Because God Himself is a perfectly happy society of mutually loving Persons, when He reconciles a throng of men to Himself He thereby simultaneously reconciles all of them to each other in One Holy and Harmonious Society. The good news that God has made a way to redeem mankind into joint membership in the “Society of God” through union with Christ is one of his powerful solutions to our problem of shame.

Evangelical Christian gospel presentations frequently focus exclusively on how Jesus reconciles man to God. That is indeed central, primary, and crucial. While man is under the wrath of God it is “Game Over,” nothing else matters. So the message of getting right with God through faith in the atoning work of Jesus is of the utmost urgency.

But Jesus also accomplished more than that. Ever since the fateful fruit incident in the Garden, mankind is not only at odds with our Creator but also with each other. Immediately after Adam’s first act of rebellion, the man and the woman started finger-pointing and blaming rather than taking repentant responsibility for their actions, one of their sons killed the other, etc. Men are not only “haters of God” (Rom 1:30), but also haters of each other (e.g. Rom 1:29-30).

Someone who has believed in the gospel of justification by grace through faith in Christ may still have numerous lingering anxieties of the soul. One of those may be, “Thankfully I am right with God because of Christ and the cross, … but other people can still see that I am a deplorable worthless idiot” (or whatever variant form your own consternation of spirit might take).

That’s why it is also good news that Jesus created a New Society of humankind with Himself as head, distinct from the old creation paradigm of mankind in Adam. In the Society of Jesus, the Lamb of God is Himself the central reference point which binds us together. I look at Him and have relief that I am accepted by His blood. I look at you looking at Him and I can accept you (despite the bad and stupid things you have done) because I see that you are trusting in the same redemption from the same Savior that I myself utterly depend upon. And I have solid confidence that you will accept me (despite the bad and stupid things I have done) for the same reason: you will see me not in my depraved condition but as one who is clinging to the same cross that is your lifebuoy as well.

And because Jesus is the God-Man, the Society of Jesus is one with the Society of God. The Trinity has eternally been a perfectly harmonious and happy network of relationships, and it is not about to drop that standard of perfection now. Through the gospel, an innumerable throng (Rev 7) of mankind in such a way that all of us, man-with-man and man-with-God, experience a web of nothing less than completely loving and accepting interrelationships.

Theologically speaking: Trinity + Hypostatic Union + Our Union with Christ + Unity of the Church = Theosis (2 Peter 1:3-7). A most glorious equation!