Article 7: The Church

We believe that the true church began at Pentecost and is made up of persons from every nation, tribe, people, and language who have been made right with God by his grace through faith alone in Christ alone. These members of God the Father's eternal family are reconciled to one another and united by the Holy Spirit in the Body of Christ, of which Jesus Christ is the head. The true church is manifest in local churches. The Lord Jesus mandated baptism and the Lord's Supper, which visibly and tangibly express the gospel. Though they are not the means of salvation, when celebrated by the Church in genuine faith, these practices confirm and nourish the believer.

God's gospel is now embodied in the new community called "the church."

(This commentary is based on a book, entitled Evangelical Convictions: A Theological Exposition of the Statement of Faith of the Evangelical Free Church of America. The exposition I have adapted from that book is shorter and re-drafted to fit the Statement of Faith we are proposing at LAC. I am thankful to my theologian friends—Mike Andrus, Bill Jones, Bill Kynes, David Martin, Ruben Martinez, and Greg Strand—both for the work together and for the opportunity to post this material. Though many contributed to the commentary, the writing was done mainly by Dr. Greg Strand and Dr. Bill Kynes. Your pastor accepts responsibility both for the abridging and for the re-focusing of the commentary now being made available to us.)

Commentary

Our Christian faith is anchored in history. Reflecting the Apostles’ Creed, our SOF declares that Jesus was crucified “under Pontius Pilate” (Article 4). The mention of a first-century Roman govern

Poet and novelist Wendell Berry has become quite popular among graduate students in the early 21^st century. In most of his poems and stories, he addresses the problem of people’s feeling alienated from one another —even when we live in close proximity to other people. Berry believes that the only hope for this kind of disintegration of relationships among people is the forming of rural communities of people committed to their families, to one another, and to the environment in which they live. He wrote, “I know that one revived rural community would be more convincing and more encouraging than all the government and university programs of the last fifty years, and I think it would be the beginning of the renewal of our country, for the renewal of rural communities ultimately implies the renewal of urban ones.”

Berry thinks that the hope for a divided, fragmented world is the establishing of small, healthy, rural communities. I believe that he is on track —but only partially so. According to the Bible, the real hope for our world is in Christ-centered, worshiping, gospel-professing, interdependent communities (rural, suburban, or urban) living in the light of the gospel wherever God has situated them. The real need is for the church of Jesus Christ to be the kind of community that the Bible declares she is.

From the beginning, when God declared that it was not good for human beings to be alone (Gen. 2:18), the divine design for human life included social relationships. Those made in God’s image are to live in a community that in some way reflects the community of love found within the Trinity. Sin ruptured the relationship not only of man with God but also with human beings and the rest of creation. The image of God in the world has been defaced.

But God in his grace has purposed to restore his fallen creation and redeem a people for himself. In Jesus Christ, God acted to rescue sinful human beings from his wrath and reconcile them to himself. This work of Christ in his cross and resurrection is now applied to us by the Holy Spirit, who unites us with Christ so that what is true of him becomes true of us. And in uniting us with Christ, the Spirit also creates a new community we call “the church.” It is in that “household of faith” that each family member is to grow until each one is complete in Christ (Col. 1:28). The church, composed of those saved by God’s grace and united with Christ by God’s Spirit, becomes the embodiment of the gospel in the world.

We state that God’s gospel creates the church. When Jesus began his public ministry, he chose twelve disciples to accompany him as the nucleus of a new community (cf. Matt. 4:18–22).[1] When Peter first declared that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus commended him and then announced the consequence of this confession: “you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18). Jesus easily moved from Peter’s Spirit-inspired recognition of who he was to the promise of the building of a new community. The two go together.

On the Day of Pentecost, Peter preached to the crowds in Jerusalem, and 3,000 people responded in repentance and faith and were baptized that day. They did not go home to become followers of Jesus privately and independently, but “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer... And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:42, 47). Saving faith entails a new community.

