The Church isn't Pretty; But She is Beautiful
“The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.” Matt 11:19
The Church isn’t pretty, but she is beautiful. It’s been said a million times that the local church should look more like a hospital for sinners than a museum of saints. This is true (at least in part). Yet, more often than not, the ethos (or, the feel) of any given local church can sometimes be spiritually suffocating because of the unvoiced expectations of the membership. To belong here, one must look a certain way, speak a certain way, think a certain way, be a certain way. Yes, “we’re all sinners”, they’ll say, but what they really mean is that we’re all respectable sinners. Struggle is not allowed. Questions are forbidden. Sanctification is less “conformity to Christ”, and more “conformity to post-Victorian evangelicalism.” For those who begin their Christian walk on the lower rungs of life, this type of environment will slowly drain the spiritual fervor out of those who truly see themselves as tax collectors and sinners.
Simul Justus et Peccator, on the other hand, is a Reformation mantra. It means “simultaneously sinner and saint.” At CCF it is both a doctrine and a culture. This means that, yes, we have been declared righteous through justification by faith alone. It means that in Christ, we are positionally holy. But it also recognizes that sin is still very much a struggle. It understands total depravity to be just that – we are sinners to our very core (our hearts, minds, will, actions, feelings, reason). There is no such thing as a respectable sin. We’re not good people made better; We’re dead sinners made alive. Therefore, the tax collector, the glutton, the drunkard, the white collar business man – we’re all the same, viz., sinners saved by God’s grace alone. No one is better than the other. No one has the market on holiness. No one has it all figured out. Jesus did not come for the righteous, but for the unrighteous. Jesus intentionally and purposefully sought out the ragamuffins and the vagabonds.
The church isn’t pretty – we’re all people who desperately need a Savior. As such, we fail. We falter. We stumble. We screw up. And let’s not sell ourselves short – we sin. We sometimes hurt people and people hurt us. Coming to Christ begins a lifelong journey of growth into holiness, but if you’re anything like me, I feel like I still have a very long way to go. No, the church isn’t always pretty, but she sure is beautiful. Think about it – a group of tax collectors and sinners, justified completely and wholly by the blood of Jesus… a group of formerly wayward souls given a desire to worship and honor the King of Kings… a group of people who gather regularly to encourage one another and hear the Word of God proclaimed… a group of spiritual criminals shown grace by God and eager to show grace to one another… a group of people who can all testify about the Man from Nazareth who completely changed their lives… a group of people that welcome’s everyone that enters the doors because we are all beggars who are coming to feast on the Bread from Heaven.
No, the church isn’t pretty – But she is certainly beautiful.
Have a blessed week! I’m so thankful that I get the privilege to serve as your pastor…
Matthew
The Church isn’t pretty, but she is beautiful. It’s been said a million times that the local church should look more like a hospital for sinners than a museum of saints. This is true (at least in part). Yet, more often than not, the ethos (or, the feel) of any given local church can sometimes be spiritually suffocating because of the unvoiced expectations of the membership. To belong here, one must look a certain way, speak a certain way, think a certain way, be a certain way. Yes, “we’re all sinners”, they’ll say, but what they really mean is that we’re all respectable sinners. Struggle is not allowed. Questions are forbidden. Sanctification is less “conformity to Christ”, and more “conformity to post-Victorian evangelicalism.” For those who begin their Christian walk on the lower rungs of life, this type of environment will slowly drain the spiritual fervor out of those who truly see themselves as tax collectors and sinners.
Simul Justus et Peccator, on the other hand, is a Reformation mantra. It means “simultaneously sinner and saint.” At CCF it is both a doctrine and a culture. This means that, yes, we have been declared righteous through justification by faith alone. It means that in Christ, we are positionally holy. But it also recognizes that sin is still very much a struggle. It understands total depravity to be just that – we are sinners to our very core (our hearts, minds, will, actions, feelings, reason). There is no such thing as a respectable sin. We’re not good people made better; We’re dead sinners made alive. Therefore, the tax collector, the glutton, the drunkard, the white collar business man – we’re all the same, viz., sinners saved by God’s grace alone. No one is better than the other. No one has the market on holiness. No one has it all figured out. Jesus did not come for the righteous, but for the unrighteous. Jesus intentionally and purposefully sought out the ragamuffins and the vagabonds.
The church isn’t pretty – we’re all people who desperately need a Savior. As such, we fail. We falter. We stumble. We screw up. And let’s not sell ourselves short – we sin. We sometimes hurt people and people hurt us. Coming to Christ begins a lifelong journey of growth into holiness, but if you’re anything like me, I feel like I still have a very long way to go. No, the church isn’t always pretty, but she sure is beautiful. Think about it – a group of tax collectors and sinners, justified completely and wholly by the blood of Jesus… a group of formerly wayward souls given a desire to worship and honor the King of Kings… a group of people who gather regularly to encourage one another and hear the Word of God proclaimed… a group of spiritual criminals shown grace by God and eager to show grace to one another… a group of people who can all testify about the Man from Nazareth who completely changed their lives… a group of people that welcome’s everyone that enters the doors because we are all beggars who are coming to feast on the Bread from Heaven.
No, the church isn’t pretty – But she is certainly beautiful.
Have a blessed week! I’m so thankful that I get the privilege to serve as your pastor…
Matthew
Recent
Archive
Categories
no categories
No Comments