GraceLife Thoughts – Seven Years and Counting!

Grace Thoughts

GraceLife Thoughts – Seven Years and Counting!

Next Sunday is Easter, which means we are just seven years from celebrating two-thousand years since our Lord’s resurrection from the dead. As I have mentioned in earlier articles, I am using the date of 30 AD for the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. That is consistent with biblical evidence and the thinking of many New Testament scholars, so I’ll go with that for our purposes.

Jesus, prior to His death on the Cross and resurrection from the dead, said that He would “build” His Church (Matthew 16:18). That is what He has been doing the past two millennia – building His Church.

We can easily become confused when we think about Jesus building His Church because we get caught up in the idea of physical structures or denominations of structures built by men. The Church that Jesus is building is not a physical structure. It is a spiritual Body of believers who our Lord knows and claims as His own. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 12:5 – “so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.” That is the Church.

Jesus is building something that is not only very special – it is also eternal. The Church that Jesus is building will continue forever and ever. It is made up of all the people through the ages who have been saved by grace, through faith, not of themselves, lest any would boast. There is no boasting in the true Church of Jesus Christ – only a celebration of thanksgiving for His great gift of forgiveness and eternal life.

The Church that Jesus is building is made up of forgiven people from every century, every generation, every ethnicity, every background. Jesus Christ is calling together a special community of believers who will enjoy Him and reign with Him throughout all time and eternity. He is calling a people to love Him and worship Him for the great things He has done for them.

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb! Revelation 7:9-1