Unity In Christ

The Beginning

Last week we talked about how life is a story. The Bible is the history of our faith, but it is also the story of how God reaches for us, restores us, and brings us back to Himself. And like every good story, it has a beginning.

Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”That is where our story begins. Not with chaos. Not with hatred. Not with fighting, sickness, bitterness, or division. It begins with God creating something good.

In the beginning, things were whole. Creation lived in harmony. There was no death. No broken relationships. No war. No jealousy. No fear. No one was unfriending anybody. No one was blocking anybody. No one was posting a vague Facebook status and saying, “Some people need to learn…” You know, the kind where everybody wonders, “Is that about me?” In the beginning, there was unity.

God looked at all He had made and said it was very good. Can we even imagine a life like that today? A life where all is well, the bills are paid, the doctor gives good news, relationships are healed, nobody is mad at anybody, and most of all, we are walking closely with God. That is how the story began. But it did not stay that way. The problem was not with what God created. The problem came when humanity turned away from God. We often call that moment the fall, and that is right, but today I want us to think of it as separation.

Sin separated Adam and Eve from God. It separated Adam from Eve. It brought shame, blame, hiding, and fear into the world. Before sin, they walked with God. After sin, they hid from Him. And we have been hiding ever since.

That separation did not stop in Genesis. We still see it today. Rich from poor. Young from old. Republican from Democrat. Race from race. Church from church. Family member from family member. Neighbor from neighbor.

We live in a world that is more connected than ever, and yet people feel more alone than ever. We can send a message across the world in seconds, but sometimes we cannot sit across the table from someone who disagrees with us. We can have hundreds of online friends and still feel like nobody really knows us. The world keeps promising connection, but what we often get is more separation.

And underneath all of it, there is something deep inside us that knows this is not how it is supposed to be. There is a longing in us for unity and oneness. Why? Because that is how we were created. God said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” We were made for fellowship with God and with one another. Every human heart seems to carry some memory of Eden. We long for peace, even though we keep making war. We long for love, even though we hurt one another. We long for wisdom, even though we make foolish choices. We long for belonging, even though we build walls.

It is like we are kings and queens dressed in rags, wandering around trying to find our way back home. If we were made only for division, then division would satisfy us. But it does not. It wears us out. It makes us bitter. It makes us lonely. It makes us suspicious. We know there must be something better. We see this longing everywhere. We hear it when people call for justice and peace. We see it after tragedy, when neighbors suddenly help neighbors and strangers become family for a little while. We see it at ball games and concerts, when thousands of people who do not know each other suddenly sing the same song or cheer for the same team.

For a moment, we remember what it feels like to be together. But those moments do not last. A concert ends. A ball game ends. A tragedy fades from the headlines. The feeling goes away, and the same old divisions come back. Why? Because we keep trying to fix a spiritual problem with temporary things. We do not just need better communication. We do not just need better manners. We do not just need everybody to calm down, although that would help some days. We need resurrection. That is where Paul begins in Ephesians 2.

He does not say, “You were a little confused.” He does not say, “You were basically fine, but needed some encouragement.” He says, “You were dead in your trespasses and sins.” That is strong language. Paul wants us to understand that sin does not just make us flawed. Sin makes us dead. Sin separates us from the source of life. God breathed life into humanity, and when we turn away from Him, we turn away from life itself.

And here is the hard truth: we cannot bring ourselves back to life.

A dead person cannot perform CPR on himself. A dead person cannot say, “I’ll try a little harder tomorrow.” Dead means helpless. Dead means powerless. Dead means someone else has to act. And then come two of the most beautiful words in Scripture: “But God.” “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us…” That is the turning point of the story. We were dead, but God made us alive. We were separated, but God came near. We were lost, but God reached for us. We were guilty, but God showed mercy. We had no way back, so Christ became the way.

This is not because we earned it. Paul says, “By grace you have been saved.” Grace means God did for us what we could never do for ourselves. That is the heart of the gospel. God did not wait for us to clean ourselves up. He did not wait for us to become lovable. He did not wait for us to finally get our act together. While we were dead, Christ came. While we were separated, Christ came. While we were far off, Christ came.

