One Faith, One Church
All Christians are Christian.
When a person says, “I am a Christian” we could also ask, “What kind?” meaning, “What denomination of Christian church do you attend? To which denominational belief system do you subscribe?” Baptist? Lutheran? Methodist? Roman Catholic? Christians gather ourselves into numerous church bodies because we believe differently about some (but not all) teachings of the Bible. So not all Christians are Lutheran.
However, all Christians are Christian. We agree in the words of the Nicene Creed that all Christians are children of “one God, the Father,” and all Christians believe in “one Lord, Jesus Christ,” and all Christians are members of “one holy Christian and apostolic Church.”
That’s the difference between church spelled with a small “c,” called the visible church, and Church spelled with a capital “C,” called the invisible Church. The small “c” visible church is a group of church members we can see, gathered in a congregation or church denomination. The capital “C” invisible Church does not have a membership list we can count, a headquarters on Mayfair Road in Milwaukee, or a human leader in Rome, but it is the sum total of all believers who are Christians by an invisible, spiritual faith in one God, one Lord Jesus Christ. Only God knows exactly how many there are and who they are.
The Bible touches on a timeless challenge when it comes to determining who is a Christian. That challenge is a confusion of the visible church and the invisible Church. Sometimes we think that a person is a Christian (part of the invisible church) because of visible characteristics. For example, to say that all Americans are Christians confuses the visible and invisible churches. As a matter of fact, to say that only Lutherans are Christians confuses the visible and invisible churches as well.
In Romans chapter 9 Paul writes that his heart hurts because his family–his fellow Jews–fell into this confusion. They thought they were God’s children, but only because of their DNA as “the people of Israel”–descended from Abraham through Jacob whom God called “Israel,” meaning “he wrestled with God” and strove to trust in God’s promises. As a whole the Jewish nation at Paul’s time tended to steer clear of Christ or even to be openly hostile toward Christianity. That’s sad when you consider that the Israelites enjoyed exceptional privileges from a kind, generous Father. “Theirs is the adoption as sons, theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all.” Like the prodigal son who had it all and ran away, they turned up their noses at God and the privileges he arranged, and then the people of Israel actually claimed to be his children by physical birth. So Paul had to set the record straight, “Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.”
Not every Jew with Jacob’s blood flowing in his or her veins is a child of God. Not every American, not every nice neighbor, not every person who goes to church is a Christian. Some of these people turn their noses up at the spiritual privileges of God’s fatherly love and–based on physical connection–claim to be his children. If you die and stand in front of God and say, “I’m your child because I’m an American,” he’ll say, “I don’t see my signature at the bottom of the U.S. Constitution under a prologue that says, “All Americans are Christians.” If you say, “I’m your child because I went to church on Sunday,” he’ll inquire, “Then why didn’t you behave like that Monday through Saturday?” “Sir, open the door for us!” “I don’t know you or where you come from” (Luke 13:25).
Pay attention to the privileges that make you a child of God, a Christian. They are invisible, but they are real and make a difference in a visible way. You were adopted away from a birth attachment to sin and, in baptism, claimed and chosen by God. That makes you a Christian. You are forgiven by the promise of God in the new covenant of blood, a covenant made certain by the living and dying of your Substitute and Savior. That makes you a Christian. “Christ, who is God over all” extends every spiritual privilege in heaven to you as his own. Take inventory of those privileges, if you can, and when the devil tells you that God has forgotten about you, remember how privileged you are as God’s adopted child whom he never forgets and always loves. Visible characteristics cannot make anyone a Christian, and neither can visible threats demote anyone from being a Christian or bully a child of God.
The Bible says, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26). You are a Christian not naturally, but supernaturally. You are God’s because God promises that you are.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, you unite us–who believe in the true, triune God–as your children, although invisibly. In our one, Christian faith. Help us to appreciate our common, Christian faith even amidst the denominational differences that exist. Where teachings differ, let your Word provide the truth as its love rules in our relationships. Turn false faith away from its dependence on physical or worldly security, and bless visible churches to point their members to the only Savior and his promises that are for all to believe. Amen.