Let's Talk Church

Before I go out and play in the snow (shoveling it) I just wanted to post a quote from Dr. Michael Horton on the commission of the Church:

Similarly, in our corporate calling as the church, we are always responding to a state of affairs that God has spoken into being rather than creating that reality ourselves. The church’s mission is grounded in God’s mission, which he fulfilled objectively in his Son and whose subjective effects he is bringing about in the world through his Spirit. Because the Father sent the Son and then the Spirit, we are sent into all the world with his gospel. So being mission-driven is really the same as being gospel-driven. As believers and as churches, we are motivated by the mission of the Triune God, as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit save us and send us with that saving message to our neighbors.

 All of our spiritual blessings are found in Christ, not in our individual or collective decisions, experiences, efforts, or ambitions. We confess our faith in “one holy, catholic and apostolic church” not because we can see it nor because of any vain confidence that we can build it. Our unity is based on the fact that there is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph. 4:5). Despite all appearances to the contrary, we believe that this church is catholic, because it is not a communion of friends I chose for myself but a family that God has chosen from all of eternity in his Son. We believe that this church is also holy, not because of its empirical piety but because God has made Jesus Christ our wisdom, righteousness, holiness, and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30). And finally, the church is apostolic not because we can identify living apostles in the world today but because it proclaims the apostolic doctrine in the power of the Spirit.

 Far from eliminating our own responsibility, this Good News concerning God’s work in Christ is what liberates and propels the church out into the world. Only because it is in Christ is there an assembly of sinners drawn from every people and language that has been transferred from the kingdom of death to the kingdom of everlasting life.*

 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—  one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Eph 4:4–6). 
Soli Deo Gloria!

For His Glory,
Fernando


*Horton, Michael (2011-04-01). Gospel Commission, The (pp. 24-25). Baker Books. Kindle Edition.