Willow Branches in Autumn Winds

In his highly influential work on Ephesians, God’s New Society, John Stott sums up Paul’s community-oriented gospel:

‘One of our chief evangelical blind spots has been to overlook the central importance of the church. We tend to proclaim individual salvation without moving on to the saved community. We emphasize that Christ died for us “to redeem us from all iniquity” rather than “to purify for himself a people of his own.” We think of ourselves more as “Christians” than as “churchmen,” and our message is more good news of a new life than of a new society. Nobody can emerge from a careful reading of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians with a privatized gospel.’

Paul does not, then, view salvation in individualistic terms apart from the arrival of God’s kingdom in the church. As individuals, we have been saved for life-giving relationships within kingdom of God communities, not merely for privatized walks with Jesus.