REFLECTIONS

Written by Stephen Shead

Yesterday we reflected on the fact that Christ died not just for individuals, but to make the church holy. That’s why the normal context for us to practise and grow in holiness is the gathering of believers in the local church. In particular, we thought about the place of serving one another in a life of devotion to God.

But there is a more basic and fundamental way that we live out and express the fact that God has made us his holy people. Theologian John Webster suggests that the church’s holiness becomes “visible” in confession – that is, in acknowledging and declaring together “the sheer majesty, transcendent worth and goodness of God” (John Webster, Holiness). Serving each other is a key part of the life of practical holiness, but it doesn’t start there. Remember, holiness isn’t doing good things; it’s being devoted to God; and the most basic way we as Christ’s people express our devotion to God is by declaring his glory and goodness.

God has made us holy, devoted to himself in Christ. The fundamental way we express that devotion to God, the way we reflect it back to him, is in gathering to worship.

That explains the shape of what we do when we gather. Webster describes four things we do when we gather which express our holiness in Jesus.

1. We hear God’s Word to fill our minds with the gospel, to remind each other of who God is and his promises to us in Jesus.

2. We confess our sins together and ask for God’s forgiveness through Jesus.

3. We praise God to testify to the world about his glory and goodness.

4. We pray “Hallowed be your name” – we pray to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and tell him how much we want his name to be honoured.

All of this reflects what Israel did by singing and reciting Psalms together, and is what Paul encourages us to do in Colossians 3:16:

Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. (Colossians 3:16)

I wonder if the second one seems strange to you – that we express our holiness by confessing our sins together. Surely if we’re holy, we won’t have sins to confess, will we? But once again, holiness is not merely goodness – in fact, the arrogant confidence of thinking you can be clean apart from God’s constant cleansing and grace is the opposite of holiness. Holiness is devotion to God, and for fallen creatures like us, that means recognising our weakness and failings, falling before God in humble need, crying out to him for the cleansing that can only ever flow from his grace, and joyfully receiving his forgiveness. All of that is a perfect expression of our devotion to God.

Acts 2:42-47 is a beautiful little portrait of what the church’s holiness looks like in practice – of how it is “visible” in the world, as Webster says.

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47)

Notice how the devotion of the early Christian church flowed from the Word to the world. It began with gathering to worship through hearing God’s Word and responding in prayer. That flowed out into genuine, radical, generous love and service of one another. But they did all of that – gathering for worship and loving one another – in full view of the general public. And the end result was … praise! Their devotion to God as they gathered was a powerful testimony to those around of the glory and grace of Christ; and God used the public worship of his gathered people to save many more.

How much of that picture do you see in our life as Christ’s church, especially as we gather to worship God and serve one another? Can you think of changes we can make, or changes you can make personally – perhaps to your mindset and goals when you come to church – that will help our gatherings be a visible picture, in front of the world, of our devotion to God by his grace?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen is our senior minister.