A BIBLICAL CHURCH, part 2

Last week I pointed out that, among everything else that it is and does, a church must have two key components to be true to Scripture. As authors Tim Chester and Steve Timmis put it in their rich little book called "Total Church," these two essential elements are the gospel and community. In other words, the primary "content" of the church is the gospel, and the primary "context" of the church is community.

Two questions obviously arise. First, what IS the gospel? Second, what is meant by community? Last week we saw that "community" means the sharing of life together in genuine Christ-centered love, care, support, prayer, and encouragement. It's what Jesus was talking about when He commanded us in John 13:34 to love one another.

Now to the other question: what is the gospel?

The best I can encapsulate it, the gospel involves three biblical truths, to which we must each make three biblical responses.

Biblical truth #1 is that God is holy. While God also has many other attributes, in Scripture, what always comes first is His holiness. Every glimpse of God given to us in Scripture shows us that He is holy. And since that's where God's Word starts with God, it's also where we ought to start.

Biblical truth #2 is that people are sinners. Once we catch a glimpse of God's holiness, the sinfulness of humanity becomes immediately obvious. Indeed, in every Scriptural account in which God's holiness is revealed, the first response of the people is to know and acknowledge their sin. Nobody has to tell them they're sinners: that knowledge comes instantly in the light of God's holiness.

These two biblical truths mean that humanity has a serious problem. Since God is holy and we are sinful, we are separated from Him; and to be separated from Him ultimately means hell forever. And that, beloved, is the most serious problem that exists.

Biblical truth #3 is that Christ is sufficient. In His incarnation, He did everything necessary to solve the sin problem that separates us from God, a problem we could not solve ourselves. He lived a perfectly sinless life so He can give us righteousness; and He died under God's wrath for our sins, so He can take away our punishment. Finally, He rose from the dead to live His life out in us.

Scripture is very clear that when we know these three biblical truths, a response is required. Just knowing these truths is not enough. It's like this. Since I studied Physics in college, I know one of the main reasons airplanes can fly: it's called Bernoulli's Principle of Fluid Dynamics. However, just knowing Bernoulli's Principle (even if I know a lot about it) wouldn't fly me to Florida: I would actually have to get on an airplane! Similarly, just being acquainted with these three Biblical truths doesn't save you. The truths call for a response.

And, as everyone in my church can tell you, that response is as simple as A - B - C. We'll look at that next week.