The Church is Christ

Is this the New Age concept that Christ lives in each human being? According to this view all we have to do is to discover the "divine spark" that is in each of us. This is not what we mean when we say that the Church is Christ. No, this is what Paul called the mystery of the ages in Colossians 1:26-28 "the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. For to them God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, so that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." and in Ephesians 3:1-6 "For this cause, I, Paul, am the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you nations, if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given to me toward you, that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I wrote before in few words, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the nations should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partaker of His promise in Christ through the gospel." In short what Paul says here is that Christ lives in all people who have come to faith in Him whether they are Gentiles or Jews and together, this group of believers form the 'fellowship of the mystery'(Ephesians 3:9) or simply the Body of Christ!

Now back to the idea of the church as Christ. Christ(Greek) or Messiah(Hebrew) means "Anointed One" and as believers we know that Jesus came as the 'anointed one' in the individual physical body of the man from Nazareth. In John 12:20-24 Jesus prophesied that this one man would become much more through His death and resurrection. " And there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the Feast. Then these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, Sir, we want to see Jesus. Philip came and told Andrew. And again Andrew and Philip told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit." Jesus made it quite clear that His death and resurrection would introduce a new order for humanity and in future Jesus will only be seen in the "much fruit" of His death-His Body! This truth took further shape on the day of Pentecost when Jesus, as the Life-giving Spirit returned to indwell His followers and suddenly the world was faced with thousands of "little christs" doing the works of Jesus!

Through the experience of the new birth, that birth from above or as some call it the 'born-again' experience, Christians have Christ placed in them and they become "partakers of the divine nature"(2 Peter 1:4). This does not mean that the individual Christian can run around claiming to be divine but it means that in their corporateness and in their organic oneness with the Head, the Church expresses the nature and attributes of Christ. Paul explains this in 1 Corinthians 12:12; "For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ." Paul therefore says that Christ is one body with many members! The Head Jesus plus His body is now the Christ, God's anointed vehicle in the earth to bless the nations and so fulfil His promise to Abraham made so many years before.

Treat your brothers and sisters with respect and honour for Christ dwells in them and have made them part of His glorious expression in the earth!

The true Church

How do we determine what the true church is? Many churches and denominations claim, or at least imply that they represent the true church of Jesus Christ, not to talk of the many sects/cults that claim the same!

I believe that the true church of Jesus Christ is Catholic, but so much more than the Roman Catholic or Eastern-Orthodox churches. It's catholic because it is universal and includes members from all nations on the earth. The true church is Charismatic, but it's so much more than the charismatic movement. The true church is charismatic because the church is endowed with many divine gifts and abilities by her Head! The true church is Pentecostal, but so much more than the worldwide Pentecostal church. The church is pentecostal because without the Holy Spirit there is no real life, just dead formalism and dogma! The true church is also reformational but so much more than the Reformed churches and so much more than even the reformational movement. It is reformational because it is in a constant process of reforming and developing into the ultimate purposes of God! Is the house church movement or as some call it simple churches or organic churches with their emphasis on strong and intimate relationships perhaps the true church?

It is clear that various denominations and churches have emphasised aspects of doctrine and practice which you would expect to find in the true church. Things like the authority of the church, the gifts of the Spirit, the importance of the proclamation of the Word and the importance of authentic relationships. Unfortunately, when one aspect of the truth becomes the pet doctrine of a movement or church, Jesus loses His pre-eminence and the people of God suffers as a result. What will the true church look like?

Let us reflect once again on what the Head of the church has said about the true church. Jesus said to Peter that His church will be build through revelation knowledge about Him.(Matt.13) Paul expounded on this truth by saying that the church is build on the foundation of apostles and prophets with Jesus the chief cornerstone.(Eph. 2:20) What is the apostolic foundation? A revelation of Jesus Christ! The true church is where Jesus is revealed, whether through two or three or through two or three thousand! Jesus told Peter that he has become a rock because of the revelation about His person and the same Peter afterwards refers to the believers as "living stones". The true church therefore, are those who have become "little rocks" because of the revelation of Jesus Christ in their lives. This is the living Temple of God in the earth that He indwells and through whom He will display the fullness of His glory. What does this mean in real everyday experience?

