he would extend the house and remain a part of it forever. A daughter, however, would marry and leave her father’s house to join her husband. Being a ‘son’ of God is about having a position of permanence in the household of God, it’s about being able to receive an inheritance and portion among your brothers. It’s not about gender, it’s about having a permanent place in the Father’s house (If you are a woman and prefer to be called a ‘daughter’ of God, great – that’s fine, but just know that scripture refers to you as a Son, you’re included in the revelation of sonship, not excluded).

Hebrews 2:10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.

Galatians 3:26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith

Galatians 4:4-7 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 1:12-13

The local church is meant to be a representation of the global Church, a place of family, a place where the ‘sons’ of God are raised into maturity to take hold of their spiritual inheritance and partner with the Father in the ongoing work of the Kingdom. Just as Jesus is the last, Adam, so too is the Church the last Eve. Within this bride, this body, and this household, the children of God, adopted by the Spirit of Sonship are meant to thrive. In Acts 2:42-47, the church is baptised with the Holy Spirit, and we see a snapshot of what the church, this family of God, ought to look like as it seeks to expand the Kingdom of God and follow its King, Jesus. It was the beginning of the sacred community, the church, and it wasn’t seen as optional for believers, but as family, as a privilege, and as the priceless, beautiful bride of Christ that he loved enough to give his life for her:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.