Service Is Something Spiritual

Although the ministry of all the saints is being recovered, the danger of introducing secular models of administration and service still exists.

Rodrigo Abarca

One of the most important and essential truths in the New Testament is the fact that all the saints have been called to participate in the task of building God's House. The words "service" and "ministry" are synonymous and as such they belong to the entirety of the saints in their quality as members of Christ's body.

In the discussion about the operation of the body in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul emphasizes the fact that each one of the members has a function to complete inside the body, and that any function, even those that appear to lack importance, are indispensable for the growth and the construction of this body according to the purpose of God in Christ. Each member's function is the ministry or service to which they were called to by God Himself, not the result of the organization, location and a merely human activity (God put the members in the body as He wanted).

One of the biggest tragedies in the Christendom is in their inability to recognize this fundamental fact. Historically, the "ministry" has been hegemonized by a group of "special and different" men who have been separated and qualified expressly for this end, while the great majority of the believers have been displaced toward a passive and dependent position. Most certainly, this conforms to the typical pattern of all human religions. The separation of two unequal breeds in function and demands (eg. clergy and lay) can seem logical and appropriate to the natural man's mind, but it is totally contrary to the purpose of God with His own people. Let us examine this a little more closely.

The man according to God

The church is, in accordance with divine revelation, is fundamentally, a single and new Man. Why a new man? Because the first man misled his course and became a fallen creature, completely separated from God and His will. What's more, he made alliance with those authorities who are hostile to the will of God, and who thrived on the earth, transformed into something totally different from God's thought for him: A deformed race, sick and full of wickedness, sin and death; the same as the power that dominates him. In such a situation God had to intervene to completely reverse fallen humanity's course.

From the beginning, God sought to obtain for himself a man that would serve him in four great aspects or guidelines, according to Genesis 1: 26-28: First, a man that carried and manifest his image; second, a man that, possessing his image, also expressed his authority over the whole creation; third, a man that, expressing his authority, put an end to Satan's rebellion; and fourthly, a man who, being one, be at the same time many, that is to say, a collective man.

The above-mentioned summarizes the eternal purpose of God toward man. Nevertheless, the key and the heart of this purpose is found in chapter 2 of Genesis, in the figure of the tree of the life that God planted amid the garden. It shows us that the divine design toward man is centered in expressing the eternal and uncreated life that God alone possesses through him. And this life was completely gathered in his Son. Therefore, man's destiny was to become the dwelling place where Christ would inhabit and would express the fullness of Himself. Only then, would man be qualified to carry out the four great tasks that God expected from him.

This is part of the mystery of the will of God. That man is the decisive tool for the realization of His supreme will, for which He created all things. But, as we have said, man became a fallen and deformed creature; something that is very different and is very distant from God's thought.

The introduction of a new man

God, therefore, had to put an end, once and for all, to fallen man, his works, his alliance with the wicked powers and his sinful history. And this was carried out in the cross. All that belonged to the old creation, that is to say, sin, sinful man, the power of Satan and death, was destroyed there by means of Christ's death. And in this point it is important to notice that this death also put an end to all the divisions and separations among men. All that belonged to an old order of things ended on the cross (including the law and Israel according to the flesh) and a new creation was introduced together with a new heavenly man.

This new man is Christ. Because in him God obtained the man that He looked for in the beginning: a man that expresses the image of God in fullness; a man that was crowned as King and Lord over the whole of God's creation; a man through whom God annihilated Satan's rebellion forever; and a man who being one, multiplied himself to become many. The fullness of the divine thoughts toward man is gathered and consummated in him.

Then, in Christ's cross, in his body nailed there, God made all the earthly and fallen men into a single and New heavenly Man. First, he put an end to the first man by means of Christ's death, and then, gave beginning to a new man by means of his resurrection. But, can we see the emphasis of the Scripture: "One new man..."? Not only new but also just one! There are no longer many, but only one. This new man is Christ in his people. Or, to put it another way, it is Christ filling everything in the New Man.

From this New Man we are told that it is also a body formed by many members (Paul tells us that Christ literally has many members). Each believer ends up being part of the same, by means of a new birth, through which their spirit is renovated, vivified and unified to Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, Christ's body has its foundation in Christ's life that is imparted equally to each believer. The body is not something merely external and earthly: an institution, an organization, an association of people, a meeting, a congregation or movement, etc. All those things can be very far from the true nature of Christ's body. Only the body of Christ is qualified to express Christ's fullness and to serve God in this way, in accordance with the purpose that he set down for man in the beginning.

All the members functioning

To carry out its mission, the church must, by experience, appropriate all that is in Christ. It must have its head in the heavens, and must bring all the fruits of his death, resurrection and exaltation here below, to express them and to manifest them on the earth. This is the corporate man that satisfies God's heart. Therefore, the present dispensation can be described as a great transition from one creation to another; from one humanity to another. The first one is being displaced by the application of all the values of Christ's death on the cross upon the natural man, and the second is being introduced by the operation of the power of Christ's life of resurrection in and by the interior or spiritual man, in the heart of the church that he won by His blood. Both things will continue happening simultaneously until the first is totally displaced and the second completely established in the saints.

