The holy catholic church

The Creed now begins to consider God’s people and mentions five details that are true of them all. I wonder how we would answer the question, ‘Please name five important truths about God’s people?’ Would we choose the five mentioned in the Creed? I suspect that the first truth – the existence of the church – might not be on our list. 

This could be the case because we tend to think individualistically, which in some ways we have to do, such as when responding to the gospel. Or it may be the case that the presence of denominations has hidden the significance of the church and we fail to realise its importance. For many people, Christianity is ‘Jesus and me’ rather than ‘Jesus and us’.

There are different ways of using the word ‘church’. We can use it to describe a congregation or a denomination. Sometimes we use it to mean the entirety of God’s people (the invisible church), or the church that we can see (the visible church) with its membership rolls and forms of church government. Another way in which the church has been described is when we refer to the church militant and the church triumphant; militant refers to those still on earth and triumphant to those still in heaven. So it may not be clear what we mean when we use the term because the persons we are speaking to may have their own understanding of the word.

It is useful at times to have a landmark to help us assess a situation. One verse from the Bible that can function as a landmark as we think of the holy catholic church is the sentence of the apostle Paul when he said that Christ loved the church and gave himself for it (Eph. 5:25).

 

What does the word ‘church’ mean?

The word ‘church’ is a translation of the Greek word ekklesia, which means those who are called out. It is not in itself a religious word, for it could be used to describe any group that is called to meet, often with a higher authority such as a town official. We get an idea of what is meant by thinking of the words ‘congregation’ and ‘congregate’. A congregation is a group of people who congregate for a purpose or to meet an important person.

 

An example of a people summoned to meet a superior was when the children of Israel were called out of Egypt to meet with God at Mount Sinai. In order for that to happen, God had to overpower those who held the Israelites in captivity. We are familiar with how that took place – the conflict with Pharaoh and his defeat through a series of divine miracles. Another example would be the three annual feasts in Israel when Israelites were summoned to Jerusalem to worship God at Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles.

 

Those who become members of the church do so by obeying the summons issued through the gospel. That is how Jesus builds his church. People hear the gospel and respond by trusting in Jesus and repenting towards God. Those summoned in this way are sinners, and they are called equally, with the same demands made of each in the gospel.

 

After Peter had confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Saviour informed the disciples that he would build his church, and that the gates of hell would not overcome it (Matt. 16:13-19). The gates in a city was the location where the town councillors and other leaders met to discuss matters. Jesus, through this illustration, told his disciples that the process of building his church would face Satanic opposition. Nevertheless he would continue to build his church where God would  be worshipped. Needless to say, Jesus only intended to build one church. It would contain everyone who trusted in him alone for salvation. 

 

In another picture of the church, Paul refers to it as a building in which the foundation is composed of the apostles and prophets (that is, built on the truths given them by God), with Jesus being the cornerstone that holds the building together. Then, as Peter says, living stones are added on top of the foundation. The living stones are believers.

 

The erection of this spiritual building is an ongoing heavenly project. We don’t know when it will be complete, or even if it has reached halfway. There may yet be millions of converts to be added to it. The fact is that the church is a miracle. Sometimes we say that the survival of the church is a miracle because of the strength of the opposition. The real miracle with regard to the church is its existence because it is composed of those who used to be lost sinners but who are now regenerated by the Holy Spirit.

 

The church is holy

There are several kinds of holiness that can be mentioned: one is connected to a ritual, another is positional, another is practical, and another has to do with prospect. 

The holiness that is connected to a ritual occurs when a person is baptised and becomes a member of the visible church. A basic aspect of holiness is separation to God and while baptism is more than separation it is not less. When a person is baptised in the name of the Trinity, there is a real sense in which the act of baptism separates that person from the world. The name of the Trinity is now upon him and he belongs to God in a covenanted way. This does not necessarily mean that the person is truly converted, but it does mean that an unconverted baptised person is different from unbaptised people.

 

Positionally, a Christian is separated to God. This is why he or she is described in the Bible as belonging to the saints, a term that only occurs in the plural in the New Testament. There are different ways of considering this separation to God. We can think about separation through how each person of the Trinity affects believers in a positional manner. God the Father separates sinners from a cursed family (fallen mankind) and brings them into his family. The blood of Jesus cleanses sinners and they move out of the state of condemnation. The Holy Spirit comes to indwell believing sinners and his presence in their hearts sets them apart to God – he is the sign that they are now God’s possession, and this sign is permanent.

