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The Church as the Eschatological Covenant Community

The Church as the Eschatological Covenant Community. Concepts of community and relation foundational to biblical narrative. Theme of community unfolds Moving towards ultimate consummation Communal destiny. The Church as Community. What is community? According to sociologists:

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The Church as the Eschatological Covenant Community

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  1. The Church as the Eschatological Covenant Community

  2. Concepts of community and relation foundational to biblical narrative. • Theme of community unfolds • Moving towards ultimate consummation • Communal destiny

  3. The Church as Community • What is community? According to sociologists: • Share a similar frame of reference • Group identity • Forms its participants • We are a community of shared meaning • Grenz warns against beginning with idea of generic reality and fit church into this idea

  4. God has been about creating community from the beginning Community within God’s overarching plans for creation Church as human and divine Corporate dimension of salvation

  5. Community in the Biblical Narrative • Genesis 2.18 • God’s response to Adam’s solitariness • Together Adam and Eve reflect the imago Dei • Reflection of the triune God • God’s community creation unfolds throughout the text culminating in the vision of Revelation • From Babel (Genesis 11) to Pentecost (Acts 2)

  6. Israel as a Covenant Community Image of the church as people of God is connected with the idea of Israel as God’s people Israel understood itself as a people called into covenant with God Ex 19.5; 23.33; Deut. 7.6; 14.2; Lev. 26.9-12

  7. Israel is God’s instrument • Deuteronomy 4, 7, 29: Israel is a sent nation, an example to other nations (also Isaiah 2) • Christ continues Israel’s mission • The Church shares in Christ’s mission • “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” John 20.21

  8. Church as Israel Reconstituted • Covenant is connected to community and we are people of the new covenant • I Cor. 11.25; Heb. 8.13, 9.15 • The Church as the new Israel • Gal. 6.16; Phil 3.3; James 1.1; Rev. 7.4 • His people (I Pet. 2.9) • A royal priesthood • Ex. 19.6; Isaiah 61.6; I Pet 2.9 • Heirs of the covenant promise • Galatians 3.15-29 • We share in the inheritance • People of God • Hos 1.10; 3.32; Romans 9; Galatians 3.16, 29

  9. Church as the new eschatological community • II Cor. 6.16 referencing Ezekiel 37.27; cf. Rev. 21.3

  10. Trinitarian Structure of the Church • The ultimately Trinitarian structure of the Church is found when these three images are brought together in Eph 2.19-22: “ 19Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, 20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” • Unity in diversity • Trinity as a model for balancing between the individual and the group • Importance of particularity but within an organic unity

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