This is the work of God in the present dispensation and all the saints are called to participate in it. Truly, this work cannot be carried out without the cooperation of all the saints. For this end therefore, they were constituted as Christ's body. Because the body is a metaphor and a figure which expresses the life, just as much as the ministry, of the saints. Indeed, in the body, all the members have a function that is vital for the development of the divine life. The body grows and is built up in the measure that it grows and expands in Christ's life. Christ's growth in the body means, in turn, that the body itself is enabled to carry out the purposes and thoughts of God for the present age.

From this perspective, the apostle Paul speaks to us of the necessity of perfecting the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edification of Christ's body. Only the work of the ministry, carried out by all the saints, can produce the edification of Christ's body. And the edification of the body will also take us forward, until reaching the measure of the stature of a perfect man or mature (that is to say, the fullness of Christ). For this reason, the distortion of the "ministry" in the heart of Christianity is one of the main causes for the immaturity, the littleness, the weakness and the lack of spiritual development among believers. Because we cannot ignore that which God established (His heavenly model) without harvesting all the bitter consequences.

Today, the ministry has been placed in the hands of a few "pastors" or "ministers", while the great majority of the saints remain in a passive attitude that is limited to receiving the advice, care and spiritual attention of those "few." This starting point brings about a second error, because the church becomes the congregation of such and such a ministry; a kind of a platform for the ministerial development of a few gifted and "anointed" men. But this is a million light years from the divine pattern laid out for the church.

The church doesn't belong, and nor is an extension of the ministry of any man, call him a pastor, prophet or apostle. The church is the New celestial Man dedicated to share Christ's life, glory and authority for all eternity, so how could it also be the platform for the ministry of a man? In fact, to prevent this wrong and to preserve the centrality and supremacy of Christ in the church, God formed it as a body, where all the members must interaction in reciprocity and mutuality, to receive their growth from the Lord.

The way of the church

So the way for the church is clear according to God. All the members should get up to serve and to carry out the work of the ministry, for the edification of Christ's body. Everyone is a minister and priest of God. Of course, God has endowed some of them with a ministry of the Word whose end is to capacitate, to prepare and to encourage the rest of the members to carry out their ministry together. In this sense, God has given gifts to His church: Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. But, let us note well the divine emphasis: they are gifts "given to" the church. Christ himself prepares and sends his church out. The gifts exist for the church. But the church exists for Christ, so that Christ fills everything through it.

On the other hand, it is encouraging to note how in some ways, the importance of the ministry of all the saints in the development and the growth of the church is being recovered. However, it is necessary to note one or two dangers here.

Our permanent temptation is to take the truths of God's Word and to systematize them, to transform them into a method whose results don't depend on Christ and His life. Certainly, any expert in the organization and administration of a business will tell us that having many men working and performing its tasks well will redound in the increment and the success of any company. This is a basic principle of organization. The delegation of tasks, the motivation, the team work etc., is an integral part of the efficiency in any managerial and organizational environment. But this doesn't have anything to do with Christ's body. The modern managerial model requires the head of the company to be the general manager or president of the organization. And this model is easily transferable to the interior of the church, even more so if we have "biblical proof" to do it. However, to put all the believers to work, to multiply the number of new converts in the congregations in an organized form, and to expand the ministry of "pastors" and "ministers" who act as the administrative head of the whole process, is not the "divine model" for the church, but rather the modern managerial paradigm.

It is a divine norm that God uses spiritual means for spiritual ends. And what he has in mind is nothing less than the constitution of a new spiritual and heavenly man, where Christ fills everything. Therefore, the service of all the saints should be adjusted to this norm and heavenly goal. All the old and earthly should be excluded from the New Man so that Christ can fill everything. And this includes all the strategies, plans, programs, methods and organizations arising from the ability and capacity of the natural man. If the House must be spiritual, a spiritual ministry and service on the part of the saints will be required. And on this point it is necessary to emphasize that spiritual things are the result, as pointed out above, of the combined and simultaneous operation of Christ's death and resurrection in the saints.

On one hand, all that belongs to the earthly and natural sphere should come to an end. The mark of all spiritual service is a deep, devastating and decisive work of the cross on the man's soul, and all his abilities to conceive ideas, to act and to understand. And this is something that one cannot acquire by capacitating, nor with training methods and techniques of growth or multiplication. Only the discipline of the Spirit, worked into the heart of a church life, characterized by mutuality and reciprocity, can produce a similar fruit. On the other hand, all the values of the resurrection life must be introduced through the expansion of the interior man, who goes on being renewed until reaching full knowledge. This man is Christ in us, the hope of glory. We easily put our trust in methods, but God puts His trust in the life and types of men sent to serve. In the work of God, everything depends on the spiritual quality of the man sent to serve.

After all the above-mentioned, we must emphasize once again that the full accomplishment of divine purposes for the present age, and even further on, is subordinate to the work of the ministry carried out by all the saints, without exclusion. Such a work requires, before everything else, that Christ be the center, the only and real head of the saints. In the same way, the Holy Spirit must have the complete and absolute direction of all the matters in the church; that the ministers of the word take the correct place as those who capacitate and encourage the saints for the work of the ministry; and that the natural man's life is deeply and progressively displaced by means of the cross, so that Christ's life is expanded and expressed, until filling all in all, and each one of the members of His body.