on the church, active & passive

As we let Paul form our understanding of what goes on in church, what strikes us is that the church is primarily the action of God in Christ through the Spirit. God and Jesus are the subject of nine active verbs that tell us what is going on in church: Jesus is our peace (Eph. 2:14), he made us one (v.14), he broke down the dividing wall of hostility (v.14), he abolished the law (v.15), he created one new humanity (v.15), he made peace (v.15), he reconciled (v.16), he put to death (v.16), he proclaimed peace (v.17).

And insofar as we are included in the action, the action is not something that we do but something done to us. Paul uses five passive verbs to tell us how we get included in the action: we are brought near (v.13), the Spirit gives us access (v.18), we are built upon the foundation (v.20), we are joined together (v.21), we are built together (v.22). Simple copulas name the identities that we acquire by God's action, We are identified as citizens and members of the church. When we are pulled into the action, it is God who pulls us in. We acquire our identity not by what we do but by what is done to us.

Eugene H. Peterson, Practise Resurrection, p.117