And through His death and resurrection, Jesus brings us back to life. But God does not just save us from something. He saves us for something. Ephesians 2:10 says we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand for us to walk in. That means your life is not an accident. You are not just here to take up space, pay bills, get through the week, and hope things work out. You were created by God, redeemed by Christ, and filled with purpose. God has work for us to do.

And what is that work? It begins with loving God. Because when we truly love God, His love starts flowing into every other part of our lives. It touches how we speak, how we forgive, how we treat our family, how we handle conflict, how we respond to people who get on our nerves, and yes, even how we act when somebody drives slowly in the left lane.

That may be the real test of sanctification. When the love of Christ fills us, it does not stay hidden. It shines into the dark corners of our soul. It softens what has become hard. It heals what has been wounded. It changes what we thought could never change. And if that happened in us, what kind of church would we become? What kind of community would we become? What kind of witness would we have? Maybe, just maybe, the world would catch a glimpse of Eden again.

Then Paul turns from our personal salvation to our shared identity. In verses 11–13, he reminds the Gentiles that they were once outsiders. They were separated, excluded, strangers to the promise, without hope and without God in the world. That is a lonely place to be. But verse 13 says, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Once far off. Now brought near. That is what Jesus does.

He brings sinners near to God. He brings enemies near to each other. He brings outsiders into the family. He takes people who had no business being at the same table and makes them brothers and sisters. In Christ, we are not first defined by our politics, our past, our family name, our race, our income, our mistakes, or our opinions. We are defined by Him. That does not mean all our differences disappear. It means our differences no longer have the final word. Christ does.

We are united in Christ. That is not the same as everybody being exactly alike. Unity is not uniformity. The church is not supposed to be a room full of people who all think the same, talk the same, vote the same, dress the same, and prefer the same style of music. Thank God for that, because some of us would not survive the music conversation. Christian unity means Christ is greater than what divides us.

It means I can look at someone who is different from me and still say, “You are my brother. You are my sister. We belong to the same Lord.” That is powerful, especially today. Because the world teaches us to divide people into categories. Friend or enemy. Us or them. Good side or bad side. Worth listening to or not worth listening to.

But the gospel says something different. The gospel says we were all dead in sin, and we all need grace. The gospel says none of us stand before God because we were good enough. We stand because Christ is merciful enough. That truth humbles us. It is hard to look down on someone else when you remember that you were dead and God made you alive. It is hard to refuse mercy to someone else when you remember how much mercy God has given you. It is hard to keep building walls when Jesus gave His blood to bring people near.

The church should be the place where the world sees what reconciliation looks like. Not because we never disagree. Not because we never struggle. Not because we never hurt each other. But because we belong to Christ, and Christ teaches us how to come back together.

The world does not need another place where people act divided. It has plenty of those. The world needs to see a people who have been brought near by Jesus. That is our witness. That is our calling. That is our story. We began with God creating all things good. Then sin brought separation. But God, rich in mercy, sent Christ to bring the dead back to life and the far off back near.

And now we are called to live like people who have been brought near. So the question is not only, “Do I believe in Jesus?” The question is, “Is there evidence in my life that I have been made alive by Jesus?” If someone looked at the way I speak, forgive, love, serve, and treat people who are different from me, would they see evidence of resurrection? When Jesus was crucified, the religious leaders thought they had evidence against Him. His words, His actions, His mercy, His love, His authority—all of it proved He was exactly who He said He was. What evidence is there in our lives?

Is there evidence of grace? Evidence of mercy? Evidence of forgiveness? Evidence that old divisions are being healed? Evidence that Christ is making us alive? Because in a world full of separation, the church is called to be a living witness that Jesus still brings people near. We do not have to keep hiding from God or from each other. We do not have to keep living divided. We do not have to keep pretending that temporary things can heal eternal wounds.

Christ has come. The dead can live. The far off can be brought near. And in Him, we can be united. So maybe the ending of our story is really a return to the beginning—not because we find our own way back to Eden, but ecause Jesus brings us home. In the beginning, God created us for unity. In Christ, God restores us to unity. And through the church, God shows the world what His new creation looks like. We are no longer far off. We have been brought near. We are united in Christ.