Christians always face a dilemma. What to do about the church? Followed by much ado about the church. So, what is the church? What are its “marks,” as theologians phrase it? How is it made? What can we do to build it? Which part of the Bible gives us the definitive answers?
These questions have literally bedeviled Christians since the inception of the church, whenever that was, and theologians, church historians, and denominational leaders expend no shortage of time and energy fighting about such things. These disputes help to create the divisions in the church, and attempted resolution of these disputes (institutional ecumenism) paradoxically creates even more divisions in the church. Nonetheless, we sinful human beings relentlessly think that if we get the form or formula just right, then the church will simply fall into place.
Historically, and still today, some say that the church is built on a pope who is necessary for unity (Roman Catholics). Some say that the church is structured around bishops in so-called “historic succession” (Episcopalians). Others say that only “adults” believe enough to be baptized (Baptists). Others yet structure their church around the leadership of “elders” (Presbyterians). Some expect a methodological expression of the “holy life” (Methodists). Still others throw their hands into the air, avoid contrived structures, and leave it up to the Holy Spirit (Pentecostalists). The variations on these various streams of Christianity seem innumerable. So, who is getting it right?
In apparent contrast to mainline churches, modern attempts to get the church “right” are less denominationally definable. These approaches study sociological trends and research, employ secular marketing techniques, and adopt social/societal dynamics and the like to make the church “relevant” to potentially religious consumers. These secular approaches are typically dressed up in religious language and often fitted with biblical paradigms to lend them “credibility” (credo, creed).
The institutional ecumenists, perhaps best termed ecclesial elitists, summon all Christians to “head home to Rome.” The modernists, perhaps best called ecclesial entrepreneurs, seek to capitalize on the untapped (unchurched) religious market through secular means. Although seemingly diametrically opposed to each other, both approaches are essentially the same. They both advocate forms or formulas, if done properly, which will get the church “just right.” Unfortunately, Lutherans both within and between their various denominations often find themselves sharply divided between these two trends.
So, why is the biblical message, the gospel of Jesus Christ, in and of itself apparently not enough for large swaths of “Christianity”? Why does the word of God, by which God created everything, apparently need denominational or secular crutches to gain and maintain a foothold in the world? What has gone wrong?
In 1531, Luther wrote, “I wanted to say this in rebuttal to those stiff-necked boasters who constantly chatter about the church, the church, the church, although they do not know what the church or its holiness is. They simply pass over that and make the church so holy that Christ has to become a liar on account of it, and his words are robbed of all their validity.”
When sinful human beings state, act, or imply in any way, formula, or form that the word of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ properly differentiated from the law, is not sufficient to create the faith alone by which sinners are “made right” (justified) before God, then they truly rob Christ’s words of their validity. Sinners, by their sinful nature, are not meet, right, and salutary. They are wrong and can only be made right (justified) by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. When God gathers these justified sinners together through the pure proclamation of his gospel, then Christ alone through the promises in his crucifixion and resurrection makes the church happen, brings the priesthood of all believers into action, and makes it “just right,” i.e. holy and righteous before God, apart from any human work.
Luther continues, “Against this, we in turn must shout exultantly, ‘Say what you will about the church, let it be as holy as you please, still Christ cannot become a liar on that account.’ In its teaching, praying, and believing the church confesses that it is a sinner before God and that it often errs and sins; but Christ is truth itself and can neither lie nor sin. Therefore, insofar as the church lives and speaks in the Word and faith of Christ, it is holy and (as St. Paul says [I Cor. 7:34]) righteous in spirit. And insofar as it acts and speaks without Christ’s word and faith, it errs and sins. But whoever makes an article of faith out of the sinful deed and word of the church defames both church and Christ as liars” (Luther’s Works, 34:76-77).
As sinners, we cannot create faith or holiness, i.e. make Christians or disciples. Instead, we can only preach and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ as purely as possible whereby Christ creates the faith which justifies sinners into his church. That is why the doctrine of justification by faith alone is the article by which the church stands or falls (articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae). In other words, all the ecclesial forms and formulas of sinful human beings rightly cause the church to fall everywhere but into place. Only the word of God, however, raises the body of Christ, the priesthood of all believers, from the power of sin and death to live its mission of communicating the gospel of its head, its lord and saviour, to all the world, soli Deo gloria.
