The Family of God

All this week on Things Unseen, we’ve been thinking about the nature of the church. It’s important for us to do this because it helps us think more clearly about our own church, and just as important, it should help transform our churches so that we become the kind of fellowships our Lord Jesus intended us to be. After all, it is the Lord Jesus Himself and not ourselves who are building this church. I mentioned four pictures the New Testament employs: body, bride, flock, and temple. I wonder which of these you think is the most important picture in the New Testament. Actually, I don’t think it’s any of these. In fact, the most important picture isn’t ultimately a picture at all; it’s the reality. Body, bride, flock, temple—all these are metaphors. When the Bible uses them, it’s saying the church is like this in many respects. These are pictures.

So, what is the most important picture that isn’t a picture at all, but the reality itself? It’s this: the church is the family of God. Here, family isn’t a picture. It’s not a metaphor; it’s the reality. In fact, we might say that it’s the human family that actually is the metaphor. God’s family is the real thing. God has given us rebirth through His Spirit. We’ve been adopted into His family. We’re His sons and daughters. We’ve received the Spirit of adoption, and we call Him, “Abba, Father.” And we are, therefore, brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters spiritually. And you remember that that’s how Paul tells Timothy we are to treat each other as Christians. But in fact, there’s even more, although I don’t think we meditate on it nearly enough.

God created two branches to His family: there’s an earthly branch to which we belong, and there’s a heavenly branch to which the angels and archangels, the seraphim and the cherubim belong. And amazingly, wonderfully, through His death and resurrection, something the Lord Jesus has done is to bring us together into one family united under one head, as Paul puts it, the branch of the family in heaven and the branch of the family now on earth. And so, besides brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, you might say we also have a large number of heavenly cousins.

And what’s stunning, I think, is that the letter to the Hebrews hints that when we come to worship as a church, we’re not only experiencing a weekly reunion of the earthly family in our Father’s presence; it’s more like a Scottish clan gathering. The whole clan is present from everywhere. The way Hebrews puts it is that we join “innumerable angels in festal gathering,” as well as the spirits of righteous men that have already been made perfect in heaven, and best of all, Jesus Himself, the Mediator of the new covenant. What a family. And in that family, the Lord Jesus is our elder brother, into whose image we are being transformed. And the Spirit is the Spirit of adoption, who assures us inwardly of all the family blessings that are ours and helps us to grow more and more like our elder brother. This isn’t a picture; it isn’t wishful thinking. It’s what Hebrews 12:18–24 tells us is already true.

There are some important lessons I think we can learn here. One is that this explains why we’re told not to neglect meeting together. If we understand what actually is happening when we meet, who would be foolish enough to miss it if they could possibly be present? And in addition, this helps to explain why true worship is such a blessed experience, because we’ve gone to a far bigger service than we began to imagine.

And there’s one more thing. If this is what church is, if this is what worship is, don’t you think it would transform both our worship and our church life to realize that we are family? I think this is a very important thing today. We’re living in a culture full of dysfunctional families and a world full of young people who, as a result, have no idea who they are or where they belong. They’re told to make themselves up. But when our churches become expressions of this wonderful reality, we are family, then all kinds of people, young and old, are able to look at our church family and think: “That looks like how life was meant to be. Look at how these Christians love one another. How on earth has that happened?” And the answer is: this is the family of God. This is the church that Jesus is building. And in that church, you are welcome, and you will be loved for Jesus’ sake. So, make sure you enter the church through Jesus, the door. After all, it’s His church.

Well, it’s Friday, and Sunday’s coming. And I hope you’ll have a wonderfully blessed day of worship, fellowship, and ministry in your church family this Lord’s Day. And join us again next week on Things Unseen.