Greetings, all! I've started this blog is because I feel that there is a growing ignorance on the importance of the Church not only in secular circles, but more importantly, within the Church itself.
I've just started reading Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion for the first time and I've decided to start on the 4th book, which deals with the Church. In the first section alone there are so many beautiful truths, but the one that stood out to me the most was the line: "What God has thus joined, let not man put asunder (Mark 10:9): to those to whom He is a Father, the Church must also be a mother" (Calvin, Institutes ... 4.1.1). Now, it may seem strange that Calvin uses Christ's teaching on marriage/divorce and applies it to the Church, but as Paul explains the great beauties and loving duties of marriage in Ephesians 5, he concludes by saying, "This mystery [of marriage] is profound, but I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church." Knowing that marriage is one of the very first institutions that God has created, knowing that it is meant to portray Christ's relationship with the Church, and knowing that the Word teaches us that men should hold fast (or cling to/abide with/be cleaved to) to their wives, we can see that if the Church is indeed the bride of Christ, then we cannot say that we love God but hate His Church, or that we do not find being part of the Church as necessary to being a Christian. If two become one in marriage, then to say that we don't love the Church is to say that we don't love God. We are fed and nurtured by the Church and we are just as much a child of the Church as we are a child of God. As Martin Luther says, "Anyone who is to find Christ must first find the church. How could anyone know where Christ is and what faith is in him unless he knew where his believers are?"
So, if you are not a child of the Church, you can be assured that you are not a child of God.
Now, I know that there are some arguments mounting against this statement, but I will attempt to address these in later posts, but suffice it to say that the Church on earth is imperfect and is composed of imperfect people, like you and I. The Church can and likely will hurt you in some way, but we do not abandon Her. Her Savior is our Savior and Her mistakes are also our mistakes. We do not abandon our family or friends when they may hurt us, but we continue to love them; supremely more may we love the Church, the Bride of Christ.
Grace to each of you from our Lord and Savior.
I've just started reading Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion for the first time and I've decided to start on the 4th book, which deals with the Church. In the first section alone there are so many beautiful truths, but the one that stood out to me the most was the line: "What God has thus joined, let not man put asunder (Mark 10:9): to those to whom He is a Father, the Church must also be a mother" (Calvin, Institutes ... 4.1.1). Now, it may seem strange that Calvin uses Christ's teaching on marriage/divorce and applies it to the Church, but as Paul explains the great beauties and loving duties of marriage in Ephesians 5, he concludes by saying, "This mystery [of marriage] is profound, but I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church." Knowing that marriage is one of the very first institutions that God has created, knowing that it is meant to portray Christ's relationship with the Church, and knowing that the Word teaches us that men should hold fast (or cling to/abide with/be cleaved to) to their wives, we can see that if the Church is indeed the bride of Christ, then we cannot say that we love God but hate His Church, or that we do not find being part of the Church as necessary to being a Christian. If two become one in marriage, then to say that we don't love the Church is to say that we don't love God. We are fed and nurtured by the Church and we are just as much a child of the Church as we are a child of God. As Martin Luther says, "Anyone who is to find Christ must first find the church. How could anyone know where Christ is and what faith is in him unless he knew where his believers are?"
So, if you are not a child of the Church, you can be assured that you are not a child of God.
Now, I know that there are some arguments mounting against this statement, but I will attempt to address these in later posts, but suffice it to say that the Church on earth is imperfect and is composed of imperfect people, like you and I. The Church can and likely will hurt you in some way, but we do not abandon Her. Her Savior is our Savior and Her mistakes are also our mistakes. We do not abandon our family or friends when they may hurt us, but we continue to love them; supremely more may we love the Church, the Bride of Christ.
Grace to each of you from our Lord and Savior.