Russell Moore, the former Dean of the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary wrote in his book, The Kingdom of Christ: The New Evangelical Perspective,

The New Testament does not present the sacrificial, substitutionary atonement as directed toward isolated individuals. Instead, the atonement is directed in the New Testament toward the gathering of a church” (Acts 20:28; Eph. 5:22-23) (Moore, 153).

In other words, when we are saved, we are not simply saved into a personal forgiveness of sins and a personal relationship with Christ, rather we are saved by Christ into the family and Kingdom of God!

This truth “hit me hard” as I reminisced about the story of one of our North Korean defector friends. He recently shared his testimony at a conference in the UK sponsored by our dear partner Release International and played “Amazing Grace” on his harmonica. Toward the end of his rendition, everyone in the audience began to sing along.

He was genuinely surprised when he finished because he only knew that song as a North Korean underground church song.  He asked us, “How did they know that North Korean song?” We explained to him that Amazing Grace was actually written by an English man and was known around the world. But the more we thought about it, ultimately we said to him, “Yes, it’s an NK underground church song. That’s exactly what it is.” It’s a family song.

Watch the video below of our North Korean defector friend playing Amazing Grace . . .