Ancient Anglican

Christ’s gifts are given to individuals, not for their own spiritual benefit, but to benefit the church itself. Our gifts can only be properly utilized in service to the body. Otherwise, we are like the servant in the parable who received the one talent and buried it in the sand.

Paul exhorts the church to lead a life worthy of the calling to which we have been called – a unity in the Spirit which is that visible symbol of Christ’s victory over the powers and principalities of this world.

Of all of Paul’s doxologies, this is the only one that mentions the role of the church. The glory (doxa) of God is found not only in Christ Jesus but also found in the Church, the gathered Christian community.

Sanctification is “the process of becoming holy through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit . . . by means of which we grow into the fullness of the redeemed life.”

God’s grace through Christ, as demonstrated in Paul, reveals not an angry capricious god or even a just karmic god, but that loving father who invites even his greatest persecutor to be his apostle. The eternal purpose for which Christ Jesus came was the reconciliation of all of us with our creator so that we have that blessed assurance that we have been redeemed, forgiven, and lavished with God’s grace.

The source of Paul’s excitement is God’s revelation to him of the mystery that has been hidden for the ages – that all people are one in Christ Jesus and that the Church is the physical manifestation of the fulfillment of this mystery.

The church as a place of peace and reconciliation between different peoples is not simply an ideal that will only be achieved eschatologically, but is (and should be) the actual current situation. We, as the church, are the place of peace where those things that divide human society are abolished and all are one in Christ.

The fulfillment of this gospel of reconciliation and at-one-ness is achieved when the “dividing wall of hostility” – i.e. the law of commandments and ordinances – is abolished in Christ Jesus.

We are rescued from the power of the prince of the air and from the death that follows. This salvation is solely due to God’s grace working through Christ. Nothing we do affects our salvation.

“The enemy of our race, the devil, having fallen from heaven, wanders around these lower airs . . . and works illusions in those who are deceived and attempts to prevent them rising upwards . . . yet Christ came that he might overthrow the devil, purify the air, and open up for us the way to heaven.” Athanasius, “On the Incarnation,” Ch. IV.25

Paul writes that the church is filled by this same Christ who is over all things. Christ gives the church community the same power and life that he has been given by God so that the church may experience this power as Paul will later describe in Chapter 2.

All of these things – faith, love, wisdom, understanding, enlightenment, and hope – begin with the blessing of God the Father through Jesus Christ (v.3) according to his purpose and his will (v.11) to bring about God’s “glorious inheritance” (v.18) which is the church. This is our story.