Signs Of The Visible Church

In a posting last week I pointed to the signs of Christ's power and presence as the LORD of the OT. Read the signs, study them and you will see, says John, that Immanuel (God with us) is indeed with us. So I pointed out that Jesus is present among His people whenever and wherever they gather to share His Word and minister Baptism and His Supper in His name. That is where you will find Him.

Turn it around then. Where is Christ's church, His body? Wherever Christ is present among His people, creating and nourishing faith in Him. And how does He do this? By means of His Word, either His Word spoken or His Word shared in the water of Baptism and the bread and wine of His Supper. He is present to do even greater things through these modern day signs than turn water into wine, heal a nobleman's servant or raise Lazarus from the dead. He brings healing to our souls, forgiveness for all our sins and a life that will never cease. Listen to Paul.

Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.- Rom. 6:3-7 NLT

No one other than the LORD Christ can do such great acts of power. In Baptism He and He alone is able to create this new life. In our baptism He declares that we were crucified, that we died and were buried with Him. He declares that God's judgment upon sin was satisfied on His cross. He declares that we share His new life. And since what He proclaims, what He speaks, always comes to pass, it happens. We are alive. Our old self no longer controls us. Christ lives in us. This is the ongoing miracle of Pentecost. Paul again:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. - Gal 2:20 ESV

 No power on earth can work such a miracle. No power of man can perform such a deed. And you and I who are in Christ, we who have Christ living in us, we who have received the outpouring of His Spirit—we know what this means. These then are the signs of Christ's church. Where the Gospel is proclaimed and the Sacraments are administered and shared there is Christ at work. And where Christ is at work, there is His church.

There are, of course, other signs by which you may detect the presence of Christ's body, the church on this earth. These would include prayer, the teaching of the Ten Commandments, the willingness of Christians to suffer, their clinging to eternal life even when threatened by death, their care for others regardless of who they are and so forth. But none of those signs carry the weight and importance of the proclaiming of the Gospel and the ministering of the Sacraments to God's children. Through these primary signs Christ and the Holy Spirit create, sustain and nourish faith in Him. This is why we Lutherans, for example, are so very concerned that everything taught in God's Word—and nothing other than God's word—continue to be taught.

But more on that next time.