 

Practically, the church is holy because the members live changed lives. Their behaviour indicates that they are being sanctified by the Holy Spirit. They are renewed in the whole of the persons – their thinking, their affections and their choices are now formed by the Spirit. They become Christlike and there are common traits found in all of them. Those traits can be summarised by the fruit of the Spirit described in Galatians 5. They will be seen throughout the church wherever it is found, in every century and in every place. If a Christian from the first century was transported into the twenty-first century, it should not be hard for him to identify Christians. A Christian in Inverness in 2020 should look like a Christian in Antioch in the year 60 as far as their characters are concerned.

 

What about the prospect? One day the church will be perfect. She will be beautiful, blameless, without blemish. We know that there are many stains on the church now, but one day she will be glorious. Each Christian will be glorified, but they will be glorified together. Who can imagine the wonder of seeing a holy church!

 

We have heard stories of a poor woman who married a rich king. The church is like a bankrupt person who marries the richest King. In this life, the church discovers what her King can do for her in what we call the state of grace. In the next life she will discover what he can do for her in the state of glory. Who can describe the riches that the church will experience then!

 

One of its greatest blessings will be the presence of God. It is hard to grasp the fact that God will yet live in the new Jerusalem, the church. People often say where they would like to live. Where does God want to live? In all of his people when they are together forever with him.

 

One of the churches in the New Testament that was facing lots of problems was the church in Corinth. It was affected very badly by a whole range of inappropriate behaviour for Christians. Yet Paul can address them as the church of God in Corinth, who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, and who are called saints (1 Cor. 1:2). In that description we can see that each person of the Trinity was involved in the holiness of the church there. It belonged to God the Father, they were united to Jesus, and they were regarded as saints because the Spirit indwelt them.

 

The church catholic

For many Protestants, the word ‘catholic’ sounds bad. But the word itself only means ‘universal’. Here, in the Creed, the use of the word has nothing to do with the Roman Catholic Church, which had not come into existence when the Creed was composed. Instead it is stating that the church of Jesus is found throughout the world.

 

What ideas come to mind when we think of the universal church? One reality is that in the true church there is racial harmony. It is sadly the case that sometimes sections of the visible church identify with practices that deny the unity of the church of which Jesus is the head. Yet the picture of the church in the eternal world is one that is composed of people drawn from all tribes and nations. And we know that one of the startling aspects of the witness of the early church was how Jews and Gentiles were united together in love.

 

A second consequence of the existence of the universal church is that of sympathy. Today, parts of the church suffer persecution and other parts do not. Yet, as we are told by Paul when speaking about the church, ‘if one member suffers, all suffer.’ Those enduring pain for their commitment to Jesus are our family. In a picture of heaven in Revelation 6, the inhabitants of heaven ask God how long the church on earth will suffer. We can do for the suffering church what those in heaven cannot do – we can pray for those who suffer.

 

Third, we can be encouraged because we belong to the universal church. It is the case that the church in the West is in steep decline, but that does not mean that the church of Jesus is going out of existence. In fact, the opposite is the case because the church in South America, Africa and Asia is growing numerically at a faster rate than ever before. We in the West should read about what God is doing in those other places and not confine our reading to revivals in the past, no matter how wonderful they were. There are good things happening today in the universal church.

 

Fourth, the existence of the universal church is an opportunity to show compassion. Paul, in several of his letters, refers to a collection he was making among Gentile churches for the church in Jerusalem which had entered into hard times. He expected those Gentile churches to share in this way with those affected by the poverty and hardship that had occurred in a country faraway, and which most of them would never visit. And Paul and his companions were willing to travel many hundreds of miles in order to deliver it, which they did.

 

Conclusion

So we have thought a little about the church. What should be our attitude towards it? Timothy Dwight, the grandson of Jonathan Edwards, wrote a hymn about his attitudes towards the church, and we can adopt his words for ourselves:

 

I love Thy kingdom, Lord,

The house of Thine abode,

The church our blessed Redeemer saved

With His own precious blood.

 

I love Thy church, O God.

Her walls before Thee stand,

Dear as the apple of Thine eye,

And written on Thy hand.

 

For her my tears shall fall,

For her my prayers ascend,

To her my cares and toils be given

Till toils and cares shall end.

 

Beyond my highest joy

I prize her heavenly ways,

Her sweet communion, solemn vows,

Her hymns of love and praise.

 

Is that how we think of the church?