The most common misconception in Christian circles is a complete misunderstanding of the relationship of the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. The book of Hebrews clearly explains that the Old Covenant (including it’s laws, tablernacle, kings, theocratic civilization, etc.), was an archetype of a kingdom to come which would be the “real thing” and replace, destroy and make obsolete they archetype, which merely served as a crude representation of the actual thing to come.
Jesus came to intiate this kingdom and for 2,000 years people haven’t been able to grasp that this kingdom isn’t political or national. Jesus didn’t come to make Israel Great Again or to Make America Great Again. He came to restore a broken and shattered humanity and bring it back into oneness with God.
Think of a large glass vase that falls and shatters into millions of tiny pieces. And then, like in the movies, some supernatural forces starts reversing this process and all these little pieces start getting sucked up into this vacuum and they all become united back with each other until there is just one vase standing there without crack or blemish, and the tiny individual pieces don’t exist anymore except as they exist as part of the vase as a whole.
That’s an exact description of the mystery of Christ’s work in establishing the “church” as the basis for this “kingdom of God”. Jesus said, “I am the Vine, you are the branches.” He went on to say that anyone that didn’t abide in Him was cut off and burned. How do we abide in Him? “Keep my commandments”, he says. What are those commandments? “Love each other.” John 15:17. Oh, well I love the people that go to my church. Not his commandment. I love the people that live on my block. Nope. I love the people that look like me and speak my language. Nope. When Jesus told them to love their neighbor, and they asked who is my neighbor, he told them a story about a man beaten and left to die; and neighbors, Jewish businessmen, rabbis, all walked by and ignored him, then a Samaritan stopped and helped the man and restored him back to health. Keep in mind Samaritans were so hated by Jews that not only would they not speak to one, they would cross the river and go miles out of route on their journeys just to avoid stepping on Samaritan soil. When Jesus said, “Go and do likewise”, he was saying “Go love the Samaritan like the Samaritan loved this man.” There is no human being on the face of the earth exempt from the commandment for us to love them as Christ loved us.
Further, if you look at this a little deeper as it’s explained in Ephesian chapter 2, we read:
14 For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. 15 He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. 16 Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.
19 So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. 20 Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. 21 We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. 22 Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.
What this is saying is that the death of Christ and the new kingdom has destroyed ethnicity and nationalism in kingdom terms. In Christ, there is no black or white, Jew or Gentile, American or Mexican, rich or poor, liberal or conservative. What he is saying is that the cross is bringing us back into one body through our being united with Christ. There is just one body, one vine, one family. Just like the shards of glass being brought back to oneness as a vase, I am one with my black and Jewish and Mexican and poor neighbors as part of the body of Christ. I can no longer say “ME”. I don’t exist except as part of the body of Christ. That’s why Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ and I no longer live, except as Christ lives through me.”
The ENTIRE Christian story is a story of fallen humans with the image of God being restored; and the brokenness and fallenness of humanity is being repaired through an act of grace whereby these broken shards of humanity are being melded and assimilated into the body of Christ. One Lord. One Body. One People. There is no individualism. Our identity is lost in our new identity as a member of the body of Christ. There is no nationalism. Our national identity is swallowed up by our new identity as the body of Christ ruling in a new spiritual kingdom that encompasses the entire world as one humanity. Our ethnic identities are swallowed up by our new identity as a child of God.
Anyone still holding on to values of racism, nationalism, populism and individualism are cut off from the body of Christ. Not only are they not yet in Christ, they have no understanding of what it means to be in Christ or what the goal of Christianity IS. From before the world, God’s plan was to restore fallen humanity to himself through a process of reconciliation that makes one body and one people of the entire human race. If that isn’t your shared vision and passion, then you aren’t Christian in any sense of the term.
The Vindication of Verbosity 