Unity of the Faith

"And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ." Ephesians 4:11-13

The other day I was asked, "What is it you enjoy most about your church?" I had to ponder for a moment so as not to give an answer off the top of my head. My response was, "I enjoy my church because the message that is preached is not taught anywhere else in the world as far as I know." That may sound strange given the fact there are millions of Christians around the world and thousands of churches that they meet inside. In general, the message preached is the same as is probably taught in those other churches; that Jesus Christ is our God and Savior and the only means by which mankind can be saved. However, the devil is in the details as they say. I have been a Christian for over 20 years and have interacted with hundreds of Christians both in person and online. Besides the fact that we all say we believe in Jesus Christ, for the most part, that is where the agreement ends. There is the assumption that every church teaches the same thing about how Christians are to live out our faith. For the majority of churches this assumption is true, but, unfortunately, when it comes to my church it is not. And thank God for it. The main difference between what is taught at my church and what I have experienced being taught in other churches is on the subject of the Gospel. Every church will say "we must preach the Gospel" to the lost world. Yet, the question that is never asked as a follow up is, "What is the Gospel?" or more to the point, "What is the problem that Jesus came to solve?" If someone has an answer to this question it has gone something like, "Jesus died for my sins so that when I die I will go to heaven." That is not incorrect, but it is incomplete. This answer stems from the belief that the main problem between mankind and God is that we are sinners who just need to accept Jesus' offer of forgiveness and you are saved. While I don't doubt God will save a person who believes that, the answer is not entirely correct. What I believe is that the problem between mankind and God is that we are spiritually dead in our sins prior to accepting Jesus Christ as our savior. Jesus Christ definitely died for our sins, but that was so He could restore the life of God, lost in Adam, to those who have placed a saving faith in Him. The Gospel is sin, death, forgiveness, and the restoration of life. Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, spiritually died (God removed His life from Adam), God forgave the sins of the world when Jesus died on the cross and, raised from the dead, He restores God's life to those who place faith in Him. That may seem minor to some, but the full effect of this difference reveals itself as Christians walk out their faith.

The difference between believing the Gospel is just Jesus died for my sins and believing that He died for my sins in order to restore the life of God to me is wider than the Grand Canyon. For those that believe the former, they are taught to believe that the sin issue still exists between themselves and God. Consequently, their lives become a life trapped in a cycle of sin, forgiveness, sin, forgiveness, repeat. Therefore, they end up believing things like their sins separate them from God. This, in turn, leads to inventing various types of unbiblical sacrifices to perform in order to get God to forgive them; confession booths, altar calls, repetitive prayers, keeping short accounts and so on. In the midst of this many will end up believing God is disgusted with them and will inflict multiple forms of "punishment" on them for their sins; removal of blessings, inflicting harm on them, turning away from them, etc. This is not the Christian life. For the few of us, in my opinion, that believe the latter in that our sins are no longer an issue between us and God, our lives become one of learning to trust and depend on our God in the midst of any sins we may commit. We still believe sin is a serious issue, but we know that God is not counting our sins against us. Besides, sin is so terrible that it deserves the death of God, Jesus Christ on the cross, as payment for those sins. We do not have a life to offer that God would accept. That is why there are no more sacrifices for sin. This allows God, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, to meet the deepest needs of our heart and get to know us while, in turn, we get to know Him; the definition of a relationship. The focus comes off of us and our behavior and on to Him and His love for us and life in us. It is the difference between spending our lives endlessly trying to please God through our efforts and spending our lives resting in the finished work of an already pleased God because of our faith in what Jesus Christ has already accomplished for us. That is Christian living! The apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesian church about attaining "the unity of the faith" and "the knowledge of the Son of God." Christians will always struggle to attain this unity, this side of eternity because of this misunderstanding of the most important and basic element of the Christian faith. Many of the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers that God has given to the church for nearly two thousand years have struggled to agree on these same subjects; the history of the early church detailed in the New Testament reveals this truth. However, God is still working within His church and building it daily. I, for one, am blessed to have discovered the fullness of the Gospel and am privileged to have the opportunity to share what God has revealed to me with anyone who will listen. This is why I enjoy my church.