“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. Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.”
Ephesians 2:19-22 NLT
One of the most powerful desires of the human spirit is a sense of belonging to something with a higher purpose. What Paul describes here is a tacit fulfillment of that desire built into the framework of the structure of the church. In God’s dealing with the Jewish people, he crafted a dock from which to lunch his messiah project. To enter that port, one had to enter through Jewish covenants ratified in the mosaic sacrificial system. But now that the Messiah had come and was in active duty, this was no longer necessary. He became the cornerstone by which any person that understood and believed could be a part of. This mission of salvation wasn’t a Jewish mission, though it had launched from there. We can all be a part of it. Many Christian’s lack a clear understanding of this and suffer a lack of direction. They lack a mission in their lives, believing their purpose to be a simple salvation. But salvation is not simple. It is a gateway into belonging to a larger mission to share Christ and God with the doomed creation he loves. Salvation doesn’t free us to aimlessly wander the ocean of desire, it frees us to sail that ocean as a vessel of hope and peace and love. Christians would do well to build into their alter calls the call to discipleship and purpose , rather than salvation. This call to discipleship is what gives us purpose and has the ability to unite all who believe, regardless of background or station, into a fulfilling life with each other and their creator.
JOSH McGARY. COM 