The Church Is the Gospel Made Visible

Mark Dever

How does your church make the gospel visible?

Imagine a church in which faith in Christ is affirmed but the lives of everyone in the church are otherwise, well, normal. Some people in the church are more "religious." Some are less. But all of them are happy together. The cross is regularly, though vaguely, affirmed. In fact, all the talk about God and Christ is indistinct and muted. Sin is not really discussed. And prejudices are not confronted. Do you think this church would commend the gospel?

In fact, such a church reminds me of one English bishop's response to a question about the mission of the church. Richard John Neuhaus wrote of this bishop, "He seemed a little taken aback by the question, but finally allowed that he supposed the mission, so to speak, was something like 'keeping alive aspects of the Christian heritage for those who are interested in that sort of thing.'"

In a similar vein, I remember the strong words of Frank Thielman's father, Cal Thielman, who was a wonderful Presbyterian pastor and preacher for many years in Montreat, North Carolina. While driving him to his hotel during a stay in New England, I pointed out an historic church building. He asked me about the theology taught at that church. I said, "It's quite liberal. They don't really believe the Bible is true." Mr. Thielman frowned, shook his head, and snorted, "I wish God would just burn it down!"

I wonder how many churches would actually help spread the gospel by closing down. And how many more churches simply don't matter much.

Has your life been full of spiritually unhelpful churches? Has church been a place of testing more than resting, of trial more than triumph, of employment more than enjoyment? Would you and other members in your church say that spiritual growth has come from publishers and college fellowships, from musicians and authors, from friends and family, from websites and Internet preachers — but not really from your church itself?

In fact, a local church exists to make the unadjusted gospel visible. And the purpose of this chapter is to consider how the local church then displays the great truths of the unadjusted gospel about God, humanity, Christ, and the necessary response. These four words give you a summary of the gospel.

• God is holy and loving.

• Humans have been created good and in his image. Yet we have sinned against him and now deserve his judgment.

• Jesus Christ, God's one and only Son, has mercifully come to rescue us from the guilt and punishment of sin. He lived a life of perfect trust in his Heavenly Father, died in the place of sinners, and rose from the dead in victory over sin and death.

• He calls us now to respond by repenting of sin and putting our trust in him, and so being reconciled to God now and forever.

This is the gospel. Nothing I say means to diminish the verbal nature of the gospel and the sufficiency of God's Word. A healthy church reinforces and encourages evangelism; it doesn't replace it.

But we must also realize that an unhealthy church undermines our careful proclamation. The two are related. Even as the church is created by the gospel, so the church also reflects and helps define what we mean by the words we preach.

God

First, let's consider God and how his nature and character are to be displayed in the church.

Holiness. Distinct lives point to a distinct God. The lives of our congregation members should be marked by the fruit of God's Spirit — "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" (Gal. 5:22–23).Sometimes these qualities will be welcomed and admired. Other times they will be rejected. As Paul said of his own ministry, "For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life" (2 Cor. 2:15–16). Our distinct lives help to clarify what God himself is like.

Think of the command, "Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy" (Lev. 19:2). Peter quotes this very verse to some young Christians in Turkey in the middle of the first century. "Just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: 'Be holy, because I am holy'" (1 Pet. 1:15–16; cf. 1 Cor. 6:9–11, 19–20). Brother pastor, is your church marked by such holiness? Or is your church so much like the world that those around you have no questions to ask you?

Is the awesomeness of God reflected in our public gatherings? Is God presented in our individual lives and church gatherings as one who is unique, holy, set apart, and distinct? In our day, we treat casualness as the height of intimacy with God. But it was not so in the Bible. Consider the responses that people in the Bible have to God. Job repents in dust and ashes (Job 42). Isaiah confesses his sinfulness (Isa. 6:5). Ezekiel falls face down (Ezek. 1:28). As Jeremiah put it, "No one is like you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is mighty in power" (Jer. 10:6). Our God is majestic and holy and awesome. And we show something of God's holiness in the reverence of our public assemblies and in our personal obedience.

