These are questions many people face when they think of the church. And there are probably as many answers to these questions as there are people who try to answer these questions. As believers when we think of the church our ONE AND ONLY SOURCE is the scriptures.
In this second post on the church I want to look at one verse which talks about WHO makes up the community of the church. To do this I want to look at an Old Testament passage, Jeremiah 31:34, in the New American Standard Bible it reads like this:
"They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the Lord, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sins I will remember no more."
This passage in Jeremiah has been commonly called the New Covenant passage. God is making a new covenant with his people. This New Covenant, as the name suggests, is different. The Old one was broken by the people Israel and this new one is to replace the old one.
There are three things we learn about who makes the church in this verse.
1. They all know the Lord. Only someone who has been saved, who knows the Lord can be a member of the New Covenant Community, the Church. They will no longer have to teach everyone in the Community to know the Lord, as they did in the Old Covenant, because they will all know the Lord. This is commonly called a REGENERATE CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. Only a person who is saved can truly be a member of a local church and the universal church. Of course we know there will always be people in our churches who will not be saved, this is where the idea of the invisible and visible church comes in, which we will discuss in a later post. In order to be a true member of the church, the New Covenant Community a person MUST be a Christian.
2. The people who make up the church have had their sins forgiven. So the opposite is those who have not had their sins forgiven cannot be a part of the church. The people of the church are to be a forgiven people.
3. Lastly their sins are not remembered any more. Their sins are no longer in God's sight. They have been wiped away because of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The people who make up the church are to be a saved people. They are to be Christians, believers in Christ, and only they can be a part of the New Covenant Community, the church.
Stay tuned for more next time.
There are three things we learn about who makes the church in this verse.
1. They all know the Lord. Only someone who has been saved, who knows the Lord can be a member of the New Covenant Community, the Church. They will no longer have to teach everyone in the Community to know the Lord, as they did in the Old Covenant, because they will all know the Lord. This is commonly called a REGENERATE CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. Only a person who is saved can truly be a member of a local church and the universal church. Of course we know there will always be people in our churches who will not be saved, this is where the idea of the invisible and visible church comes in, which we will discuss in a later post. In order to be a true member of the church, the New Covenant Community a person MUST be a Christian.
2. The people who make up the church have had their sins forgiven. So the opposite is those who have not had their sins forgiven cannot be a part of the church. The people of the church are to be a forgiven people.
3. Lastly their sins are not remembered any more. Their sins are no longer in God's sight. They have been wiped away because of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The people who make up the church are to be a saved people. They are to be Christians, believers in Christ, and only they can be a part of the New Covenant Community, the church.
Stay tuned for more next time.
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