The True Church
Followers of THE WAY
“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.”
Who exactly are the people of God? Let us start with what we commonly agree upon: the people of God must be followers of Jesus. Jesus is Jacob’s Ladder. He is the way, the truth, and the life, the only way to God. But are there certain sects of those who call themselves Christian who cannot know God? Jesus said the wheat and tares would grow together. Thus, there are people who claim affiliation with your denomination who do not know Christ. Likewise, there are people affiliated with certain denominations you may despise who do know Him. The true Church is not limited to human drawn boundaries. Our divisions stem from the flesh rather than the Spirit. The apostles intended us to be perfectly unified. Jesus prayed in John 17 for our unity. It is our fleshly weaknesses which result in separations. Thankfully, God is able to overcome human weakness. Regardless of how another group of Christians may miss the scriptural mark regarding certain topics, these less accurate Christians may still know Jesus so long as they have the Holy Spirit. While not everything they may say will be from the Holy Spirit, Paul stated that it is impossible to say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3). Without the Holy Spirit, a person is not a Christian, that is a follower of Jesus who proclaims He is Lord. Possession of the Spirit of Christ is the defining factor. The true Church is composed only of those who possess the Holy Spirit, that is the Spirit of God.
“You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.”
Is Christ in you? Are you in Christ? The true Church is composed of those who know Jesus, Who is one with God. It seems to me that if you truly know Jesus, then you cannot help but love Him. If you love Him, then you will aim to please Him, not that you can do this perfectly, but you will be after His heart. If you are after His heart, then you seek unity with His heart. If you are one with Jesus, then you are one with the Father, as He and the Father are one. Where One is is also the whole of what the Church calls “the Trinity”, because God is one. What I am getting at is that if you are one with Jesus, then you must have the Holy Spirit, because the scriptures tell us that the Holy Spirit is the vessel by which we are unified with Christ who is one with the Father. Reread the excerpt from Romans above, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.” So clearly, if you have the Holy Spirit, then Christ has you and you have His righteousness credited to your account because He loves you. He loves you so much, He laid His life down for you, and there is no greater love than this. You cannot help but love Him deeply who loves you so deeply. If you love Him you will seek to know Him deeply and follow closely behind. You will desire to please God, and the Holy Spirit will help you to do so….
Thus, I have made the point backwards and forwards that knowing, loving, and following Jesus depends on us having the Spirit of God.
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
There is no unity with Christ without the Holy Spirit. Our unity with Christ is what unifies us as His global Church. His Church is a spiritual institution, rather than a human one. Any human manifestation is our imperfect grasping to attain to the perfect spiritual reality. While we may sometimes perceive the human manifestations more easily (both the good and the less good), the truth of the spiritual reality is what is deepest and truest. The nonsense resulting from the flesh should never become our focus. We ought to work diligently to not be consumed with mere human concerns, but to rather be mindful of the surpassingly higher things of God. How else can we achieve this but with the Holy Spirit, the mind of God. Therefore, we should always be aiming higher, deepening our perspective of Christ who is from above, and whose ways are surpassingly higher than our own.
“ Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” ”
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Surely there are many divisions, many differing traditions, and many ways in which an individual church community or denomination may be ignorant of or disloyal to the scriptures to varying degrees. Yet, what unifies us across the varying denominations but the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. The Church is the pillar of truth, and this reality is inseparable from the unity with Holy Spirit. The Church is incapable of being the pillar of truth if the Church is limited to being a mere human institution. This is because Jesus is the Truth, not mankind. The reality of the Church being the pillar of truth is a purely spiritual reality. The Church exists because Jesus has poured out His Holy Spirit (Acts 2). There is no Church without the Holy Spirit. Where the Holy Spirit is lacking, there is no Church. The Church is therefore a spiritual institution that is empowered by the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of Truth. The Holy Spirit is the validity of the Church, and this is why wherever the Church goes, the Holy Spirit buttresses its messages with the works of the Spirit.
“if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.”
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”
If anything unifies us, I swear it is not our sin and it is not our flesh. Our unity is a Spiritual unity, with a capital S. The marriage of our spirit with the Holy Spirit makes us one in Christ. It is the marriage of our spirit with the Holy Spirit that enables us to know Christ.
In Hebrew, the word to know is the same word that is used to describe knowing your spouse physically. The Bible states that when you know your spouse physically, you become one flesh. Thus, we see the Hebrew context of the word to know conveys intimacy, even that which exists within the unifying bond of marriage in which two become one. The Church is the bride of Christ. You are a member of the Church of Christ if you know Jesus. If you are married, consider how deeply you know your spouse. Consider the weight of trust you place upon your marriage. Do you know Jesus like that? Do you love Him like that? Do you trust in Him? Is your relationship one in which you trust Him deeply? If you do, then you know that you have the Holy Spirit, because it is impossible to know Jesus, the Truth, without the Spirit of Truth.
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own”
Does it all make sense now? Jesus said He is the truth. He also referred to the Holy Spirit both as the Spirit of God and the Spirit of truth. Jesus said He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. God is the truth. Jesus is God. God is one. The Holy Spirit is the sole defining factor rendering people the true Church. The Holy Spirit leads us into truth. The Church upholds truth only by the Spirit of truth. And the truth is Jesus and Jesus is God and the Holy Spirit is God. Our unity, that is our oneness, is according to the Holy Spirit. Jesus and God are one. The truth we uniformly uphold as the Church is that Jesus is God.
Jesus, pour out Your Spirit upon us and lead us into all truth, that we might know You. If we know You and are in You, perhaps those who know us will come to know You as well.
Glory to You, King Jesus.
Bless this message and those who read it. Amen.