Satan wants us to think of holiness as bondage, when it's really freedom. Your church and mine, by reflecting God's character, become lights that shine in a very dark world. One holy person can draw people's attention. But a holy community creates a picture of humanity that people have only dreamed of.

Love. Our churches should be distinct from the world in part through our love for God and others. Local churches should be marked by concern for others. They should be communities in which, as Paul says, "nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others" (1 Cor. 10:24). Would you notice a community like that? Is that what our non-Christian friends and neighbors see when they watch the life of our churches? Without such love, we are just like any other club.

Authority. Another important distinction from the world around us is in our understanding and use of authority. I stumbled across this idea when preaching through 2 Samuel, and I came to David's last words: The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel said to me: "When one rules over men in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth." (23:3–4)

The Holy Spirit used these verses — and pastoring a congregation full of people who probably work in government! — to cause me to reflect on how our use of authority is meant to reflect God's. When Satan tempted our first parents, he was teaching them that authority and love cannot go together. He was telling them that "love" will always let people do whatever they want and that true love won't deny us something so desirable.

Of course, we know that that's false. When we regard God as Jesus did — as perfectly trustworthy — we live as God intends people to live. And his authority simply works. The right use of authority is fruitful; it blesses those underneath that authority. And it is glorious — like the light of morning at sunrise. Authority well used reflects the character of God in a special way.

So when we live in communities where we experience firm, gentle, patiently correcting, attentively guiding care for one another, then something deep inside of us is stirred. We begin to hope for a more humane life than we had previously thought possible. There is a God who both loves us and corrects us. And we want to know this God. A community functioning like this provokes people to become aware of their native thirst and hunger for such good authority.

On the other hand, without local churches like that, authority might be abused as it often is in the world, which destroys. Or it can be absent altogether, which enervates. Authority abused in the home, office, government, or church tells an especially destructive and evil lie about God. And our churches should show the world something different, something better. Our churches should be places in which trust might not be fully earned, but by God's grace it is extended. Such trust should be given to fellow Christians and especially to those called to lead our congregation. And this trust should be honored. A local church like that, where holy, loving, and healthy authority is exercised, helps to illustrate and explain something of God and his character to others in our world.

Human Beings

A healthy local church also helps to clarify the truth about human beings — what we are and what we were made to be.

Image of God. The local church should be a congregation in which all people are valued because they are made in God's image, not because of their job, status, wealth, education, or similarity to us. Therefore, churches should be characterized by friendships and relationships that cross natural boundaries.

When they do, and when they don't reflect a solitary slice of the community or one kind of person, they reflect the fullness and variety of God's creation. As Paul said, "From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth" (Acts 17:26a). A church community that lives out what it preaches about the value of each member points back to what is preached — that we were all created in God's image. A local church is not only for people of one social class or ethnicity, because God himself is the Father of all people. Our conscience, our moral sense, and our ability to relate to others show that he has made each one in his image. Our churches help to display that reality.

Depraved. But our churches should also teach and model an understanding of human depravity. I'm sad to say that we certainly model depravity when we sin. But our congregations should be places where we both teach about and confess our sin to one another. And we help one another fight it.

The church should not be an assembly of the self-righteous but an assembly of people who admit that they are not righteous apart from God's grace.

Is your church a community in which no one is encouraged in moral self-satisfaction but in which humility is honored? Humility should be honored because, as Christians, we know that humility is appropriate for sinners such as us. The Bible teaches that we "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). Our churches should clearly teach this important truth, even if it is culturally unpopular.

Brother pastor, in your presentations of the gospel, use God's law to awaken the conscience of the sinner. And preach about sin to the saints, as well. For instance, the fact that redeemed folks continue to struggle with sin points to one argument for church membership. Church membership offers accountability to Christians. By identifying with a particular church, members tell the pastors and other members of that church that they intend to be committed in attendance, giving, prayer, and service. They increase others' expectations of them in these areas, and they make it known that they are the responsibility of this local church.

Church membership is more related to the gospel than many pastors think. A careful practice of church membership makes our witness to non- Christians clearer. It makes it more difficult for weaker sheep to stray from the fold. It gives shape and focus to the discipleship of more mature Christians. And it aids church leaders in knowing exactly who they are responsible for. In all of this, God will be glorified.