The account of the ministry of Paul in Acts (and the witness of his letters) reinforces this connection. During his first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas went back to each of the cities in which they had preached, “strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith” (Acts 14:22), and they “appointed elders for them in each church” (Acts 14:23). In his ministry of the gospel, Paul did not just make converts; he integrated those converts into new communities he called “churches.” From the beginning, God’s gospel created a new social solidarity (cf. Gal. 3:28). And, according to Acts 1:8, the gospel message telling all people of their opportunity to be a part of God’s new community is to be carried through witnesses to “the ends of the earth.” According to Revelation 5:9–10 and 7:9–10, when God’s work is completed, there will be persons from amongevery nation, tribe, people, and language who have been made right with God by His grace through faith alone in Christ alone and made a part of his family.

I. The Nature of the Church

The Greek term ekklêsia translated as “church” simply means “an assembly,” but in the New Testament it is used with a particular theological meaning in two senses, what we call the “true church” and the “local church.” A simple definition is that the true church (or invisible church) is the church as God sees it. The local church (or visible church) is the church as Christians on earth see it. It is important to distinguish between the two, but, as we shall see, they cannot be separated.

A. The True Church

First, the Bible speaks of the church as the totality of all those united with Christ by faith, resulting in a new standing before God and a new relationship with one another. In this sense, Paul can say that “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Eph. 5:25) and that Christ is the Savior of “the church” (Eph. 5:23; cf. also 1:22–23). We refer to this as the “true” church, for it is a community ultimately known only to God, for only God can know the depths of the human heart. Only he can perceive with absolute certainty whether the faith that is professed is truly believed. We may consider the composition of the true church from two perspectives.

1. The True Church is Composed of All Who Have Been Made Right with God by His Grace through Faith Alone in Christ Alone 

The doctrine of justification (i.e., being made right with God) by faith alone is central to our understanding of the gospel. At the core of the gospel is the good news that God acted in Jesus Christ to rescue lost sinners from a condition of divine condemnation and wrath into a new relationship of favor with himself. Where once there was enmity and alienation, now there is peace. Justification is the act of God by which he brings about this new state of affairs. As Paul wrote, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1).

Justification is a term that comes from the law court. Justification does not make a person righteous; it simply declares a person to be so. So when a judge renders a verdict of “not guilty,” the defendant is “justified.” But how then can God justify the wicked, as Paul said that he does (cf. Rom. 4:5)? Wouldn’t that make God himself an unjust judge?

This is precisely the issue the Apostle dealt with in the first four chapters of his letter to the Romans. From 1:18–3:20 Paul argued that sin is universal regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, or religious background. Then, in a wonderful truth found in Romans 3:21–25, Paul was insistent that God is righteous in justifying sinners, both Jewish and Gentile. His case rested on three factors, reflecting the hallmarks of the rediscovery of the gospel at the time of the Reformation.

First, the source of our justification is found in God and his grace.[2] If we are to be justified at all, it must be by God'’s grace alone.

Second, we are justified freely by his grace “through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24). That is, the ground of our justification is not in ourselves, but in Jesus Christ.[3]

Third, the instrument of justification isfaith alone. Paul affirmed this three times in Romans 3: “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe” (v. 22; also vv. 25, 26).

So by faith and faith alone, we are joined to Christ such that he bears our sin and we receive his righteousness (cf. 2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:9). In Christ our sins were condemned, our punishment was borne, we receive his righteousness, and by God’s grace we are now justified in his sight.

Justification is a judicial act recognizing that we have been put in the right with God. But this legal expression has an important communal component. Our justification by God means that we are members in good standing of the company of God’s covenant people. In that sense, justification is integral to our understanding of the church, and we affirm that all who are justified by God’s grace through faith alone in Christ alone are members of the true church.

2. The True Church is Composed of Those United by the Spirit into the Body of Christ of Which He Is the Head

In our consideration of the work of the Holy Spirit in Article 6 (sec. II.B.2), we have already seen how in the Spirit we are baptized into union with Christ. There, our focus was on the new relationship with Christ that this union creates. But our “vertical” union with Christ also has important “horizontal” implications. We each come alone to God, but in coming to God, we do not remain alone — we are simultaneously constituted into the corporate body of believers.Thus, if in union with Christ, God becomes our Father, all other believers similarly united to Christ become our brothers and sisters. And if, by virtue of our union with Christ, we are a part of his body, we are fellow members of that body with every other person who is also in communion with Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 10:16–17; 12:27).

