What Is the Church (and Who’s in It)?

What’s the church? For a lot of, the phrase church conjures up pictures of steepled buildings, stodgy providers, and stuffy males in collars. It’s an object of distrust for others, filled with merciless hypocrites. For some, it’s a passion that some individuals take pleasure in to little consequence—“all so innocent, so mild, so correct.” For others nonetheless, it’s merely weird.

Traditionally and regionally, the church has been all of these items at occasions. But behind the entire stylings, stereotypes, and stigmas is one thing greater than human. It’s an establishment whose first members described it in phrases not of meanness and monotony however of wonderful, loving fellowship with God and other people. The query of the place we stand in relation to it has implications each for this life and ceaselessly.

So, what—and who—is the church?

God’s Church, Not Ours

The church shouldn’t be a human invention; it’s quite a divine establishment. It’s not a voluntary affiliation, like a Rotary Membership, however a group of individuals God has known as by His Spirit by way of the message of the Gospel.

Since earlier than the time when God created the world, His goal has at all times been “to purify for himself a individuals for his personal possession who’re zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14). This divine mission was at work 1000’s of years earlier than Christ, when God known as Abraham to be His specific servant and the progenitor of His individuals, Israel—with the goal, finally, of blessing all of the nations (Gen. 12:1–3). The mission culminated when Christ suffered for the sins of all individuals, in order that Jews and gentiles are each included in God’s household—equally beneath condemnation for sin, equally forgiven by way of the sacrificial dying of Christ.

The result’s a group of people that share collectively in God’s present of forgiveness. In Jesus Christ, the apostle Paul tells us, all who imagine are like a “construction” that’s “joined collectively” and “grows right into a holy temple within the Lord” and during which God has come to dwell (Eph 2:21–22).

Non secular Union, Not Exterior Attachment

Membership on this church is a matter not of exterior attachment however of religious union.

When he wrote to the church within the metropolis of Ephesus, the apostle Paul described the Christians there as being “sealed with the Holy Spirit” after they “heard the phrase of fact, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him” (Eph. 1:13). They weren’t individuals with frequent pursuits; they have been individuals whom God got here to inhabit as soon as that they had heard and believed the excellent news about Jesus Christ.

This excellent news is that though we’re every in a dire predicament due to sin, going through the futility of our personal lives, and, finally, the judgment of God, Jesus Christ has taken our place in God’s judgment. Jesus went willingly to the cross to pay for the sins of mankind in order that if we entrust ourselves unreservedly to Him, the entire credit score of His righteous life will accrue to our account earlier than God, and He’ll take accountability for all of the debit of our sin.

The church is made up of people who find themselves residing this story and sharing collectively in its advantages. Every should come to Christ individually, however the Scriptures give no notion that one will be in Christ independently. To be within the church is to be adopted into God’s household, to be a citizen in God’s kingdom, to be a brick in God’s temple. It means taking part within the mutual love, provision, and edification that’s acceptable to God’s kids.

Seen and Invisible

The church has a visual expression, since it’s made up of people that dwell on the earth, who meet in buildings, who preserve membership rolls, and so forth. But the essence of the church is invisible, constituting God’s redeemed individuals always and locations who’re united to God by grace and thru religion in Jesus.

This invisible church is what Jesus referred to when He stated, “The gates of hell shall not prevail towards it” (Matt. 16:18). The seen church has usually seen (and can proceed to see) setbacks—establishments languishing, leaders failing, buildings crumbling, statistics trending in what appears to be the unsuitable method. But the church because the physique of God’s redeemed individuals is at all times prevailing in ways in which, very like Christ’s victory on the cross, could seem to be defeat to the human eye.

To be within the church is to be adopted into God’s household, to be a citizen in God’s kingdom, to be a brick in God’s temple.

Finally, the church belongs neither to anybody individual—pope, patriarch, or pastor—nor to anybody group, nor even to 1 nation, language, or tradition. The church belongs to Jesus Christ. We can not dwell faithfully as God’s individuals with out organizing ourselves in seen methods, but we must always not count on that even our good-faith efforts will at all times accomplish our personal functions on the planet—a lot much less that any individual or group who lays declare to Christ will see unerring victory. “God is working His goal out as 12 months succeeds to 12 months”—and we belief that He won’t permit the gates of hell to prevail towards His household as He leads them to His kingdom. When Paul wrote to the church within the metropolis of Philippi, he was capable of say, “I’m positive of this, that he who started a great work in you’ll carry it to completion on the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).

Are You within the Church?

Not everyone seems to be within the church, as a result of not everybody has believed within the Gospel. Even amongst people who find themselves members or common attendees of native, seen church our bodies, there are some who’ve by no means entrusted themselves to Christ and so can not actually declare to be part of God’s church.

To be part of the church is to dwell within the hope of everlasting life with God by way of religion in Jesus Christ. To be aside from the church is to be headed towards an eternity aside from God. It’s completely important to ask the query, “Am I within the church?”—and, if not, “How do I get in?”

Nobody enters Christ’s church on account of one thing a spiritual skilled does—whether or not a baptism, a affirmation, or no matter else. Nobody enters the church by tithing to an area congregation. No enters the church by merely saying a prayer. We enter the church when God brings us to the tip of ourselves and our makes an attempt to be acceptable to Him. Then we could cry out to Him in religion, “Lord Jesus Christ, I forged myself wholly upon Your mercy. I’ve nothing of my very own advantage to carry, and I’m amazed that You would come with me in Your organization. Please be my Lord and Savior, and make me and preserve me as part of Your loved ones.”

This text was tailored from the sermon “Who or What Is the Church?” by Alistair Begg.