God Gives the Church

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Why does the Church exist? What is the driving force behind this institution? Every institution exists for some purpose, some underlying cause – whether it be social interaction, support of a common cause, shared belief, or whatever – and if it does not, or ceases to, then the institution crumbles.

In the 19th Century, the German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher asserted that the Church is “a fellowship created by the voluntary actions of men.” That is, men and women come together and form this sociological body that we call the Church for purposes of mutual assurance and affinity. And of course, if the mutual assurance and/or affinity changes or ceases, then the assembly is free to mutate in order to restore it, or else simply to disband – whatever is most expedient for the group.

But is that really what the Church is all about?

We confess that the Church is the creation of our Lord God. He has created her by His Word, redeemed and sanctified her by His death and resurrection, and sustains her by His Holy Spirit. But why did He do this? Is it because God wants you to stop having fun, get out of bed early on dreary winter mornings or trundle out of the house on dark December nights, and warm a pew in some old stuffy building? Or is it because He needs your praise and adulation, and so He needs you to show up and stir up a spirit of excitement inside your heart?

None of the above. “But it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that He swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”

God has created the Church and redeemed and sanctified her by His blood because He loves you, and because He keeps His promises. He has sworn to be your God, and that you will be His people, and He never breaks a promise.

The Church exists because God is faithful and just to forgive sins. Because He is faithful and just, He sent His Son Jesus Christ into the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary to become incarnate and be made man. Because He loves you, His Son bore the sins of the world to the cross and died under the wrath of God so that you might not drink that bitter cup. Because He is keeping the oath that He swore to your fathers, He rose from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is why the Church exists.

The Church does not exist as a product of your will or your motivations or your beliefs or affinities. If that were the cornerstone of the Church, she would have fallen aeons ago. The Church has always been filled with sinners who cannot stand each other. There will never be a Christian congregation on earth where every member agrees and gets along perfectly with every other member. In no place on earth can it be said that you live peaceably with all men, so far as it is up to you.

For wherever two or three are gathered, there are power struggles. If three are gathered, two will conspire against the third. If two are gathered, they will disagree about something sooner or later. The bigger the group, the more difficult to get anything done, at least without someone exerting some sort of coercive force. The human heart – your sinful heart – does not submit well to oversight and authority.

But this is why the existence of the Church does not depend on you, any more than the existence of God's people depended on His people themselves. He tells them, “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God … It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set His love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples.” It does not depend on the Church to love and serve God; it depends on God to first love and serve His Church by dying and rising for her.

So God has set aside your sin and guilt by imputing to you the righteousness of Christ that comes by faith. How does He impute that righteousness to you, when Jesus died nearly two thousand years ago? We confess according to the Third Article of the Creed that

Everything, therefore, in the Christian Church is ordered to the end that we shall daily obtain there nothing but the forgiveness of sin through the Word and signs, to comfort and encourage our consciences as long as we live here. Thus, although we have sins, the [grace of the] Holy Ghost does not allow them to injure us, because we are in the Christian Church, where there is nothing but [continuous, uninterrupted] forgiveness of sin, both in that God forgives us, and in that we forgive, bear with, and help each other.




But outside of this Christian Church, where the Gospel is not, there is no forgiveness, as also there can be no holiness [sanctification]. Therefore all who seek and wish to merit holiness [sanctification], not through the Gospel and forgiveness of sin, but by their works, have expelled and severed themselves [from this Church]. (LC II.55-56)




God is gracious and loving, so much so that He has established the Church as the place in which He meets with His people, to proclaim His Word of grace and favor, to forgive sins and reconcile sinners to Himself. He has established His Church as the place where His Sacraments are given, where you can be certain that He will be present to speak His Word of comfort and hope to you. Isaiah says, “Seek the Lord while He may be found,” and this is the time and place where the Lord promises that He may be found.

Our God is not a god of nature, or sun god or moon good, or unseen force hidden away, or any other of the myriad descriptions that the minds of men come up with. Our God is concrete and real, and He has specified particular concrete and real places where He comes to His people and touches them with His grace and mercy. Sure, you meet God on the golf course or in the deer stand or on top of the mountain, but what God are you meeting there? The God you meet there is the God of creation, the hidden God about whose will for you you know nothing. The God you meet on the golf course is not the God hidden in the flesh of Christ, the God who died for your sins, but the God of judgment, the Giver of the Law who “repays to their face those who hate Him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates Him. He will repay him to his face.”

Is this the God you want to meet, or would you rather meet the God of mercy, “the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations”? This faithful God who keeps steadfast love with a thousand generations is the God who cleanses His people by His presence among them in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And He does this in the Church.

So you can be grateful this blessed season for the Gift of the Church. You can be grateful for the place where your God meets with you to give you His grace, blessing, and favor. You can be grateful for the place where His Word is proclaimed for the forgiveness of your sins. You can be grateful for the place where you can rest while God does His work in you. And in this place, you can rejoice for all His manifold blessings, knowing that you know where to find them.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.