As I grow in my study of Christianity, still barely a baby in my understanding, I have become more and more aware of the various tensions in the Bible. These tensions often seem irreconcilable at first blush. How can man have free will and yet God still be sovereign? It makes no sense until you wrap your arms around the idea of man’s deadness in sin, that in our unregenerate state we are free to choose whatever flavor of sin suits us. It is not just that we are unwilling to choose to follow God, we are utterly unable to by our very nature. The hypostatic union, that Jesus Christ is fully man and fully God, is another example. Even those of us educated in the public schools know that 100% plus 100% doesn’t compute. Again we have a tension.
The same is true with individualism in the church. On one hand, Christianity is very much an individual faith. One sinner, one Savior, one salvation. What church you belong to, who your parents are, none of that matters. The oft repeated and often overused term “personal relationship with Jesus” is not a Biblical term but it does raise the very real point that only by personal faith in a personal Savior can we saved. We are not saved by our religion, we are saved by our Savior. On the flip side, Christianity as a faith is a communal faith. Over and over again we see the need for God’s people to assemble together, not forsaking that assembly but taking joy, comfort and encouragement in it.
The dangers lie in both extremes. On the one side we see most American Christians absorbed into the institutional church where their faith becomes ritualistic, traditional and formulaic. Being in the church is replaced by being in church. Church is not who we are, it is where we go and what we do. We think that by being “in church” on a Sunday morning we are in fellowship with one another, when in fact we barely know one another. Church becomes a series of boxes we check off. Went to Sunday school: check. Shook pastors hand: check. Said hi to people I know: check. Stood up when told, sat down when told, prayed when told: check. Put money in plate: check. Dutifully listened to sermon: check. Gathered up kids and bolted for the car: check. Is that what we see in the New Testament, does that really fulfill what we are commanded and exhorted to do?
The flip side danger is that we jump headlong into a rugged individualism, you can’t tell me what to do mentality. The danger here is that we become so uncoupled from authority that we start to let the authority of the Word slip away. I have wandered into many a blog where commentators have pared the Gospel down into a social justice, inclusivistic, vague spirituality where there is no dogma, no doctrine, no hell and ultimately no Gospel. Social justice issues are fine and dandy, and get short shrift in the most conservative of churches, but ultimately social justice is worthless if uncoupled from the Gospel of the Good News of God’s sovereign redemption of sinners. Social justice is not the Gospel, it is a result of changed hearts. Inclusivism and ecumenism are not the Gospel and are indeed antithetical to the exclusive claims of the Gospel. Jesus didn’t “hang out with gay people”, He brought a message of repentance, exclusivity, grace and judgment. Every person Jesus healed, every thing He taught, everything He did is secondary to the cross. Without the cross, we are still under judgment no matter how many lepers were healed or how much we were exhorted to love our neighbors.
I think in my own humble estimation that the local church is properly looked at as individual sinners, saved by sovereign grace, who assemble together in the bonds of Christian fellowship to worship and give thanks for our common salvation. We have complicated the mission and function of the local church by making it something it was never commanded or intended to be. That does not mean we abandon the local church. How can we and why should we? We need rather to reform the local church. I yearn for a small, simple church. Led in love by elders who serve out of worship, not as a profession or for pay. Elders who are qualified Biblically to lead based on the qualities we see in men called to be elders, not because of their professional resume, how many original languages they speak or where (or if) they went to seminary. Worship where all are allowed and expected to participate Biblically (i.e. women would not teach men). Where we love one another because we know one another, and we fellowship together not out of obligation or because it is on the schedule, but because no worldly distraction is more compelling to us than being with the Body. Vibrant and joyful yet sober and reverent. I have found many elements in different places. Still haven’t found it all in one place. I am not sure I ever will.
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