Jesus Has Imperium

Imperium: Noun: absolute power or authority; the right to command.

"Most people in Western societies lump churches into the same category as soccer clubs or charity organizations. Churches are one more kind of voluntary organization, we say. Alternatively, we regard churches as a service provider, like a mechanic who services your soul or a gas station that fills up your spiritual tank.

But are local churches clubs or service providers that exist by the permission of the state, one more supplicant who depends on the mercy of the lord of the land? 

It's true that you as an individual Christian should submit to the authority of the state. But remember that the state is God's 'servant' and God's 'agent' for bringing judgment (Rom. 13:4). Yes, the state possesses the 'sword,' but it does so only at God's behest. It's also true that churches should abide by the laws of the land when it comes to regulations such as adhering to building codes (if it has a building) or paying taxes on staff salaries (if it has a paid staff). In that sense, churches are like every other business or organization.  

At the same time, there is one thing that should be utterly clear in the Christian's mind: the local church does not exist by the permission of the state. It exists by the express authorization of Jesus. After all, Jesus has imperium, not the state. 

To be a Christian is to know this: Jesus is where the buck ultimately stops. Jesus is the authority to which all other authorities must answer. Jesus will judge the nations and their governments. He is the one with final power over life and death. The state exists by Jesus' permission, not the other way around. States typically don't acknowledge this fact, of course. But churches know it's true (John 19:11, Rev. 1:5, 6:15-17).

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus, and he gave his church the authority to march on the nations. His church will therefore advance like an army that cannot be stopped. The boundary lines of the nations won't stop it. The executive orders of presidents and prime ministers won't stop it. Not even the gates of hell will slow it down.

Jesus has imperium."

-Jonathan Leeman, Church Membership: How the World Knows Who Represents Jesus

http://www.amazon.com/Church-Membership-Represents-Building-Churches/dp/1433532379

 

 

More on Local Church Membership

OK. I'm quoting a lot of Leeman because I'm reading it for a class. Plus it's just a good book. More on the necessity of church membership:

"A man who claims to be righteous in Christ and yet makes not effort to pursue a life of righteousness is, at best, self-deceived. Likewise, a woman who claims to love all Christians everywhere but does not love her Christian sister is likewise self-deceived. Both are hypocrites. They are nominal Christians--Christians in name only--because their profession does not translate into action or reality...So too with one who claims to belong to the church without belonging to a church. I fear that he looks very much like a nominal Christian and a hypocrite. The apostolic church on earth was given the authority to bind and loose. What else can we conclude about someone who professes to belong to the church but will not submit to an apostolic church on earth? As the apostle John puts it, 'He who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen" (1 John 4:20).'"

--Jonathan Leeman, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love 

Not Joining a Local Church is Not an Option

"Christians do comprise "the church," but Paul and Jesus both speak as if it's the gathering that constitutes us as a church, just like a basketball team must gather in order to be considered " a team." This formal gathering has an existence and an authority that none of us has separately. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, because Christ has given the whole an organizational charter. Nineteenth century Congregationalist pastor John Angell James put it like this: 'A church member is something more than a Christian, just as a citizen is something more than a man. Each has duties arising from the relationship--to state or to church.'

The church on earth is located in the local church. If Christ calls us to submit to him by submitting to the apostolic church, he intends for us to do this through the local church. To refuse his lordship by refusing to submit to a true local church, if one exists where on geographically abides, calls into question whether we have been truly converted. It's true that we must choose to join, and it's true--in some places in this world--that we have to choose which church to join. But not joining, if a local church exists, is not really an option. Membership in the local church is voluntary, and it's not voluntary."

--Jonathan Leeman, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love 

 

"Local Church? Heck No! I Love All Christians Everywhere Equally!"

"One of the chief tragedies of evangelicalism today is that it has lost sight of the wonderful, life-giving force of authority. We've been carried away by culture. More than we realize, we view ourselves as independent agents charged best with how to grow, serve, and love in the faith. Yes, we may listen to others, defer to others, and accept guidance from others, but in the final analysis we view ourselves as our own coaches, portfolio managers, guides, judges, and captains of our own ships in a manner that is more cultural than biblical. In short, an underdeveloped theology conspires with our anti-authority and individualistic instincts to deceive us into claiming that we love all Christians everywhere equally while excusing ourselves from loving any of those Christians specifically, especially submissively. Unsurprisingly, churches are shallow, Christians are weak, and God's people look like the world."

--Jonathan Leeman, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love 

We Have Erected an Idol and Called it 'Love'

I'm rereading Jonathan Leeman's book for a J-term class on the Doctrine of the Church. I have never read another non-inspired book quite like it. Anyone who is struggling with their church, or is thinking of walking away from the 'institutional church' needs to carefully read it before they do anything rash.

I will likely be posting excerpts from it frequently in the coming days. In this chapter, he is discussing the factors in our culture that make Christians reluctant to join a church and churches reluctant to practice discipline.

"We have erected an idol and called it 'love.' And this idol called love has two great commands: 'Know that God loves you by not permanently binding you to anything (especially if you really don't want to be), and flowing from it, 'Know that your neighbor loves you best by letting yuo express entirely and without judgment.'

--Jonathan Leeman, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love

 http://www.amazon.com/Church-Surprising-Offense-Gods-Love/dp/1433509059/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1324506097&sr=8-2

Better than Unconditional

"What's true of five-year-olds is true of all of us: we treat life as if it's our party. We want the mountain of gifts and the kudos to belong to us, not to someone else. Not even to God. Our lives are spent conspiring toward this end. God responds to our conspiring not with a gospel of 'unconditional love,' but with a gospel of 'contra-conditional love.' The idea of unconditional love suggests that he is content to love us exactly as he finds us, but that's not quite right. He loves us when he finds us, but he loves us by changing us into what he should be."