When we step into this community of the local church, it makes us morally visibleto ourselves. It is the context in which sinners may first see themselves as sinners. We do not cultivate Christian lives to hide, cover over, or deny our sinfulness. A Christian church, in that sense, may be the most honest, least flattering, frank congregation of people someone has ever come into and yet, at the same time, be marked by love, encouragement, and sensitivity, because we are a congregation of people who believe that not only is the visitor a sinner but that we are all sinners.

Years ago, when I was preparing to leave England and move back to the United States, I met a relative whom I had never met before. After some chitchat, she asked me what I was going to do. I answer a question about my occupation in one of two ways — tactful or direct. I decided to go for direct: "I'm going to be a Baptist preacher."

"Oh!" she said, dropping her eyes down to her coffee and stirring it, obviously uncomfortable with the turn the conversation had just taken. "I don't have much use for church."

I waited a moment and then said, "Do you mind if I ask you why?" She replied, "They're just pits of vipers — all the gossip and backbiting!"

I then asked, "And do you think the world outside is really any better?"

She said, "Well, I guess not, but at least they know they're vipers!"

Again, I waited a moment and then observed, "You might be surprised how much I agree with you. You're right about the world — it is a pit of vipers. And I think you're right about the church, too! I know that the church is a pit of vipers. But I think where I would disagree is that I don't think that the world realizes that they are a pit of vipers. But Christians do. Now there are churches that don't realize that they are a pit of vipers, and I wouldn't touch those churches with a ten-foot pole! But any church I go to will know that it is a pit of vipers. That's why we are there. And you know what? There is always room for one more to slither on in!"

When our churches confess that humans are made in the image of God and that humans are fallen and depraved, we offer a compelling and accurate description of human nature. It captures the good and the bad. The simple ability to understand ourselves and our world in such realistic terms will both bring sanity and commend the gospel. It will discourage our churches from being glibly triumphalistic or morbidly pessimistic. And we pastors must lead the way in trying to cultivate the appropriate humility within ourselves, as we confess our sins to God and to our brothers and sisters.

Without a community built to teach, understand, and live in the light of these twin truths, our real problem will be left undiagnosed. It is our understanding of human sin, combined with an understanding of God's goodness and righteousness, that sets up the human problem — how can we sinners be accepted by such a holy, loving, and good God?

Christ

That brings us to a third aspect of the gospel that the church makes visible — the Savior Jesus Christ.

Person. In one sense, it is difficult to speak of making the unique Son of God visible. He was visible, but now he is interceding for us before the throne of God, and he will visibly return in power and great glory to judge the world. In a very profound sense, he is not here.

Precisely what marks out this current stage of redemptive history is that Jesus is present with us through his Spirit, his Word, and his people. He is invisible to us at this juncture, between his ascension and his return. But the local church should be a community in which the unique person of Jesus Christ — fully God and fully man — is to be metaphorically visible in the sense that we bear his name, his teaching, his gospel purposes, his glory, and his fame. The church worships Christ.

We can certainly take up the New Testament language of the church as the body of Christ. And we know that we who are filled with his Spirit and purchased by his blood are his temple (Acts 20:28; 1 Cor. 3:16).

So how do we make Christ visible in our local churches? We do so by teaching that he is fully God and fully man, who become incarnate for us and for our salvation. And we do so by imitating him in our lives. We show who Jesus is by worshiping him and being devoted to him on Sunday and every day.

Without a community that teaches this message, the truth about Jesus Christ would be unknown. Without a church in whom God's Spirit works, people would never go to tell and live out this message, and the message would never be told. Without local churches like this, Christ would be left without a witness in this world.

Work. At the very heart of our local congregation, however, is the commitment to understand and present not only who Jesus Christ is but also what Jesus Christ did. In the same way, our lives together should be provocative. We should form communities in which loving forgiveness is regularly granted. We should be collections of people marked not by self-righteousness but by a knowledge of our own sin, by humility, and by an understanding of our need for grace and therefore by a gracious and merciful attitude.