True unity
- Jun 5, 2015
- 2 min read
Much of the news brought to us through the media is about disunity, whether that be between individual people or people groups. Statesman, politicians and management expend considerable energy either trying to bring about unity or maintaining it. The promised referendum on Europe and discussions between the government and the SNP are concerned with unity. Even the Eurovision Song contest had the theme of ‘Building Bridges’.
When one acts to bring two disunited parties into harmony, we are said to be reconciling them. Former President Bill Clinton is one who performed this role on his visits to Northern Ireland during the 1990s. When Prince Charles went to Ireland last month to meet former enemies of the British government, it was hailed as another step along the ‘pathway of reconciliation’.
In the great scheme of things, we may be assured that God is the God of unity and is in the business of reconciliation, but he accomplishes these on his own terms. God’s way of unifying people starts with uniting them to himself through the message of the Gospel. Firstly, the Gospel says that mankind is already united in a negative sense in that they are all, at heart, at odds with God, and that each person needs to acknowledge that this is the case. Secondly, God comes to us in the person of Jesus in order that men and women, on a one by one basis, may be reconciled to himself. He tells each of us to trust that Jesus can accomplish this bringing together of ourselves and God.
As a result, each person that is brought back to God is firmly united to all similarly reconciled people. These united men and women are what the Church is in essence. Nationality, ethnic grouping, gender, social status and age are rendered irrelevant. Each person has had to come through the same process of being humbled by God and then forgiven. Now they share the same hope of experiencing unhindered unity with God and one another in the age to come i.e. Heaven.
While it is right and proper for people in all levels of society, irrespective of religious faith, to work and look for unity, it should never be at the expense of truth. Further, it must be recognised that man’s efforts will, at best, produce a vulnerable unity. By contrast, Jesus offers something much better and longer lasting for each of those who are prepared to trust him and his gospel.