--Jonathan Leeman, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love 

 

Church Membership and the Consumer Mentality

More from Jonathan Leeman. (If you haven't read the other excerpts from him, type his name into the search box in the upper left corner of this blog.)

"Christians these days have a hard time submitting to the body, not just because we resent the idea of authority, but because our minds can't hep but respond like consumers. A consumer has authority. A consumer thinks he is the head, and the rest of the body exists to serve him and fulfill his personal narrative. Not only that, but he gets a little nervous when others are different from him. Jews and Greeks? Slaves and free? No thank you, I'll stick with the free Greeks. The consumer is always looking for the right fit..."

--Jonathan Leeman, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love,  

http://www.amazon.com/Church-Surprising-Offense-Gods-Love/dp/1433509059/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322923839&sr=1-1

 

God is Not Like You (or Brad Pitt)

Movie actor Brad Pitt, explaining why he abandoned Christianity, spoke for many when he said "I don't understand this idea of a God who says 'You have to acknowledge me. You have to say that I'm the best, and then I'll give you eternal happiness. If you won't, then you don't get it.' It seemed to be about ego. I can't see God operating from ego, so it made no sense to me." Pitt's operating assumption, as with every fallen human, is that he is 'like God' (Genesis 3:5). After all, he places God and humanity in equivalent moral positions, as if God and humans are entitled to the same things. 

But would Pitt or would we be so self-assured if we were all standing in God's throne room with Isaiah? Consider Isaiah's response: 'Woe is me!' For the first time in his life, Isaiah's eyes are open to the utter contradiction that is fallen human existence--the contradiction of a creature posturing as Creator, thereby denying and defaming the Creator. Isaiah, in the presence of God, finally sees his fallen self, and the only proper response is 'Woe' and 'lost.'"

--Jonathan Leeman, "God, Not Like You;" from Don't Call it a Comeback: The Old Faith for a New Day

You're Not Who You Think You Are

"The Bible as a whole--get this!--says that you're not who you think you are. And God is not who you think he is. And then it calls us to exchange the story we've been telling ourselves with God's version of our story. It redefines reality, or gives us new eyes."

 Jonathan Leeman, Reverberation

Church Membership and Casual Nibbling

If you've never read anything by Jonathan Leeman, then let me introduce you to him. For readers of this blog who are members of Grace Baptist Church in Hartsville, TN, Leeman has three claims on our peculiar affection. (1) He conducted the wedding of our brother and sister Jared and Maggie Lake. (2) While working at Boyce College in Louisville, he encouraged our brother Chris Davis to run for student council. (3) As a current elder at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., he is an elder over our beloved Josh and Abigail Abbotoy.

So let those points recommend his books to you. He has published two so far, and has a couple more in the works. I will link you to his current published works after I give you these excerpts from his book on church membership.

“If we try to conduct our discipleship with Christ by casually nibbling and grazing wherever we please, moving back and forth between one field and another, it’s difficult to see how we will ever truly submit to the church of God. We may give of ourselves to this or that Christian or church, but we will never truly give ourselves. Submitting to the church on earth means walking up to a group of people and saying ‘I believe what you believe. Now put me to work supporting our mutual cause however you need me. You can count on me.’ In short, the nature of authority and submission requires professing Christians to submit to the local church. It requires commitment.”

        [Note: In the following lengthy passage, Leeman talks about 1 Corinthians 13, the famous chapter on love. What Leeman points out here is that while we often use this chapter at weddings, in context it is mainly describing love in the local church. It is situated right between 1 Cor. 12 and 1 Cor. 14, both of which deal with the church in Corinth, which, in many ways, was a pretty sorry church. So here’s what Leeman says about love in context of a sorry church.

“It’s in this context that Paul grabs back the pretty lyrics of 1 Corinthians 13 from the wedding party and reads it to the local church. Do you want to exercise, practice, embody, and define the glorious love of heaven, he asks us? Then do it in a local church, a church where factions are pitted against one another (1 Cor. 1:12-13), where people have big heads (4:8), where members are sleeping with their fathers’ wives (5:2), where members are suing and defrauding one another (6:1-8), where members are getting drunk on the communion wine and not leaving enough for others (11:21-22), where spiritual gift one-upmanship is rife (chaps. 12 and 14), where the meetings are threatened by disorder (14:40), and where some are saying there is no resurrection from the dead (15:12). Bind and submit yourself and your gifts to these kinds of people. Love them with patience and kindness, without envy or boasting, without arrogance or rudeness, not insisting on our own way, not irritably or resentfully, not rejoicing at wrongdoing but rejoicing at the truth. 

People often complain about the sinners they find in the local church, and with good reason. It’s filled with sinners, which is why Paul calls Christians to love one another by bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all things. If you won’t love such backstabbers and defrauders like this, don’t talk about your spiritual gifts, your vast biblical knowledge, or all the things you do for the poor. You’re just a noisy gong. Don’t talk about your love for all Christians everywhere; you are just a clanging cymbal. But if you do practice loving a specific, concrete people, all of whose names you don’t get to choose, then you will participate in defining love for the world, the love which will characterize the church on the last day perfectly because it images the self-sacrificing and merciful love of Christ perfectly.”   

Jonathan Leeman, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love; see also his book Reverberation