God's glory through the Church?

"Husbands love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her; that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the Church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless."  Ephesians 5: 25-27

In this passage, Paul compares the husband and wife relationship with that of Christ and his bride, the Church.  What I find interesting about this passage is that so many of us do not see the church as beautiful and worthy of such treatment!  No wonder we are so confused on how to love each other in a husband and wife relationship.  

Today's post is an attempt to clarify what Paul was seeing in Christ's love for his beautiful bride.  To begin we have to be honest that almost all of us have had at least one bad experience with the church.  The results is that we look at church through a different lens than Paul.

How do we see and judge the church?  We often use our personal feeling and experiences with those in the church as our guide.  We might like the people or we might not.  We might like the worship or we might not.  We might feel like the church meets our needs or it might not.  When a church does not meet our perceived needs, we might give up on Church or we might look for another.  Furthermore, some of us have been taught that there is only one true expression of the Church (like the Roman Catholic tradition maintains about itself as well as many Pentecostal and fundamentalist churches), and we have found that lacking in gospel-focus, purity, life-transforming power, and engagement with the real world.

Let's be honest, it is tough to see or even believe hypothetically that the church is beautiful!  Why do we experience the church in this manner?  I think there are several reasons.  

First, we often have incorrect expectations about the local expressions of the true Church.  All of us have a longing to be accepted and be part of a utopian society.  "Why can't we all get along?" is a question that resonates within our soul!  I believe we have this longing because we were made for something greater than life in this fallen world.  In fact, our longing for perfect relationships and perfect love is one of the greatest proofs of our need for a real and repaired relationship with God!  Our greatest issue is that all of us are not perfect.  We are selfish, inward-turned individuals struggling to live authentically in this fallen world.  

What does this mean for the local church?  In this world the church is a mixed group.  All churches are composed of people struggling against their tendency toward selfishness, self-reliance, and self-righteousness.  This includes the professed believers in Christ!  All of us continue to struggle against our sin tendencies.  In addition, in a healthy church there will be those who are not yet redeemed struggling with their sin tendencies.  The result is that a close look at any church will reveal hypocrisy, doubt, anger, and every other sin under the sun.  For many of us, this is a complete turn-off.  How could "holy" people do such things!?

This leads to the second reason we have trouble seeing God's glory in the church.  We have an incorrect understanding of God's glory in this world.  As people we are learning/relearning how to walk in faith with and through Jesus.  Faith is what changes us and teaches us to love.  We are all so self-centered and turned in on ourselves!  We should not be surprised when others hurt us or act in a selfish manner.  We should not be surprised when we judge "church" by our feelings and immediate desires.  Instead, we should be people who repent quickly of our sins and who forgive quickly the sins of others.  Let us confess sin as sin, but not be shocked we live in a fallen world!  The Church is truly the only place on earth where we can experience and extend grace that allows us to be real about our struggles, sins, and lack of faith.

The final reason (for today) as to why we have trouble seeing God's glory in the church has to deal with our experiences with dead churches instead of with the living true church.  Any local expression of the church is beautiful when it works well.  It is beautiful when it preaches and lives out the gospel.  Such a church includes the mark of Christ-centered worship that promotes true humility and authenticity.  Authentic living includes a real recognition of our tendency to wander from the path of life with the Lord.  Instead of places marked by a fake "niceness" (whatever that is!), such a church will be marked by individuals who are quick to repent from their sin and who foster a living dependent faith in Christ for forgiveness and the power to love.  Such a church, and the individuals within the church, will also be marked by outreach to a lost world through word and deed.  Such action is the only hope for this world.  Such action is beautiful and lovely.  Such action is also rare in a day and age marked by self-concern and self-centeredness more than God-centered living working itself out in love for others.

All of this to say that we do not see the church as beautiful because we, and our churches, often confuse the true glory of God on earth.  We want heaven now, but in a fallen world this is not possible.  The glory of God in this fallen world is the restoration of that which has been lost through sin and death.  We should look for and enjoy seeing new people come to the freedom of the children of God (Romans 8).  We should look for and enjoy seeing fellow believers grow deeper in love with God so that they can walk with Him in fuller ways.  This means that we should look for and enjoy seeing love in action.  The church is a place to learn how to love and how walk with Jesus by faith.  We need to take our attention off of the sins of others or ourselves and place it instead on the love and faith that are expressed.  So much of seeing God's glory is about having eyes to see the expressions of restoration instead of focusing on sin and death!

The true Church is a place where the living Lord, Jesus Christ works through the Spirit to purify His people so they might know Him better.  He draws us all to deeper repentance and living faith.  He demonstrates incredible patience and mercy toward His often wayward people.  He sends prophets and priests to keep His people on track, though they often failed in this task.  The church is meant to be the "city on a hill" and "light to the world."  It shines the light of God's grace and truth into the dark world.  Light in the midst of darkness is beautiful.

May we have eyes to see the glory of the Lord in our faith communities.  May we seek out such places and join them so we can grow deeper in repentance and faith to the glory of God.