The Sure Future of Christ’s Church

The kingdom of God on earth is the Spirit-filled church of Jesus Christ (Jn 14:17; Rom 14:17). Messiah has come from heaven, and He has taken on flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14). He who is fully God, being the Son of God, has taken on full humanity, becoming the Son of man.

The prophets of the Old Testament era foretold of His coming, and He Himself promised to build His church (Mt 16:18). Christ's church is His holy nation of royal priests gathered by the Holy Spirit from every nation, tribe, and tongue (1 Pet 2:9; Rev 5:9; 7:9).

The Spirit of Christ works from within the man of God, called to be a preacher of the Gospel of God, which is the Gospel of grace. The Person and work of Jesus Messiah is the main theme of the Gospel message (1 Cor 1:23; 2:2, 4). This is the Gospel of our salvation (Rom 1:16), as God’s chosen people from before the foundation of the world (Rom 11:5; Eph 1:4–5; 1 Pet 2:9; Rev 13:8; 17:8; 21:25).

Preachers of the Word, having beautiful feet, are sent to all nations in the world, even the whole creation (Mt 24:14; Mk 16:15; Rom 10:15). They proclaim Christ, as the only Savior of sinners (Col 1:28; Titus 1:4; 2:13; 3:6). They boast only in who He is and what He has done (Is 26:12; Rom 15:15–19; 1 Cor 1:29–31). The herald of God declares the excellencies of Christ (1 Pet 2:9), and the sheep of God’s pasture hear the voice of their Good Shepherd, and the Holy Spirit opens their hearts to respond (Jn 10:3–4; Acts 16:14).

The prophet Isaiah prophesied of Messiah as “Israel” gathering His people “Israel” (Is 49:1–6), as Christ is identified as the Head of His church (Col 1:18). Christ’s church is the gathered assembly of God’s elect, redeemed people who are manifest by the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Mt 3:11; Acts 2:33, 38; 10:45; Rom 5:5).

It is the Spirit of Christ who gathers, regenerates, and sanctifies those He makes alive in the resurrection of their souls (Jn 3:1–8; Eph 2:5; Col 2:13; 1 Pet 1:3). Now alive to God, the born again experience new life (Rom 6:4), having been positioned “in Christ.” This is God’s doing (1 Cor 1:30), and it means that every new believer has been legally positioned before the judgment of God, in the righteousness achieved by Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry. The just Christ has justified those people given to Him by the Father before creation (Jn 6:37; 17:2, 6, 24; Rom 4:5; 1 Pet 3:18).

Justification came at a price (Rom 5:9). Jesus suffered and died on the Roman cross, at Calvary’s hill, outside the gates of Jerusalem, as the Lamb of God slain for us (Jn 1:29; Rom 5:6-8; 1 Cor 15:3; Rev 5:6, 12). Jesus was the substitute sacrifice for His bride (Eph 5:25), His church (1 Pet 2:24), the Israel of God (Gal 6:16). Jesus’ atonement reconciled those who were lost (dead in sin) and for whom He sought at His first advent (Lk 19:10; 2 Cor 5:19; Eph 2:1).

It is the precious blood of Christ which paid the penalty for sin and which purchased the church (Acts 20:28; Col 2:14; Rev 5:9). Jesus bore our sins in His body on the cross (1 Pet 2:24) and His blood shed for us was the propitiation of God’s wrath directed at all ungodly, unrighteous sinners (Rom 1:18; 3:25; Heb 2:17; 1 Jn 2:2; 4:10). Without His blood there would be no forgiveness of sins (Mt 26:28; Eph 1:7; Heb 9:22). With His blood, the adopted child of God, bought for a price off the slave market of sin, has peace with God (Rom 5:1; 8:15, 23; 1 Cor 6:20; 7:23).

The child of God is no longer a slave to sin, but by Messiah’s act of love, has become a slave of Christ (Rom 6:6, 16–20; Eph 6:6). This is a position of humble and loving submission. Joy abounds at the prospect of all Jesus has done in laying down His life for His people (Jn 10:11, 15; Eph 5:25). He is the great high priest, our Advocate with the Father (1 Jn 2:1) and Mediator of the covenant of grace (1 Tim 2:5; Heb 9:15; 12:24), in which Christ’s church is the beneficiary.

As beneficiaries of Christ’s active and passive obedience in life and death, we are now co-heirs with Christ (Rom 8:17; Heb 6:17). Our inheritance is reserved for us in heaven (1 Pet 1:4), where Christ is seated in glory (Ps 110:1; Eph 2:6). The church militant on earth awaits the second coming of Christ (Titus 2:13). We live expectant of a better future (Heb 6:9), giving us a better hope (Heb 7:19), based on better promises (Heb 8:6), found in a better covenant (Heb 7:22).

This better future includes a better resurrection (Heb 11:35), which grants us eternal life for our then glorified bodies (Rom 8:30; 1 Cor 15). Jesus is the first fruit of the resurrection (1 Cor 15:20) and now reigning from the throne of God in heaven, in His own indestructible body (Mt 28:18; Heb 1:3; 8:1; Rev 21:5). Our Christian hope includes life in a physical universe, where heaven has come down to the new earth (Rev 21:10), a new creation following the destruction of the old order (2 Pet 3:10–12).

The new heavens and the new earth will be the home of the city of God, the New Jerusalem (Rev 21–22). Righteousness dwells in this city of permanent light (2 Pet 3:13), which emanates from Jesus Christ, the light of the world (Jn 8:12; Rev 21:22–25). No sin, no death, no devil, no demons means no tears for God’s glorified saints who dwell in the permanent, eternal presence of God and the Lamb, our King.

It is the Spirit of God, our Teacher of the Word of God (Jn 14:26), who illumines our knowing and our understanding of these spiritual things (1 Cor 2:15), to be manifest as the future reality of Christ’s church. Our faith in these things coming-to-fruition is a product of the indwelling Spirit, who guides us into all truth (Jn 14:17; 16:13; Rom 8:9, 11).

On our sojourn to our sure future, we also have an unshakable confidence in the One who has promised to never leave us nor forsake us (Heb 13:5). His promise is that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:35–39). With blessed assurance, we are emboldened as witnesses of Jesus Christ by the Spirit (Acts 1:8).

There is no promise of these wonderful things for those outside of Christ. Therefore, it is preached that all men everywhere should repent of their sinful rebellion against God (Acts 17:30). Without repentance and faith, brought about by the new birth, brought about the life-giving Spirit of God, there is no hope and no future.

Today, if you hear His voice, then turn from the world and be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ from whom are all things (Acts 16:31; Rom 11:36). May God grant you these things, my dear reader, if it is His will, and may you be refreshed in the waters of baptism, the entry way into Christ’s church (1 Cor 12:13). This is our victory, our journey of faith, as we follow in Christ’s triumph to a sure future (2 Cor 2:14; 1 Jn 5:4).

David Norczyk

Spokane Valley, Washington

September 10, 2022