This distinctively Pauline metaphor of the body is used by the Apostle to emphasize both the unity and diversity that exists among Christians (Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:12). Through our Spirit-created union into one body, social distinctions (and even the distinction between Jew and Gentile) no longer divide us (1 Cor. 12:13). But that same Spirit also distributes various gifts, creating a diverse community with a wide variety of roles (1 Cor. 12:4–31). Each is to serve the other in a community of love. The church is united under the authority of Christ as its Head (Eph. 1:22–23; 4:14–15; 5:23; Col. 1:18, 24), from whom “the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Eph. 4:14–15).

This is a wonderful body, a body full of variety, with people of all sorts, differing in their interests and skills and gifts, but each playing a vital part in the well-being of the whole. But already we have begun to move from a discussion of the true church, universal in scope and encompassing all true believers of all time, to the real-life community of people interacting in relationships found in what we call the local church. So we now consider the second sense in which we understand the word “church.”

B. The Local Church

1. A Visible Community Manifesting the True Church in the World  

One can speak of the church as a body known only to God, for in an ultimate sense only God can know who are truly his. But generally in the New Testament, the church refers to a community visible in the world. And though the term can refer to the community of Christians within a large geographical area,[4] it more commonly denotes a local gathering of believers in one place.[5] Here in this local network of relationships the gospel is embodied in the world and worked out in our lives.

This community of Christians in the local church is a microcosm of the universal church. In that sense, the local body is not simply a part of the whole, but a manifestation of the whole, encapsulating in itself its essential qualities as a community of believers redeemed by the blood of Christ. Paul can speak both of all Christians constituting the body of Christ (Eph. 1:22–-23) and a local community as that same body (1 Cor. 12:27). Through the love displayed in its midst (cf. John 13:35; 17:20–22) and the quality of the lives of its members living in the world (cf. Matt. 5:16; 1 Pet. 2:9–12), each local church is to demonstrate to the world something of the truth and beauty of the gospel of Christ.

2. Local Church Membership:  Should be Composed Only of Believers

Because the local church is to manifest the true church in the world, the essential requirement for membership in each should be the same—a saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, we affirm that membership in the local church should be composed only of believers, regenerated by the Holy Spirit.

In saying that local church membership “should” (rather than “must”) be composed only of believers, we are simply recognizing that we do not have infallible knowledge of who is actually a member of the true church. We can make a judgment only on the basis of a credible profession of faith. Membership in the local church is a corporate affirmation of a person’s profession, but we must not give the false impression, leading to a false assurance, that such an affirmation is unerring. Jesus warned us that some who appear to be sheep are really wolves in disguise (Acts 20:29–30), that the profession of some will prove false (Matt. 7:21–23) and that some will be surprised by the verdict on the Last Day (Matt. 25:31–46).

We strongly affirm here that the local church is to be a fellowship of believers. The local church ought to be composed of those who have personally embraced the gospel of Jesus Christ in faith and have been brought into his body by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. Local church membership ought to reflect that.

II. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper

The church is to be a visible community, so we believe that an identifying mark of the church is the proper administration of the ordinances (or sacraments[6]).[7] These ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper,[8] help define who are a part of the true church as they visibly and tangibly express the gospel. We will discuss the nature of the ordinances, considering their source and purpose, before describing each more specifically.

A. The Nature of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper

1. Their Source: They Are Mandated by the Lord Jesus

The description of the practices of baptism and the Lord’s Supper as “ordinances” reflects their source —they come to us by way of an authoritative order, a mandate, from the Lord Jesus himself. Jesus’ Great Commission found in Matthew’s Gospel mandates that in making disciples we are to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). The Book of Acts records how baptism was a practice of the church from the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:38-41).[9]

The church’s practice of the Lord’s Supper began with the disciples’ last meal with Jesus on the night before his death. When he shared the Passover meal with them, he gave them bread and wine and said, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). The early Christians took this to be a command with abiding significance, extending beyond that night to include all believers in the ongoing life of the church. When Paul instructed the church in Corinth regarding their conduct when they gathered to share the Lord’s Supper, he said, “I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you” (1 Cor. 11:23).

These two practices, baptism and the Lord'’s Supper, come to us as outward signs given by Jesus himself, and the church in some form throughout church history has practiced them.

