Existentialism and Christianity IV

Practical Implications

Salvation in Community

Existential discovery (salvation) and sanctification can only occur within the context of community. It is as a communion of saints that we experience salvation and sanctification, not as individuals. However, it when we spurn the grace of God made manifest in Jesus, and thus choose to seek our own individual existence that we are condemned on an individual basis. (For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3:16-17)
We see from John’s gospel that the call is issued to all; a world dying and in need of communion with God. Our individual salvation remains a matter of individual choice. Yet, our choice, be it to accept God’s grace or to reject it, contains implications for the entire body of believers.

Sanctification in Community

Sanctification is an act of God’s grace that occurs in our lives to more nearly unite us in communion with other believers and with himself and thus come more near the complete discovery of our existential reality by the complete submission of our will to God and his kingdom.

Our individual holiness and sanctification remains a matter of individual choice. Yet, our choice, be it to accept God’s grace or to reject it, contains implications for the entire body of believers. Our individual sanctification is also a sanctification brought about by God’s grace working through the body of believers. Indeed, we become holy as we labor with one another toward seeking the full reality of our existence. In the same way, the community of believers is sanctified by its growing relationship to God. In the end, entire sanctification is really about becoming perfect in relationship with our fellow human beings and with God (at least as far as we are able / we no longer willfully violate the will of God in either respect). Upon the final Resurrection those final impediments to perfect love and community will be removed and the true meaning of our existence, to exist in perfect communion with God and each other, will be revealed.

Sacraments in Community

It is in the sacraments that one great aspect of a communal existentialism is enjoyed. Salvation, of course, occurs when one exercises a sincere and saving belief/faith/trust that Jesus Christ is Lord. Yet, the communal existential search begins when one submits to baptism; a public confession of that faith, a spiritual “death” of the “old man” and spiritual resurrection of the “new man”, and the official doorway to membership in the Church of Christ.
Hence, it is in baptism that the individual, who has first independently exercised faith in Christ, becomes a part of the communal existential search for true existence and the true meaning of the existence of humanity. 1 Corinthians 12:13 and 14 sharpens to a fine point our communal understanding of baptism when it states, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many.”

Likewise, it is by partaking in the Table, or Lord’s Supper, that believers are continually united by spiritual presence of Christ present in the bread and wine. It is in sacrament of the Eucharist that we are reminded that we are in fact one body, united by the cross and empty tomb of Christ. It is in his supper that we are encouraged to recall that we are not many individual believers, but one body, seeking one great existence, in one great communion with our Triune God. As 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 states, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.” Again, it is by the practice of the sacraments that we remember that our existential ponderings cannot alone be the wonderings of an individual, but must instead be the exodus of God’s people as one Church heading towards the Promised Land with Jesus Christ as pillar of fire and cloud leading the way.

Compassion in Community

If we seek our existence: if we seek the answers to the questions at the very root of the meaning of our collective existence as a community, then it only follows that we should exercise great concern for one another. Yet, in the Church these concerns must be exhibited in manifold ways. Of course, the greatest of these is via intercession. In his epistle to the Thessalonians the Apostle Paul exhorts the believers receiving his communication to “pray without ceasing” (5:17). Indeed, this is the call issued to all believers. Especially, if we consider ourselves to be of one great body seeking together our true existence which may only be found in the communion of our fellow believers and under the Lordship and headship of Jesus Christ it becomes all the more important to constantly be interceding for one another. Make no mistake. This is necessary both on the local and the global level. The point is proclaimed continually by the Apostle Paul who charges the Ephesians to be “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints” (Ephesians 6:17).

Also, of great importance is for the individual members and communities of the Church to support one another in compassionate ministry. As the Apostle John stated in 1 John 3:17, “But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” Indeed, how can the love of God which binds us in one communion, under one Lord, Jesus Christ be present if we see the brothers and sisters of our existential journey in crisis and aid them not? Surely, if we ignore them we must be forgetting that our full meaning for existence is not met without them. Again, we seek the answers to the questions relating to the meaning of our existences as one body; it is one communal existential search.

The welfare of other Christians is not a personal matter for them since we seek the key to our existence within a community. The struggles of one or a few bear fruit for all.
Similarly, the victories of other Christians or of myself are not personal victories. The victories of one bring glory to all. All are one in Jesus Christ our Lord. We all seek to answer the basic existential questions of life as one. We seek the meaning of out existence as one. We face death as one. We face abandonment as one. We face the future as one. (There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28)

*artwork is found at www.gardenstreetbaptist.org