This week I listened to a couple of sermons by a well-known and greatly beloved Presbyterian minister that were a blessing to my soul. It would take a miracle of grace to make me one-tenth the preacher he was, and I could not hope to make one-hundredth of the impact his life and ministry had and continue to have even after his death. But there was one section in his last sermon that struck me powerfully, and not in the way he probably expected or hoped.
Somebody asked me a question a couple of weeks ago. We were talking about different congregations, and I was telling him how much I love [this congregation]. I said, “It’s a fantastic congregation.” He asked me, “How many people in the congregation do you think are really Christians?” I answered: “I don’t know. I can’t read the hearts of people. Only God can do that. I know that everybody who is a member of the church has made an outward profession of faith. So, 100 percent of our people have professed their faith.” He asked, “But how many do you think really mean it?” I said, “I don’t know, 70 percent, 80 percent.” I may be seriously overestimating or underestimating that, but one thing I know for sure is that not everybody in this room is a Christian.
The point this brother was making is good and right and true, in one sense. He was emphasizing that you must be born again. You cannot rely on your church attendance, church membership, or outward acts of religion for your salvation. You must personally trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, and amen. We might paraphrase Paul’s words in Romans 2 and say: He is not a Christian who is one outwardly, nor is baptism that which is merely the outward application of water to the body. He is a Christian who is one inwardly, whose baptism is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter. As the Lord himself warned: Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not [recited the catechism] in Your name, [sung the psalms without instruments] in Your name, and [kept the Sabbath holy with stiff collars, straight-backed chairs, and sour faces] in Your name?’ Yet the Lord will not acknowledge them. We need this kind of preaching from Jesus and Paul in our pulpits today.
Unfortunately, this was an example of a good point being made in an unhelpful (and, arguably, unbiblical) way. It was not expressed in terms of the need for personal faith but in terms of one’s identity as a Christian. When the pastor says, “I don’t know what percentage of this church are actually Christians, but I am sure not all of them are,” he is making a statement that Paul never made.
The church in Corinth was a hot mess of pride, division, doctrinal confusion, and immoral behavior. Their abuse of the Lord’s Supper was so egregious that the apostle said it wasn’t even the Lord’s supper! But listen to the opening lines of the letter.
To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus… eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
(1 Corinthians 1:2-9)
Were all of the members of the church in Corinth Christians? They were sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, recipients of grace and peace from God, servants of our Lord Jesus, eagerly awaiting the coming of the Lord who would confirm them (in salvation) to the end so that they would be found blameless on the day of Christ. But, of course, we can’t know if they are really Christians!
I do not want to sound presumptive, but I know that every member of the congregation I serve is a Christian, truly, objectively, and personally. If you have been baptized, you belong to Christ, have been engrafted into the stock of Israel, made a member of his Body, been given his Holy Spirit, and are called to holiness.
If you are married, then you are a husband (or wife), and you are called to faithfulness in that relationship. We do not say, “We can’t know how many of these married people are really spouses.” All of them are. You may be an unfaithful spouse. You may betray your mate, break your marriage vows, or act hatefully and harmfully to the one you have been called to love. The curses of the marriage covenant may fall upon you for violating that sacred trust, but it is not because you were not really married. It is because you were married and did not live in loyalty to that covenant bond.
The Christian doctrine of sanctification can be summed up by knowing who you are in Christ and acting like it. You have been made a member of Christ, partaker of the Holy Spirit, adopted into the family of God, and given an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. Act like it. Live in reverence, love, faith, and gratitude. Do not neglect or forsake the blessings of that covenant of grace. Be loyal to your covenant God and King.
Knowing whether you are a Christian does not require a gnostic insight into the secret decrees of God. We do not seek that knowledge through a burning in the bosom. We are not required to remain agnostic about who is a Christian or not, hoping only with great reserve that perhaps, in their heart of hearts, they really meant it and so will be found in the secret number of the elect on the last day. We look to the objective work of Christ, the objective promises of God, and the objective ministry of his word in the preaching, sacraments, and obedience of Christ’s Body.
You are a Christian, so act like it: in your marriage, in your parenting and grand-parenting, in your work, in your studies, in your private devotions, in your personal morality, in public and in secret, in your outward acts and in your inward thoughts and desires. Live as a Christian should, by assembling with the Church on the Lord’s Day, confessing your sins and your faith, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord, receiving his pardon and precepts, rejoicing in the means of grace and in the mediatorial work of his Son. Live not in terror but in triumph, not in the fear of judgment but in the holy fear of a son seeking to please his beloved Father and blessed Lord. Live by faith, worship with joy, obey from love, and die in hope. You are a Christian, so live and die like one, resting in the work of the Righteous One and rejoicing in his righteous reward.
