As members of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, we probably all have ideas about what a church is or at least should be. If we have spent time in other branches of Lutheranism or in other Christian denominations, we might have a broader perspective about what “church” is. St. Luke’s Theological Academy is offering a course entitled “Christian Denominations” this winter, and it is designed to provide course participants with such a perspective if they have not acquired it themselves.

Compared to the biblical and Lutheran confessional perspective of church, the variety and diversity of Christian denominations can be quite overwhelming and thus distracting. The sheer number of Christian groupings is mind boggling, and many of those groupings do not consider other groupings to be “church” in the proper sense. For example, the Roman Church maintains that it is the true church and that all Protestant groupings are “ecclesial communities,” i.e. church-like entities but not really church.

The reason why there are so many denominations and why there often is a wide variety of streams within a single denomination is because most Christians and Christian groupings do not differentiate well between law and gospel. In other words, they add more or less law to the gospel which then becomes their defining characteristic. For example, our friends in the Episcopal church are “defined” by being structured around bishops (episcopos in Greek), particularly bishops in “historic succession.” They believe that their succession of bishops is gospel when, in fact, it is unfortunately just another aspect of the law. Thus, in their own ways, other denominations adhere to their own self-defining laws which they confuse with the gospel.

In contrast, the Bible often uses the image of Christ’s body, and not an institution or organization, to describe the church. For example, in his letter to the church in Corinth, St. Paul writes, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit (I Corinthians 12:4-13 – ESV).

Likewise, in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul also writes, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 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. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift” (Ephesians 4:1-7 – ESV).

Note in both passages written to two different churches St. Paul describes a diversity of members unified in the one Spirit through one baptism into to the one body of one Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is not by chance that in the Augsburg Confession (AC), the first Lutheran statement of faith written in 1530, Lutherans understand the church and its unity in the following fashion. Article VII of the AC reads,

“It is also taught among us that one holy Christian church will be and remain forever. This is the assembly of all believers among whom the gospel is preached in its purity and the holy sacraments are administered according to the Gospel. For it is sufficient for the true unity of the Christian church that the Gospel be preached in conformity with a pure understanding of it and that the sacraments be administered in accordance with the divine Word. It is not necessary for the true unity of the Christian church that ceremonies, instituted by men, should be observed uniformly in all places. It is as Paul says in Eph. 4:4, 5, ‘There is on body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism’” (The Book of Concord, Tappert, 32).

The notion that the gospel alone defines the church and its unity is distinctly Lutheran. This position is not a matter of theological exclusiveness or arrogance. Rather, only the gospel creates the faith by which we sinners are justified, i.e. saved. The law does not and cannot create faith. Therefore, if the gospel (properly differentiated from the law) is not purely proclaimed in word and sacrament; that is, if the gospel gets watered down with the law, then a very real danger exists that people either will be led to believe wrongly about the one, true God or, worse, will be led to believe in a false god. In either case, our mission and their salvation is at stake.

As Lutherans, many things in our lives and in our world of sin continually threaten to overwhelm and to distract us from our primary mission which is to proclaim purely the gospel of Jesus Christ in word and sacrament. Let us pray continually that Christ and his gospel will continually unite us to remain focused on the gift of salvation which he has given us to share with other sinners like ourselves.