Luke writes his two volumes, the Gospel and Acts, to be read together. This is quite obvious from what he writes in Acts 1.1: “The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach….” The story of Jesus continues in the ongoing life of the church.
Once you see this, the relationship between the two books becomes apparent. The body–the church–follows the head–Jesus. There are many parallels between the two volumes that tease out this theme of head-and-body. At the beginning of the Gospel, the Holy Spirit hovers over the womb of Mary and creates the body of Christ. At the beginning of Acts the Holy Spirit hovers over the disciples and creates the church. Toward the beginning of the Gospel, the Holy Spirit baptizes Jesus, anointing him with power for his mission. In the beginning of Acts the Holy Spirit baptizes the church anointing them with power for mission. In Luke 5 Jesus heals a paralyzed man. In Acts 3 Peter and John heal a paralyzed man. Jesus raises the dead in Luke 7. Peter raises the dead in Acts 9. Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem though he faces certain death at the hands of the leaders of Israel. Paul sets his face to go to Jerusalem though he faces the threat of death from the officials in Jerusalem. The trial of Jesus and the trial of Paul are also remarkably parallel.
What is Luke doing? He is showing us the relationship of Christ to his church, of the head to the body. Where Jesus goes first the church follows. The church is the body of Christ that takes up the cross and follows Jesus.
This means that whatever happens to Jesus happens to us. If he suffers, then we will suffer. If he dies, then we will die. If he is raised, then we will be raised. If he ascends to inherit glory, then we will ascend to inherit glory. Whatever is true about Jesus is true about us. That is the relationship.
Salvation is not something that God doles out like heavenly candy from his ethereal throne. He doesn’t throw out salvation like some guy on a Mardi Gras float in New Orleans throws out beads, merely giving us a little token from him to hold on to. Our salvation is wrapped up in in the Person of Jesus himself. We are saved because we are a part of his body, because we share his life. United to Christ Jesus whatever is true about Jesus is or will be true about us. His life is our life. His destiny is our destiny.
This means that we don’t read the Gospel as a mere recollection of facts about what Jesus did for us in history (though it is certainly that). It means that in the Gospels we have a pattern for our lives. In Christ we see the road that God has laid out for us: what he plans to do with us as well as patterns of life that we are to imitate. God has destined us for glory with Christ. He calls us now to take up the cruciform life of Christ in order that we might inherit that glory.
