(Detour) WHY CHURCH? - Conclusion

We are concluding our discussion on “Why Church?” today. I am assuming that you have read the previous 4 articles on the subject so I won’t rehash everything that we have covered so far again. I will however give you the acronym thus far:

Commanded to meet together

Hard to remain faithful without it

Realize your Identity

Imitate Christ

Selfish not to

True and Eternal Plan of God

“We have a generation not forsaking the cross, but forsaking all that the cross bought.”

I heard that in a poem about a year ago and thought it to be quite true. We don’t have a generation and a culture that is necessarily forsaking the cross, but we do have a generation that is forsaking much of what Christ did for us at the Cross.

The church is the true and eternal plan of God. This has been the plan since the beginning, not to save just you, but to save the body and bride of Christ as a whole. Ever since Adam and Eve made the mistake on our behalf, God has had his plan to bring about reconciliation and his Kingdom that is the church to the world.

In Ephesians chapter 5, Paul ties the marriage relationship, husbands loving their wives and giving themselves up for them, to Christ and the church. Watchman Nee points to the garden of Eden in reference to this passage and points out that Adam was a type of Christ (made clear by passages like Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15) and Eve was a type of the church, his bride. Adam being put to sleep points us also to the cross. Why was Adam put to sleep? Adam had to be put to sleep for Eve’s VERY CREATION! She could not have been created if Adam had not been put to sleep. In the same way, Christ had to be put to sleep not JUST for our justification, not JUST for our cleansing, but also for our VERY CREATION! The only possible way that his bride could exist was if he was put to sleep.

“In the same way, husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” Ephesians 5:25

Christ did not die for you and you alone, Christ did not die so that you may attempt to live Christianity out on your own; Christ died for us all, together, unified as one body and one bride, with the intention of us remaining united and living life together as that body and bride.

It would be like on Christmas morning you wake up, and your dad or your husband or wife has gone through all of this trouble to buy you a brand new car, whatever your dream car is. You have wanted this car for so long but knew you would never be able to have it. You walk outside and see it, and you just start crying at how amazing that person is to do this for you, realizing the sacrifice that they must have made in order to give you this amazing gift. You jump on them, hugging them and thanking them for it. They then toss you the keys and say, “Drive it on to work.” You respond, “O no thanks, I don’t actually want it, I’ll just walk.” When we want Jesus and not the church, we are missing the whole point!

What if someone walked up to you and said something like, “Rene, I like you, but man I can’t stand being around Ariel. She is manipulative, and stuck in her ways, and hard headed. She refuses to change with the times. She is boring.” How would you react to someone saying that about your wife or husband? If you don’t want my wife, you don’t want me. This is what we do when we tell God that we want Him, we just don’t like His church, His bride.

How bout this, what if you ask someone after church,

“Do you like that Rene’ guy?”

And they respond, “You know, I like his head, but his body I just can’t stand.”

“What? All I’m asking is if you like Rene.”

“I answered, I like his head but not the rest of him.”

 That doesn’t make any sense! This is what it is to tell God that you like Him but don’t like His church, the body.

If you take the hottest coal in the world out of the fire, it will turn cold, and hard, and black. It doesn’t matter how on fire you are or you get one day, you will always need the church.

Jesus tells us to pray OUR Father, Give US OUR daily bread, Forgive US OUR trespasses as WE forgive who trespasses against US. Lead US, deliver US.

God, Christ never intended for us to live the Christian life alone, it was always meant to be lived together.

To sum it all up:

Why church?

We are Commanded to put a priority in our lives on meeting regularly together with other Christians.

It is Hard, if not impossible, to remain faithful while not being connected consistently and with commitment to the church as a whole. The devil has an easy time picking off the ones away from the pack.

The church is not where you are asked to lose your identity, but is where you will truly Realize it. You will begin to understand why you were made, how you were made, and how you are meant to serve the body.

One of the foundations of Christian living is to Imitate Christ. Christ found it important enough to meet every week on the Sabbath with believers.

It is Selfish to not be involved in the Christian community. We are all different parts of the body, so not only will you not realize your purpose outside of the body, you are also depriving the body of what it needs from you. You were given gifts by God not for your benefit primarily, but for the benefit of the body.

And lastly, the church, us living life together, us holding hands and chasing after Christ together, is the True and eternal plan of God. Telling God that you want Him but not His church is illogical and disrespectful.

I hope this has helped, I love you all. We will get back to the prayer articles as soon as I can.

Grace and Peace