Establishing Our Identity
by Gregory Allen Tidwell

    Is Jesus the Lord of the church? Do not answer without thinking. Really consider - if Jesus is Lord, then we must follow His lead in all that the church says and in all that the church does.

    Sometimes our thoughts about the church of Christ become fuzzy because we think of the church as an abstract organization, distinct from the individuals who are being saved. Scripture says, however, that God adds all those who are being saved to His church (Acts 2:47). The church is the tangible materialization of God's saving grace in the lives of people.

    Understanding the church as the context of God's saving grace is the first step in clarifying who the church is and what God expects it to do.


The Way of Salvation

    God, rich in mercy, sent His Son to die in our place. Through Jesus salvation comes to those who, in repentance and faith, confess Him as Savior and are baptized into Him for the remission of their sins.

    Repentance - self-renunciation -is an essential aspect of God's way of salvation: "If anyone wishes to come after Me," Jesus told His disciples, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me" (Mark 8:34 NASB).

    It is God in grace who initiates salvation through His Son. We, in turn, must respond to God's initiative and follow God's lead. The way of salvation is not self-directed. The way of salvation is self-renouncing and God-affirming.

    When the church is directed by this principle of penitent faith, it is truly the church of Christ. When the church follows any principle other than the Gospel, it is not the church of Christ. The contrast is really quite clear.


The Community Church

    Many today are organizing the church around something other than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When the church embraces the agenda of culture, it is a community church, not the church of Christ.

    The community church serves the demands of the community. Sometimes the demands of the community are profound and legitimate cries for help. The community church responds with therapy for personal, family or social dysfunction. Often, however, the demands of the community are trite and trivial calls for shallow amusement. The community church responds with exhibitionist productions where entertainment masquerades as spirituality.

    However commendable or contemptible specific programs of the community church may be, they are all human initiatives. The community is the lord of the community church.

    Even when the community church pursues noble goals - such as education, mental health or benevolence - these goals are emphasized from the community's secular viewpoint. The distinctive message of the gospel is reduced or omitted. The community church does the community's work on the community's terms.

    For example, a college removed "Christian" from its name in an expressed attempt to identify itself beyond the church of Christ and be recognized as another part of the community.


The Church of Christ

    In contrast, the church of Christ exists as God's agent in this world to demonstrate His glory (Ephesians 3:9-13). The church of Christ is not a social agency. It is not a civic society nor a therapeutic clinic. It does not exist for the entertainment of its members. The church exists to glorify God.

    Keeping our focus on the glory of God will free us from aberrant changes in worship. Rather than expecting the worship of the church to provide us with amusement or with an opportunity for self-expression, authentic Christian worship is a denial of self and an affirmation of God.

    Keeping our focus on the glory of God provides a motivation for evangelism. God has shown us the way. He sent His Son "to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). Seeking the glory of God, we deny ourselves and follow the Savior in His work of saving the lost.

    Keeping our focus on the glory of God guides our education, edification and benevolence programs. We must help people in every aspect of their lives, not because the community demands it, but because it is the will of God. Our work in helping people, furthermore, must be conducted in a spirit of penitent faith, leading those we help to penitent faith.

    The gospel of salvation must be in every aspect of the work of the church. Only in this way will it be the church that glorifies God. Only in this way will we truly be the church of Christ.

This item originally appeared at Gospel Advocate (March 2002)