- Jan 9, 2007
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There was a sermon recently preached in the evangelical church that I attend, and it alarmed me. The preacher is well-respected, and I imagine that most of what he preached would be accepted in the average evangelical fellowship. The message was very exhortative and fervent, but when the following was spoken, I reacted with an instinctive, “No Way!”.
The preacher’s basic theme was that there are three entities which compete against each other and call for our allegiance:
God Almighty versus the spirit of this age (so far, so good). Then, the speaker added “versus the Church” (………Oh, oh!). He explained in that “in church” people can get it wrong, and so, we can only rely on God to ultimately lead us. The sticking point for me is that “God Almighty versus Church” is very uncalled for, and it diminishes the importance of God working through his Church by the manifestation of Spirit and Truth within the Kingdom.
It is almost as if I can hear the echoes of Paul's "The Law is good but..." when I hear the Church described like this. The problem I find with that is that the Church is not the "schoolmaster" to reveal sin to us, the Law has that function. The Church, through the Spirit of Christ, is part of God's answer to the deadening that knowledge of the Law causes in us. The Church lives within the grace of God. Indeed, we cannot distinguish between costly and cheap grace if we are not willing to see and experience true grace within the "assembly of the called out ones".
There are several reasons why, I believe, the preacher spoke like he did, primary of which is a hyper individualization of the “Faith once delivered to the saints”. The “you” of the New Covenant can be too quickly distilled down to the idea of individual application, essentially bypassing the immediate purpose of addressing corporate belief, witness, expression of faith, and corporate fruit of the Spirit (who ever heard of a fruit basket with just one apple in it?). It is essential that faith reside in each heart. But then, must each heart go on a lone wolf attempt to experience sanctification and revelation from Messiah Jesus?
Knowing how evangelicals think, I am certain this preacher would deny that such a severe de-linking exists between life together, with Christ, as the Body and the pursuit of God by the individual “deer” who pants after God like David did. Yet, his own words painted a picture of separateness that was left as is, as if such a condition were part of normal Christian life.
I hope to establish some type of relationship with this preacher, so that I can kindly and effectively point out my experience of hearing his words. If that happens, he will hopefully state that he didn’t intend for God Almighty and the Church to be put in incompatible camps.
The preacher’s basic theme was that there are three entities which compete against each other and call for our allegiance:
God Almighty versus the spirit of this age (so far, so good). Then, the speaker added “versus the Church” (………Oh, oh!). He explained in that “in church” people can get it wrong, and so, we can only rely on God to ultimately lead us. The sticking point for me is that “God Almighty versus Church” is very uncalled for, and it diminishes the importance of God working through his Church by the manifestation of Spirit and Truth within the Kingdom.
It is almost as if I can hear the echoes of Paul's "The Law is good but..." when I hear the Church described like this. The problem I find with that is that the Church is not the "schoolmaster" to reveal sin to us, the Law has that function. The Church, through the Spirit of Christ, is part of God's answer to the deadening that knowledge of the Law causes in us. The Church lives within the grace of God. Indeed, we cannot distinguish between costly and cheap grace if we are not willing to see and experience true grace within the "assembly of the called out ones".
There are several reasons why, I believe, the preacher spoke like he did, primary of which is a hyper individualization of the “Faith once delivered to the saints”. The “you” of the New Covenant can be too quickly distilled down to the idea of individual application, essentially bypassing the immediate purpose of addressing corporate belief, witness, expression of faith, and corporate fruit of the Spirit (who ever heard of a fruit basket with just one apple in it?). It is essential that faith reside in each heart. But then, must each heart go on a lone wolf attempt to experience sanctification and revelation from Messiah Jesus?
Knowing how evangelicals think, I am certain this preacher would deny that such a severe de-linking exists between life together, with Christ, as the Body and the pursuit of God by the individual “deer” who pants after God like David did. Yet, his own words painted a picture of separateness that was left as is, as if such a condition were part of normal Christian life.
I hope to establish some type of relationship with this preacher, so that I can kindly and effectively point out my experience of hearing his words. If that happens, he will hopefully state that he didn’t intend for God Almighty and the Church to be put in incompatible camps.
