Bonhoeffer cont.

We must consider the spiritual nature of the church. “God established the reality of the church, of humankind pardoned in Jesus Christ.” This is the church-humankind pardoned in Jesus Christ, or the communion of the saints, the redeemed ones. The disciples did not establish this, though they did establish much about the Christian church. But the death and resurrection of Christ is the only thing that made it so that there could be this communion of the redeemed. There would be no redeemed humans without Christ. And the systems and structures we have put in place support that but the cornerstone, as Paul says, is Jesus Christ.

Bonheoffer beautifully describes a dual existence of the church. It is consummated in Him (Christ) and time is annulled. It is also within time and built upon Him as the foundation. JUST as believers are both already perfect and still sinners.

The Kingdom of God, in fact, is to us a future hope, but to God, for whom there is no time, it is a reality-it always has been and always will be.

Bonheoffer is wise to remind us of another humbling fact-the work of prayer the church is called to. How quick I am to put everything before prayer-ministries and programs and teachings…but prayer is the means by which we proclaim that we are indeed an instrument of Gods will. “The devil fears the church at prayer.”

“The proper place of the church is Christ present in the world.”

May we dwell on this for a minute? The church is the place where Christ is present in the world. First and foremost, we must protect the church as such and not make it out to be anything else-in social work, the church is often made to be a community organizer or instrument of social justice-no, the church holds its own place and that is the place where Christ is present in this world. At the same time, all that Christ is, we must be. We cannot leave out any portion of the manifestation of Christ. We shall be no more than the place of Christ present, but we shall also be no less than the place of Christ present.

How do we know what it is to be “Christ present here”?

“The church lives by God’s word alone.” We know by Gods word, which reveals to us all that we need to know of Christ.

“No religious services should be without the confession of faith. The community must either confess its faith or disavow it. It cannot, like the general public, remain undecided.” Absolutely beautiful. No one is halfway in the community. If you confess the faith, you are all in, if you do not, you are not. Not because of exclusivity-because it is the SOLE condition for membership. If there is no condition for membership, nothing to separate membership from non-membership there would be no such thing as membership at all. There has to be a condition.

Indecisiveness is not an option. All in or all out.

Now, what exactly is this “Confession of faith?”

Bonheoffer puts it: ”I acknowledge and confess your truth, O God.”

“Your truth” refers to the gospel of Jesus Christ and to the Word of Scripture and to a deep faith that He is real, that He is good, that He has sent His Son to die for our sin and that His Son did rise and does rule and is our salvation, our life, our glory, our All.

“The Word must be preserved as the most sacred possession of the community.”

The Word is the churches most sacred possession. It is what we have that can be found nowhere else in the entire world.

The Word needs to most protection because it is the most precious thing.