God’s grace is truly amazing. Ephesians 2:8(ESV) states, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” Our Heavenly Father saved us, and Adam and Eve proved that we desperately needed to be saved. God gave them everything they could have ever possibly needed. He put them in the paradise of the Garden of Eden, and He enjoyed fellowship with them. At some point, Adam and Eve choose to turn their backs on Heavenly Father. They no longer wanted to be under His sovereignty and bowed to satan, the devil. This was a catastrophic move, but it is a biblical event that demonstrates probably more than any other how gracious our Heavenly Father truly is.
Even before He created Adam and Eve, He knew the exact moment they would disobey His Word, yet He did not prevent them from doing so. He’s given human beings free-will, and He will not overstep, violate, or withdraw the gifts He’s given. Through the first couple, God has shown us how masterfully He’s created us. We are intelligent, thinking beings capable of extraordinary ingenuity, creativity, and resourcefulness. Heavenly Father did not limit us to only doing the good works that please Him. He has allowed us to know about bad, wrong, evil and sin. He didn’t restrict our choices and has allowed us knowledge of both light and darkness. He hopes that we will always choose the light and prove the perfection of His Will and our design. But the reality is that some of us will, but most will not.
Jesus Christ is the image of our perfect design. Through his example, he has shown us everything that God wants us to be. 2Corinthians 5:21(ESV) tells us, “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” Our Lord and Savior is God’s only begotten Son, and he is perfect, holy, and righteous. When he walked upon this planet, he never sinned. He did not deserve the punishment of the cross and to die such a humiliating and horrible death, but he did it for us. He took on all our sins. They were nailed to the cross with him, and when he died, the person we used to be died with him. When God resurrected Jesus Christ from the dead, we got up with him!
We don’t know the enormity and depth of all the things that were restored, renewed, and made better through the death and resurrection of Christ, because we do know that it will take us an eternity to live it out. Because of his finished work, as born-again believers, we are IN Christ. Ephesians 2:10(NLT) declares, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” God has made us a part of His Son’s body, and He has made His Son, our Head. God has made us accepted by Him in Christ. He has taken us in through His beloved Son. Now, we must take him in. We have received the privilege to take Christ unto ourselves, to feast upon him and drink him in so that we are full of his love, light, liberty, and life.
As believers, we all belong to this wonderful new entity, the Body of Christ, that our Heavenly Father has made possible through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Again, he has given us new life and with this new life is a new way of functioning as part of his body. It is not about the “ME” and is all about the “WE”. It’s all about relationships, and we are to relate to one another lovingly in the spirit of unity in Christ!
In Romans 12, God gives us the requirements and standards for the Body of Christ. He commands that we present our whole lives as a holy and acceptable living sacrifice to Him. This is the least we can do for all He’s done for us. He warns us not to copy the customs and culture of society and the world, instead we must walk by the Spirit, so we learn how to please God.
In Romans 12:4-5(NLT) we learn, “4 Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, 5 so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.” As members of the Body of Christ, God is telling us that we are all connected through His Son, Jesus Christ, and we all belong to one another because of the Spirit of Christ that lives within us. This is a foreign concept to those who belong to the world. Whether its race, social and economic background, or educational standing, society teaches polarization and separatism based on whatever strikes the fancy of those in power. But God teaches us unity in Christ that is based on our faith in him and not on the things the world deems important. So, we must be accepting of our brothers and sisters in Christ and learn to operate out of love and kindness for one another.
Heavenly Father instructs us in Romans 12:10-11(NLT), “10 Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. 11 Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.” This passage represents the beautiful harmony that God has orchestrated within the hearts of His children. Because of the Spirit of Christ that dwells within us, we can really love people. It’s not that surface love that is dependent on aesthetics, wealth, status, and power. It’s a genuine love that comes from God. But we must also remember that this is a choice. We can choose to grow in the love of Christ and be patient, loving, and tenderhearted, or we remain stuck in old habit patterns that don’t produce the Spirit’s fruit.
This choice to love with the heart of Christ is one that is not all about our words; it’s rooted in our actions. Romans 15:1-2(MSG) teaches, “Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, “How can I help?””
One of the ways we can truly be of service to people is to show them our trust in God. Their hearts desperately need a witness of fully developed faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It doesn’t help anyone to repeat the negative speculations and propaganda spewing from all forms of media these days. This is not the Will of God. Our mission is to say what God says, to uplift and encourage others in His goodness. They need to know that’s an alternative to being paralyzed by fear, and it’s to trust God with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength. As the Body of Christ, we must tell others about God’s goodness, and make it our mission to love and help one another in the unity of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Unity in the Body of Christ”, written for 4theChristianman.com. Copyright© 2023. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.