2. Their Purpose: They Visibly and Tangibly Express the Gospel

Why have these ordinances been given to the church? Certainly, the mere application of water or the eating of bread and the drinking of the cup do not have inherent meaning. For that reason, these acts must always be set within a context that includes the proclamation of the Word of God. When the gospel is preached in conjunction with these ordinances, they become, in the words of Augustine, “visible words.” These observable acts speak to us of the wonderful truths of the gospel: Christ’s sacrificial death, our union with him, the new life he gives, the unity of the new family of God through Christ, and his glorious coming by which God’s purposes will be brought to completion.

Yet the ordinances are not only seen, they are also experienced physically —we “eat and drink” and we are “washed,” hence the term “tangibly” in our SOF. In our participation in baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the preached gospel is personalized, and we are individually engaged in a tangible response.

a. They Are Not the Means of Salvation

The biblical story amply illustrates the common human fallacy of confusing a temporary sign with the more lasting reality it signifies. Israel was prone to confuse the physical temple in Jerusalem with the God who was to be worshipped there, assuming that the presence of the former assured them of the saving presence of the latter. Jeremiah warned them that that was not the case (Jer. 7:1–29). Or they trusted in the outward act of animal sacrifice and ignored the inward commitment to the Lord and his ways that such an act was meant to express (cf., e.g., Isa. 1:2–20). Such confusion has also often plagued the church. Through the history of the church, some have believed that a person is brought into a right relationship with God merely through the act of baptism or through participating in the Lord’s Supper. Our SOF is explicit in rejecting that misunderstanding. These ordinances are signs, pointing us to the reality of Jesus’ saving work in his cross and resurrection. We are saved by God’s grace through faith alone in Christ alone.

b. When Celebrated by the Church in Genuine Faith, They Confirm and Nourish the Believer

The ordinances are not the means of our salvation, but this does not mean that they are devoid of any spiritual benefit. Far from it. They are given to the church[10] by our Lord for our good as a God-ordained means of spiritual growth and edification. In that sense, though not “the means of salvation,” they can nonetheless be considered “means of grace.” Like the preaching of the Word, corporate worship, prayer, and our fellowship with other Christians, these ordinances are means God uses to strengthen us in our faith.

Because of their spiritual benefit coming through their connection to the gospel, the ordinances are to be “celebrated” by the church. We are to practice them with a spirit of thanksgiving and praise for the wonderful gospel they express. As we come in faith to be baptized or to share in the Lord’s Supper, God the Holy Spirit works in our hearts to attest to the gospel of which they speak —the one confirms the new believer in the inaugural act of faith,[11] and the other nourishes the believer in the ongoing Christian life.

B. A Description of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper

1. Baptism

We will discuss baptism as we believe it was most clearly practiced in the New Testament, i.e., as an act involving believers. We will therefore seek to present a theology of baptism that all churches could affirm when baptizing professing believers. The practice of baptizing infants of believing parents, also allowed under our SOF (see further below),[12] has to be understood in a different way.[13]

The practice of baptism emerges in the New Testament without preparation or explanation in the ministry of John the Baptist, who came to Israel preaching a baptism of repentance. Jesus himself responded to John’s call and submitted to his baptism, identifying himself with a sinful Israel, though he himself was without sin. Then, in his Great Commission, Jesus commanded his disciples to make disciples of all nations through baptism and teaching (Matt. 28:19).

On the day of Pentecost after the dramatic outpouring of the Holy Spirit and after Peter had finished preaching his powerful sermon in Jerusalem, the people cried out and asked, “Brothers, what shall we do?” To which Peter responded, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins” (Acts 2:37–38). And we read, “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day” (Acts 2:41).

This pattern continued. The apostles preached, and people responded in faith and were baptized (cf. Acts 8:12–13, 36–38; 9:18; 10:47–48; 16:14–15, 31–34; 18:8). In the Book of Acts, there seems to have been no conception of an unbaptized believer.[14] Baptism was a universal practice in the church.

But what does baptism mean? Let us consider its meaning by envisioning the three participants who play a part in every act of baptism.

