What is the Church?

What is the Church?

“Likewise, they teach that one holy Church will remain forever.”  (Augsburg Confession, Article VII).

In the last newsletter, you read how everything in the Augsburg Confession – and in matters of our teaching and practice – flows from the article of justification: that we are justified by faith alone, apart from works.

That confession has profound implications for what we understand the Church to be.

Martin Luther wrote: “God be praised, a seven-year-old child knows what the Church is: holy believers and ‘the little sheep who hear the voice of their Shepherd.’”

The Church is where the Shepherd’s voice is heard.  It is where Christ speaks to His own.

Or, as the Augsburg Confession puts it in Article VII, “the church is the assembly of all believers among whom the gospel is purely preached, and the holy sacraments are administered according to the gospel.”

The Church is not a legal institution. It is not bound to any particular body, organization or denomination, whether Rome, LCMC, or any other.  Membership in a congregation or organization does not make a person a Christian.

Rather, a sinner becomes a believer by hearing Christ say: “I forgive you all your sins.”

What makes the Church the Church is this Gospel preached and the sacraments administered according to it.

Through these means of grace, which Jesus Christ Himself has instituted, the Holy Spirit creates and sustains faith.

Wherever these gifts are being given and bestowed, there is the Church.

Where they are absent, there is no Church, no matter what organization you belong to, what clothing the preacher wears, or how many stained-glass windows adorn the sanctuary.

Christ’s Word makes faith.

His Word makes the preacher.

His Word makes the Sacraments.

His Word makes the Church.

My prayer is that the Holy Spirit continue to gather you where Christ speaks His forgiving Word, opening your ears to hear the voice of your Shepherd and strengthening you in faith.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Raleigh