Fearfully and WonderfullyParaugs

Unity 

Unity is the foundation of bodily life, where every heart cell obeys in tempo or the animal dies. How does the roaming white blood cell in the bat’s wing know which cells to attack as invaders and which to welcome as friends? No one yet knows, but the body’s cells have a near infallible sense of belonging. The secret to membership lies locked away inside each cell nucleus, chemically coiled in a strand of DNA. 

I believe that the Designer of DNA challenges the human race to a new and higher purpose: membership in a spiritual Body. The community that the New Testament calls the Body of Christ differs from every other human group: unlike a social or political body, joining it requires an identity transfer, analogous to an infusion of DNA. Jesus described the process to Nicodemus as being “born again” or “born from above,” indicating that spiritual life requires an identity change as drastic as a person’s first entrance into the world. We become, quite literally, God’s children. 

That common identity links all members of Christ’s Body with a unifying bond. I sense that bond when I meet strangers in India or Africa or California who share my loyalty to the Head; instantly we become brothers and sisters, fellow cells in Christ’s Body. 

In a healthy church, unity trumps diversity. Paul, who as a faithful Pharisee used to thank God every day that he was not born a slave, a Gentile, or a woman, changed dramatically. “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus,” he told the fractious Galatians (3:28). Such ethnic and gender categories melt away in significance compared to the new identity that we share. 

The process of joining Christ’s Body may at first seem like a renunciation. I forfeit autonomy. Ironically, however, renouncing my old value system—in which I had to compete with other people on the basis of power, wealth, and talent—and committing myself to the Head abruptly frees me. My sense of competition fades. No longer do I have to compete through life, looking for ways to prove myself. Instead, I have the singular goal of pleasing God, of living for an audience of One. More, I can partner with other cells in the Body to accomplish God’s work in the world. 

Adapted from Fearfully and Wonderfully: The Marvel of Bearing God’s Image by Dr. Paul Brand and Philip Yancey. Copyright ©2019 by Philip Yancey and the Children of Paul and Margaret Brand. Used by permission. For more information, please visit https://www.ivpress.com/fearfully-and-wonderfully .