Participant #1: The Believer’s Profession

First, from the perspective of the person who comes to be baptized, baptism is something we do. Ananias said to Paul, after he had received his vision of the risen Lord, “Now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name” (Acts 22:16). Baptism is an act by which a person publicly calls upon the name of Jesus as Lord and Savior. From the perspective of the person being baptized, baptism is the subjective response to the objective truth of the gospel. It is the biblically prescribed public[15] action that corresponds to a personal response of faith to the gospel.[16]

Participant #2: The Church’s Affirmation

But it is important to remember that a new believer can only ask to be baptized, or better, respond to the command to be baptized[17] —no one baptizes him- or herself. Baptism requires a second participant: the local church. In baptism, the first participant comes as one professing faith in Christ. The second, the church, hears that profession and affirms that profession and then publicly recognizes the one baptized as a Christian brother or sister.

Baptism has, from the beginning, been seen as the point of entry into the visible body of Christ.[18] In Galatians 3:26–29, Paul described those who have been baptized into Christ as sons of God and part of a new community: a community of Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female. Baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is baptism into the body of Christ and so into the church. Baptism was the point at which a person was publicly recognized as a Christian.

Becoming a Christian is very personal, but it is never private, for being adopted as a child of God means being a part of a family — a very visible and tangible family embodied in a local church.[19] Baptism is the initial means by which we are recognized by that family and are welcomed into that family to enjoy its privileges and bear its responsibilities.

Participant #3: God’s Promise

Baptism is something we do, and baptism is something the church does, but, most importantly, baptism is also something that God does. Consider the illustration of a wedding. A baptismal profession is like our matrimonial “I do.” At our baptism, we pledge our faith to God and promise to follow Christ all the days of our lives. But in a wedding there are two who promise. And in baptism, our promise is but a response to the prior promise of God. In baptism that promise of God is reaffirmed, made visible and, in fact, acted out in the very act of baptism itself. When we are plunged under the water,[20] we are buried with Christ into his death (Rom. 6:2–4). We go with him to the cross; we enter his tomb —and in union with Christ our old sinful life dies. Baptism, first of all, proclaims God’s promise that Christ’s death has become our own and that he has borne our judgment.

But in baptism we don’t stay under the water! We are raised up with Christ to new life: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Rom. 6:4).

In 1 Peter 3:21, Peter told us that the water of baptism symbolizes cleansing. That water washes us clean from the dirt of our sin. Paul recounted the words of Ananias to him: “Get up, be baptized, and wash your sins away, calling on his name” (Acts 22:16). In some parts of the early church, those who were baptized actually took off their old clothes (the symbol of their old life of sin), and when they came out of the water, they were given new clothes to symbolize their putting on the righteousness of Christ. This was meant to capture the affirmation of Paul: “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Gal. 3:26–27).

Baptism is the picture of a promise, the visible sign of an invisible grace. In baptism, God’s promise in the gospel is made personal to the one who is baptized as it is displayed before our eyes. This symbolic act displays God’s uniting us to Christ in his death and resurrection, washing our sins away and clothing us with new garments of righteousness.

d. What About Infant Baptism?

This discussion of baptism has assumed that the person coming to be baptized is a professing believer, as this is the most explicit form of baptism practiced in the Book of Acts. However, many through church history have argued, based primarily on the baptism of “households” (cf. Acts 16:15, 33; 1 Cor. 1:16) and a biblical parallel between baptism and the Old Testament practice of circumcision,[21] that the infant children of believers are also to be baptized. In fact, infant baptism was practiced early in the post-apostolic period and has been practiced by most churches throughout history. In recent decades, LAC has only practiced believer’s baptism publicly. Still, our SOF allows for infant baptism. Our SOF affirms that baptism does not save a person. We deny that baptism in water is the instrumental cause of regeneration and that the grace of God is effectually conveyed through the administration of the ordinance itself.[22] We affirm that one must come to personal faith in Christ to benefit from his saving work.

We have therefore determined that neither the “time” of baptism (whether during infancy for the children of believers or at a point of personal profession) nor its “mode” (whether practiced through immersion or the sprinkling or pouring of water) are to be considered an essential point of doctrine over which we will separate as a church family. We will continue to study Scripture regarding this issue, but we do not allow it to divide us.

