One New Humanity
Displaying God's Wisdom in Ephesians
“His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms” (Ephs 3:10). Read that again. Read it slowly. God is making His wisdom known to the rulers and authories in the heavenly realms — through the church. That’s some heavy ecclesiology. Through King Jesus, God has revealed His work and wisdom to not just to people, but even to the powers in the heavenlies. Some translations use the word “assembly” rather than “church,” which may be helpful. That might indicate, when God’s people find expression in community, as we gather around tables, declare Jesus is Lord, serve the poor, feed the hungry, pray, celebrate, or repent together, it is a declaration to power structures of our world — seen or unseen — that God is doing an upside down work of redemption. He’s doing it by calling people into an alternative Kingdom.
The gospel is NOT partisan in the way we often discuss politics in our culture. But it is political in deepest sense of the term. When the church gathers and declares, Jesus is Lord, that explicitly suggests that other lords, powers, or governments are less than. Ideologies & philophies are judged by the politics of Gods Kingdom through Jesus Christ. When the people of God hold the cross as a symbol of victory, it is a statement of irony — but one that unfolds the imaginative and manifold wisdom of God. The powers of empire did their worst, and they could not overcome Jesus the Messiah. He took all they could dish out and demonstrated God’s power as the victor. As Mary sang years earlier, he chose the lowly things to shame the powerful. The gospel packs a punch, but it does so in the most counter-intuitive of ways.
Previously, in chapter 2, Paul states that through Jesus, God has demolished the dividing wall. As a result, He has brought about one new humanity. The politics of the gospel calls us to a higher identity than any of our partisan belonging or ideological affilitation or even national citizenship. Through one faith, one Lord, one baptism, we are part of one new humanity. That has implications for the church. Americans & Iranians. Israelis & Palestinians. Indians & Pakistanis. Turks & Armenians. Black & White. Citizens & migrants. Whatever dividing wall of hostility that might persist today that interrupts the reality of that new humanity for those who have pledged their allegiance to Christ, the politics of Kingdom declares it null & void.
In the economy of God’s Kingdom, this is what is real. It has been declared before the powers & authorities in the heavenlies. What is the challenge for us? To live that way. Nations, political parties, economic interests, & other powers will seek to co-opt religious institutions or symbols. However, a new humanity living out the reality of the reign of Jesus in our world, contradicts these claims of authority & rightness. One of the small acts that any disciple can do is to lean into the truth of one new humanity and to see fellow disciples of Jesus from China to Mexico to South Africa or across partisan spectrums, as one people under the rule of King Jesus.
And that is Good News.