Christ’s kingdom is made manifest in the local church, for it is here that people join to bow the knee together to King Jesus, willingly pledging their loyalty to him. We know that this pledge of loyalty creates a vertical relationship between the Christian and Christ. But we also need to know that it creates a horizontal relationship between believers.
John Wesley once said (rightly) that “the Bible knows nothing of solitary religion.” Rather, the Bible calls us into fellowship with one another. In fact, it tells us that when we come to Christ, we become more than citizens of the same kingdom; we become brothers and sisters of the same family. “You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19).
When we come to Christ, we gain God as our Father and Christ as our King. But we do more than that, because as Jonathan Leeman says, “It’s a package deal. Choose the Father and the Son and you have to choose the whole family.” When you come to Christ, you enter into his family. As you gain a Savior, you necessarily also gain brothers and sisters.