How will we recognise the true church? Jesus will have His rightful place as the Head of the church at every meeting of the believers. There will be a humble waiting on the Lord together to find His mind for every decision and this presupposes authentic relationships between the members. Those kind of relationships are not the result of finding common ground in terms of likes and dislikes or of a charismatic preacher or lively praise and worship, but it is based on the common revelation of Jesus and the intention to see Christ in one another! Those kind of relationships come through the proclamation and revelation of Christ in the believer and as that revelation of Christ unfolds within the believer there is a desire to share this Christ with others! The true church lives in the realities of scriptures like Galatians 2:20- "I am crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me" and Colossians 1:27- "Christ in you ,the hope of glory" but especially Galatians 4:19 where Christ is formed in them to such an extent that no place can be found for legalism, carnality or superficial Christianity! How do we reach this standard in the church?

True apostolic ministry will breathe, eat, sleep and sometimes preach Christ! As they preach Him the Living Word, the Body will BECOME rather than DO and all the doctrines, beliefs and practices will fall into their right place. Look for those ministries who refuse to accept titles of apostles, prophets or pastors and who preach one Message-Christ Jesus and Him crucified! You see, the church is really Jesus the Head alive and present through His body and in that sense the true church is now the Christ in the earth!(1 Corinthians 12:12)

What is blind faith?

We do find amongst many religious people a blind faith because of cultural factors. If you grow up in a very religious area or country you may get religion in with your mother's milk and may not question your own beliefs until you leave home and that's when the fun and games begin. In certain cultures though, the power of the religion is so strong that even questioning it is seen as a gross sin with the result that you rather not dare make any contradictory sounds lest you lose your life!

However, blind faith is not unique to religious belief: Science teaches cause and effect but some naturalist scientists say that the universe needs no cause, for example, Bertrand Russell said of the universe; "it is just there". Do we accept that premise by blindly believing it, or must we exercise our "faith" in the idea that science may one day find the answer? What if this answer is the same as the one already revealed by God in the Bible? We find the same kind of argument about the clear evidence of complexity and design in nature and biology but Richard Dawkins says that things "just appear to be designed" . We all have a sense that some things are right and some things are wrong, but the atheist says that it must be a result of evolutionary processes. In other words, there is no ultimate lawgiver! We use the laws of logic everyday in debate and argumentation but if there is no god where do they come from and who has determined that they are "laws" indeed? In recent years science has made wonderful discoveries regarding DNA which is a complex code full of information. So we have this information within all life but no "information giver"? It will appear to me that the real proponents of blind faith is not only to be found in fundamentalist religions but also in(very influential) parts of the scientific community. It is unfortunately true that scientists who dare to digress from the blind faith (assumptions) of evolutionary science will not get an audience in the peer reviews and their articles will not be published in scientific journals- just because they do not subscribe to the prevailing world view of the age, namely naturalism-how scientific is that?

Is true faith blind? I believe Christianity is a reasonable faith based on real historical events, e.g. the resurrection of Jesus, His existence, etc. There are also powerful arguments for the existence of God based on what we observe in nature, in humans, in the galaxies and in the laws of logic and morality as mentioned before, but at the end of the day we cannot know God through reason because God has chosen to be known by revelation, that inner intuition or knowing that comes to the heart of the searching human. Revelation is not blind faith!! Revelation is rooted in an experience of something or someone bigger than ourselves. God wants a relationship with His creatures, not a philosophical or even theological discussion! For this reason He sent Jesus in visible real flesh- and- blood form to this earth to testify and demonstrate Him. After Jesus' death and resurrection he became a Life-giving spirit in order to indwell all who accepted His redemption. This happens by revelation and once this happens you "know that you know" and you do not need any other evidence! Is this blind faith? Oh no; it's the kind of faith that says like the blind man said after Jesus healed him from his blindness; "All I know is that I was blind but now I see!"