2. The Lord’s Supper

When Jesus gathered with his disciples in that upper room on the night he was betrayed, they celebrated the traditional Jewish Passover meal together. Through this meal the Jews renewed the memory of that single, defining moment in the history of the people of Israel when the angel of death “passed over” the houses of Israel without harm but brought death to every firstborn in the houses of the Egyptians. The families of Israel were spared because by faith in God’s gracious provision, they had sacrificed a lamb and had dabbed the blood of the sacrificial lamb on their doorposts. On the next day, the Israelites were set free from their many long years of bondage and began their exodus from Egypt and their movement toward the land of God’s promise. Moses declared, “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD —a lasting ordinance” (Exod. 12:14). And so every year in every Jewish home those events would be relived; they would come alive in their minds; and the Jews of each new generation would understand themselves as the ones whom God had rescued.

a. The Lord’s Supper Is a Remembrance of Christ’s Death

Jesus took that Passover meal and gave it a new significance, pointing it to himself. As he broke the bread, he gave it to his disciples and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). Offering them the cup, he said, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:27–28). Jesus was giving up himself for his people, like that Passover lamb whose death substituted for the death of the firstborn of Israel.[23] This Christian meal is meant, in Paul’s words, to “proclaim the Lord’s death” (1 Cor. 11:26). The Lord’s Supper is a remembrance of Christ’s death —vividly reminding us of the cross, and in celebrating this meal, Christians of each new generation understand themselves as those for whom Christ died.

b. The Lord’s Supper Is a Communion with Christ’s Life

The Lord’s Supper is an act of remembrance, but the eating and drinking in the context of a fellowship meal suggests that it entails more than that. After all, what bride ever ate the photograph of her absent husband? In addition, why did the early Christians choose Sunday and not Friday on which to celebrate this meal, for it was on a Friday that he died?

The bread and the cup point us to Christ’s atoning death, but our eating and drinking what Jesus described as his body and blood symbolized that we also share in Christ’s resurrection life. The words of Jesus himself point to this connection, expressing it in such a graphic way that many found it offensive — “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53).[24] His very life flows through us, and the Lord'’s Supper displays this vital union with Christ. We call this meal the Lord’s Supper, and in it we “commune” with Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 10:16).

The precise nature of this communion with Christ has been understood in various ways through church history. We insist that the sign and what is signified must be distinguished and that failing to do that distorts the gospel. Biblical Christians have not been in agreement either about how the sign of the Lord’s Supper and what is signified are related or about how we commune with Christ at the Lord’s Supper.[25] Our SOF simply affirms that the Lord’s Supper is not a means of offering God’s grace apart from the “genuine faith” of those who share in this meal. We give latitude in how our communion with Christ in the Lord’s Supper is understood[26] and in what sense those who celebrate this ordinance in genuine faith are “nourished.” We must be clear, however, that in our celebration of the Lord’s Supper, our communion with Christ in whatever manner is by God’s grace and spiritual benefit can only come as we appropriate the meaning of this meal (that is, the gospel) through faith in Christ.

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c. The Lord’s Supper Is a Fellowship in Christ’s Body

The Lord’s Supper is not something that we do alone. It is a practice of the church community. As a fellowship meal, at least in symbolic form, it speaks not only of our communion with Christ but also of our communion with one another as believers. Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians, “Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf” (1 Cor. 10:17). Our unity as a church is to be evident in our sharing in the Lord’s Supper, for it is precisely there that we focus on what Christ has done for us all.[27]

The Lord’s Supper is “a participation in the body of Christ” (1 Cor. 10:16), visibly displaying our unity with other Christians (v. 17). For that reason this meal is for Christian believers, signifying our unity in Christ as those who come in faith before God, confessing their need of forgiveness, and professing Jesus as their Lord and Savior. In other words, it is the same requirement for those who present themselves to be baptized. And whereas baptism is to be the once-and-for-all, formal point of visible admission into Christ’s body, the Lord’s Supper is to be the ongoing affirmation of it.

d. The Lord’s Supper Is a Foretaste of Christ’s Coming

In our celebration of the Lord’s Supper, not only do we look back in remembrance of what Christ did, experience his presence with us now, and affirm our present connection to his body, the church; as we come to this table, we also look forward to what is yet to come. Jesus told his disciples at that Last Supper that he would not drink from the fruit of the vine until that day when he would drink anew with them in his Father’s kingdom (Matt. 26:29). Paul said that in the Lord’s Supper, “we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor. 11:26).

