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It's true that there are many
kinds of churches out there, many varied and interesting
groups who claim to be following Jesus Christ in some way. And
a great many of these varied and differing groups really are
Christian.
Membership
in a Baptist church
Now I’ve been around a while. As a youth growing up in the
50's and 60's I usually went to a Baptist church. We lived in
Southeast Texas, and I think there must’ve been more Baptist
churches than any other in those days. But I don't really know
if that's the case. There were also lots of Methodist
churches, lots of Catholic churches, lots of Pentecostal and
other churches.
I never actually came to know the Lord while I was in the
Baptist churches. But I did become a member of Timbergrove
Baptist Church in Houston, Texas. I was baptized when I was
about 10, if I remember right. And the good people of
Timbergrove Baptist did their best to include me in the many
activities they had going. But I really hated church.
I only went because my mom and step-dad thought that I should
go to church. They arranged for me to get a ride every Sunday
morning. I know they really meant well. They hoped, I'm sure,
that some of the good Baptist religion or maybe the
Bible-teaching would make a lasting impression on me. What
impressed me most, though, was that I really didn’t want to be
in church on Sunday mornings (or Sunday evenings, or any other
time).
But as much as I hated church, I would use the fact of my
membership at Timbergrove Baptist Church to ward off any other
Christians who attacked me with the questions that
evangelizing Christians sometimes ask. "Oh, yes," I would tell
them, "I know Jesus as my Savior. I'm saved. I'm a member of
Timbergrove Baptist Church."
No tickets into heaven
All that I had going for me was that membership, and it meant
nothing at all to God. And the Lord was good enough to put me
in places, from time to time, to help me figure that out.
I remember, for example, standing out in the middle of a West
Texas wilderness one evening, totally alone, except for God
and the occasional cactus. I was about 15 or 16, and on my way
back from California. I had been hitch-hiking and had taken an
old road that I thought might be a short cut.
By the time I realized I had made a mistake, I was miles south
of the nearest highway. I could see hills off in the distance
and blood-red clouds as the sun set in that lonely place. And
then it was very dark. And I was alone like I had never been
alone before. No cars drove by at all.
In that special place I began to understand that I could
actually die out there. And I also sensed, in spite of my
ignorance of spiritual things, that I was not ready to meet
God, not ready for whatever would come after I died. I
understood for the first time that my church membership meant
nothing at all, spiritually speaking.
Some time after that day, maybe a year or so, I did come
across another Christian who wanted to talk to me about
spiritual things. To be more specific, he wanted to talk to me
about Jesus Christ. But he didn't fall into the old trap of
asking me if I knew Jesus. And when I still told him about my
membership at Timbergrove Baptist Church, he didn't even let
it slow him down. He just said something like, "That's really
good." and went right on talking, telling me what Jesus had
done for him.
Going beyond religion
And that was the first time I remember being spiritually
hungry. At the moment I didn't really see it as anything
spiritual, since I knew nothing about real spirituality,
anyway. But I did know that I wanted what this guy had been
given by God. I wanted a new life. I wanted to have something
good and real and meaningful in my life.
I was 17 at the time. Once again I was hitch-hiking. I’d been
trying to get out of Houston for most of the day. I had no
place to go, but no reason to stay, either. My life had been
really bad for a long time, and it was getting worse every
day. I really didn't want to hear about God and Jesus when
this young evangelist started talking, but I really needed the
ride.
God spoke to me that night. The fellow who had given me a ride
invited me to meet some other friends of his. I had nothing
else to do, so I went and I met some other guys and girls.
They were not much older than I was.
They were all going to college. It was a Bible college. They
all knew Jesus.
They had a lot more than just church membership happening in
their lives. They really had the Presence and the power of
Jesus Christ working in them and through them. I could tell
that they had something I had never known, never had. And as
they told me about the things Jesus was doing, and what He had
already done for them and for others, I knew that I really
wanted what they had.
God was speaking to my heart, to my mind, my very soul,
through the young people I talked with that night. And at some
point, in the middle of the night, I got down on my knees and
prayed to God, turning everything that I was, and all that I
had over to Jesus Christ.
A new life in Jesus Christ
Everything in my life changed, then. I stopped talking about
church membership. I stopped telling people that I was a
Baptist. I began sharing Jesus with them, instead. I began
thinking in terms of the hour that I had been born-again by
faith in Jesus Christ. For the first time in my life I had a
real and living relationship with God.
I remember that I started reading the Bible. I read it all the
time and carried it with me wherever I went. Everyone who had
known me before was shocked to see a Bible in my hands.
Obviously in those first days and weeks I had little idea of
all that had happened to me. I just knew that I had a new
life.
I had very little understanding of what the church was, in any
theological sense. I knew next to nothing about the Bible,
about temptation, about struggles with faith and unbelief. But
as time went on, I learned a lot more about all those things,
and much more.
Ultimately, it matters very little what kind of church a
person belongs to, as long as it is a true Christian church.
But even membership in the very best of the very best churches
will not get anyone into heaven or make them a real Christian
believer. As Jesus said, you must be born again.
Which church is right?
Some churches are filled with rituals, like Catholic churches
or the Eastern Orthodox. Some churches are filled with
Bible-toting Baptists, or tongues-speaking Pentecostals. Some
are rigid in traditions and sticklers for rules. Some are so
wishy-washy, they seem to believe that anything goes.
Lots of diversity, lots of arguments about who is and who is
not a "real" Christian. And so many real Christians.
To this day, I still am not a Baptist. But I do thank God for
the generations of Baptists who’ve stood rigidly and
unwavering for Scriptural truth. I also thank God for
Pentecostals and for other Holiness groups that have stood
their ground for holy living, for spiritual vitality, for the
necessity of a living and vibrant faith. I’m no Seventh Day
believer, but I do thank God for the influence on the whole
church of those who have argued for the witness of the Law, so
long as they also understand that we are saved by faith alone.
After all, as James argued in Scripture, real faith will show
itself in godly works of righteousness.
And to be honest, one cannot say that the Pentecostals have a
corner on spirituality in the church, or that the Baptists
alone have stood for Scriptural truth, or that Seventh Day
groups have been alone in arguing for the righteousness that
is represented by the laws of God. The church has gone through
many generations, and has been around almost two thousand
years. And many testings, concerns, debates and mighty moves
of God have
arisen and helped to shape the church during that
time.
Core of
real Christianity
The core of the Christian faith has never changed. All
true believers hold certain convictions in common. I’ve spent
time with Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Presbyterians,
Pentecostals, Methodists, and lots more than I could even name
here and now. Real believers are scattered all over, it seems.
We all believe in one God. We believe in Jesus Christ as God's
only begotten and eternal Son. We believe that the Spirit of
God is God Himself, moving and working in many ways here on
earth, from the beginning of creation to this very day. We
believe that Jesus lived a sinless life, that He died
willingly for the sins of the whole world, that He arose again
from the dead, that He is now at the Father's right hand, and
that He is coming again. We believe that the Bible is the
inspired Word of God, and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is
the very power of God to salvation for all who believe.
But the faith of Jesus Christ
that all true believers have in common is not really about
doctrines or theology or rituals or traditions. It is
all about knowing Jesus Himself. It's true that the Holy
Spirit will draw all true believers to hold certain common
convictions, but one does not become a child of God by trying
to learn a set of ideas. One is born again by believing
what God has to say about Jesus Christ. When a person
chooses to believe God and to act on faith, then God gives
that person the free gift of eternal life.
God's Holy Spirit speaks to
people in and through the Bible. He also speaks to
people in the sharing of the Gospel, which is a distilled
version of the message of Scripture. All the Bible
points to Jesus, and our need of Him, and what He did for us.
When that message is preached or shared in some way, and
people respond in faith, they are made right with God.
The Holy Spirit helps them to understand, to accept, and to
act on that truth.
The experience itself is often
very different for different people, but the underlying
reality is the same. A person is born-again when they
place their hope, their faith in Jesus Christ. And they
do this in response to what God is speaking to their hearts
when they hear or read the truth of God. We grow in
faith after we first believe. We grow in faith as we
continue to embrace all that God says to us in the Scriptures
by the Holy Spirit.
Biggest family on earth
The church has many faces. Some of those faces are Chinese or
Japanese. Some are African, Jewish, Native American, European,
Polynesian, and many others. It also has many different
traditions, some shaped by culture as much as by Scripture or
commandment. And in any given community there may be several,
or dozens or even hundreds of churches, each congregation
functioning as a body or family of Christians. But ultimately
there is only one church, one Body of Christ, one family of
born-again believers who have become children of God by faith
in Jesus Christ.
Whoever has been transformed by God's Spirit into a true
believer is a member of one world-wide church family, the one
Body of Christ. Many believers draw back from this picture a
little (or maybe a lot) because they don't want to be
associated with people who claim faith but who do not really
follow Jesus Christ. But no matter how we see each other, we
are truly and eternally related -- by the Holy Spirit -- in
the family of God, to every other born-again saint of God.
Whoever knows Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord is part of that
holy family.
So why do Christians argue and accuse each other so much?
Well, why do brothers and sisters in any family often argue
and fight over silly things?
Mostly we fight because we are sinners, because we are
fleshly, because we are often stupid. Being a Christian does
not make us fully mature and wise, it just saves us and places
us in God’s kingdom.
The good news is that as we walk with God and grow up into
Christ (see Ephesians, chapter 4), we have the opportunity
each day to become more like Jesus Christ and less like the
people we used to be. Some days we may not make much progress.
But every day is a new opportunity to grow in God’s grace.
Relationship instead of mere
religion
Our church affiliation means nothing at all to God. Only the
affiliation we have with Jesus Himself really matters. If we
know and love Jesus, if we trust only in Him for eternal life
and for the forgiveness of sin, then we are on the right path.
But if we trust too much in our religion (no matter what
religion that may be) we may still be very lost.
As one Baptist preacher put it years ago, “Lots of really good
Baptists and Catholics and other good religious people are
going to die and go straight to hell.” Why? Because religion
alone can't save you.
Only Jesus can rescue a life from sin, death and hell. Only
Jesus can save a human soul. Only He can give anyone eternal
life.
The Bible says it this way:
"He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself;
he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he
has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.
And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life,
and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he
who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These
things I have written to you who believe in the name of the
Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and
that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of
God. (1 John 5:10-13)
May the Lord Jesus Christ save and bless all who desire to be
made right and clean and holy in the sight of God. Amen.
Jim |
