and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.(Colossians 2:19 – ESV)
In Romans 1:7, Paul wrote his letter “to all that be in Rome”, which means all the believers. Now lets examine that for a moment. Who and exactly where were all the believers in Rome? How could Paul make sure that the letter would be read to every believer in Rome? How did Paul know where to address this letter?
The answer is simple. Paul addressed the letters he wrote to CHURCHES, because there was no thought of believers acting like lone rangers outside the fellowship of other believers. We give thanks to God through Jesus Christ by attending and serving the institution that He founded, the Church, and we serve the universal church body by serving its visible expression, the local church body. God has a covenant with the Church.
Is the church essential to the gospel? If so, why? The Church is the Body of Christ (Ephesians 1:22-23) and Christ is the Head of this Body (Colossians 1:18). Furthermore, He is the Savior of this Body (Ephesians 5:23) because He died for the Church (Ephesians 5:25). The church is an essential part of the gospel!
When you are saved you are made part of the Body of Christ: another way of saying the same thing is that one cannot be saved without becoming a part of the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-13, 27). Therefore, the church is an essential part of the gospel. We cannot become a part of a Body and then separate ourselves from the rest of it, and expect to live.
You may think that all you need to do is stay connected to the Head and you are all right, but when you are separating from the rest of the Body, you are also separating from the Head. You cannot be nourished by the Head while at the same time un-sewing yourself from that which you are knit together (Colossians 2:19). We only increase with the increase of God as we are holding the Head and we stay knit together with all the joints and ligaments. You may think that you can continue to be a part of the invisible Body while at the same time declining to participate in the visible Body, but you are only fooling yourself. Christ is the Head of the church, and He rules over the local assembly. Your notion of no church is only an empty headed idea.
Instead of looking for one reason not to go to church we should be looking for one reason to go to church. No more selfish excuses – GET IN CHURCH, AND STAY IN CHURCH.
10 comments:
I have reservations on the idea of American "house churches." It seems a little too revolutionary and independent, and I can't help but wonder if it's not better to be in an established, brick-and-mortar bonafide CHURCH! This weekend, I expect to rub shoulders with a few of these folks and, while it makes perfect sense for China, the points you bring up in this series seem to be absent from the house church arguments I have heard thus far.
So, for this post and your recent posts related to the church, I say...
WHAPOW!!! Good stuff, man.
BTW, though not convinced, I'm not condemning the whole movement, and if someone has positive input to balance me out, I'm open to receiving correction on the matter.
Mmm... Interesting...
Craver, we have a post coming up titled...
Playing House
in which we will deal with this item...good and bad...
Craver vii said.....wonder if it's not better to be in an established, brick-and-mortar, bonifide CHURCH.
Even So made a comment about there not being too many "real" churches out there.
There might be established, brick-and-mortar CHURCHES on every corner of a community. My question is which ones are "real"?
JD--
Good post. St. Augustine once said that one cannot have God as Father who does not have the Church as Mother. There is no salvation outside of the church, for it is within the body of Christ that God's salvation is made manifest in human history.
Now of course, within historical theology (especially Western), this is a nuanced position. After all, the Roman Catholic Church, like myself, recognizes that God's salvation can and does extend in certain cases to those outside of the boundaries of the institutional church (such as in the example of Abraham, as we've discussed at length before). However, this creates no contradiction with Augustine's view, for the connexion of salvation and church, I think, is meant as a refutation of the "lone ranger" style of Christianity you spoke of (which is surprisingly similar to the heretical movements of the early centuries) rather than as an absolutist prescription.
Thank you...for that important distinction...among other things...
Really, that understanding can help us out...
Good post, JD. Thanks for taking the time to tackle these issues.
Mark Pierson
Thanks Blue...is it just me, or is everyone else having a difficult time with blogger today?
I have been so busy over the past several weeks, or at the very least so drained, I have not had the opportunity to read all your posts, however, this is a good one which I happily did get to read.
It seems this argument grows as a logical inference from John's teachings in 1 John that we cannot say we love God is we don't love our fellow Christians.
For the one who claims they can be connected to the head while divorced from the body, that begs the question, "How can you say you are connected to (love) the head who you cannot see, while you are not connected to the body (don't love) which you can see.
Again good post. Keep it up.
Post a Comment