One of the biblical pictures of that glorious future is that of a great banquet—a messianic wedding feast, at which the church as the bride of Christ is received by her husband (cf. Isa. 25:6; Matt. 8:11; 22:4; 2 Cor. 11:2; Rev. 19:7; 21:2, 9). A small morsel of bread and a sip of wine or grape juice is no feast, but it is to be a token of one —a taste, a glimpse, a pointer to our great hope. Even today when Jews celebrate Passover, they end the meal by looking forward, saying, “Next year in Jerusalem,” signifying their hope in the coming of the Messiah. When Christians celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we look back to Jerusalem, and Jesus’ death and resurrection there, and we look forward to what is yet to come, saying, “Next year in the glorious kingdom of God” when people from everynation, tribe, people, and language who have been made right with God and with each one complete in Christ (Col. 1:28) are gathered as one family before the throne of our Father in unity, worship, and praise. When we eat and drink the Lord’s Supper, our souls are nourished in faith as we anticipate that glorious future when our faith will become sight.

C. A Summary of the Ordinances

To summarize our understanding of the ordinances, our Statement affirms the following:

1) Christ has given his church two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and the practice of these ordinances is an essential distinguishing mark of a church;

2) these ordinances are signs (that is, visible and tangible expressions) of the gospel, and as such they serve to strengthen our faith—“confirming and nourishing the believer”;

3) the signs (water in baptism, the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper) must be distinguished from what they signify (God’s saving work in the gospel and Christ’s presence with us);

4) the practice of these ordinances does not save us, and we receive spiritual benefit from them only when they are celebrated in “genuine faith” in Christ; and

5) the ordinances serve to separate the believer from the world and to give a visible designation of those who belong to the body of Christ.

Our Statement denies the following:

1) either baptism in water or participating in the Lord’s Supper is the instrumental cause of regeneration; and

2) the grace of God is automatically and effectually conveyed through the administration of the ordinances themselves.

In addition, our Statement does not prescribe the “time” or “mode” of baptism (allowing for both credo- and paedobaptist practices), nor does it define the precise manner in which Christ is present in the Lord’s Supper (allowing for a variety of historic views).

Conclusion: The Church and the Gospel

God’s gospel is now embodied in the new community called “the church.” This means not only that that the gospel creates the church but also that the church proclaims the gospel. And the church proclaims the gospel not simply in what the church is called to do[28] but in what the church is.

The church is the centerpiece of God’s purposes for humanity. For the promise of the gospel is that God will redeem a people composed of those from every nation, tribe, people, and language who will find their unity solely in their common relationship with Jesus Christ as they are united to him by the Spirit (cf. Rev. 5:9; 7:9). In the community of the church, each member serves and grows toward Christlikeness. And it is in the church that this people-to-come is now being made visible to the world.

The church is not just the bearer of the message of reconciliation; the church is a part of the message itself. The church’s existence as a community reconciled to God and to one another is what gives the message its credibility, for such a community is itself the manifestation of the gospel it proclaims. Jesus said as much. In speaking to the Father of his disciples in John 17, Jesus prayed, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (17:22–23). One way the gospel is to be declared to the world is through the loving unity of Christians as we worship, serve one another, and serve our world in local church families.

If this is so, then shouldn’t every Christian be a committed member of a church? If you believe, then you must belong… and contribute. Many still persist in church-hopping, always searching for something that might satisfy their desires. Wendell Berry wrote something about marriage that I think has broad application to church relationships and faithfulness in his book, Standing by Words:

As the traditional marriage ceremony insists, not everything we stay to find out will make us happy. The faith, rather, is that by staying, and only by staying we will learn something of the truth: that the truth is good to know, and that it is always both different and larger than we thought. We must accept the duration and effort, even the struggle, of commitment. We must come prepared to stay.

We must make that commitment to a local church family —for better or worse —and discover the riches that can be had as we live out God’s purpose in real fellowship in the life of a local church. For without a commitment to the local church, we haven’t rightly understood God’s gospel.
 
For more about the church as God’s community given to us for our growth and for the furtherance of his mission, see Pastor Waybright’s sermon notes here.

To God's glory alone,

Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor