Where is the true church found?

One of the slogans of the XVI century Protestant Reformation was:

The true church is found where the Word is preached and where the sacraments are correctly administered.

Although the slogan talks about the church, with a further look into it, it only applies to those doing the action of preaching and giving the sacraments. The rest, it seems, are not part of the church. I understand that this was not the original intention of the Reformers, but it is pretty the much outcome of such a slogan.

Some would say that I have misunderstood and therefore find fault with such formulation from the Reformation. That the slogan makes it understood that those who hear the word preached as well as receiving the sacraments -or as a good Baptist that I am would call them, ordinances- do form part of the church. However, I find the slogan at fault for its ambiguity, confusing and inadequate for the following two reasons.

First, as I have mentioned before, it only talks about the action done by one group of the church, in this case, the clergy. From this perspective, the slogan only deals with the members of that group within the church. It is of interest to note that in churches such as the Lutheran (Luther is alleged to have said that slogan in particular), the Reformed, and the Anglican, only those correctly ordained can offer the two sacraments or ordinances, these being baptism and communion. This to me, gives an unintentional turn from what the Reformers where trying to affirm, that was the priesthood of all believers.

Second, the word of God can be preached with orthodoxy, precision, etc., but that doesn't guaranteed that it will have the effect sought for (here, I am reminded of the parable of the sower). An example of this would be the prophets in the Old Testament warning both Israel and Judah to repent or be destroyed, and the people didn't listen. In the New Testament, the highest example of this is Jesus, God incarnate, who people didn't listen to him either, (to my mind comes the doctrine of election, but that's not the point I want to make today). In more recent times, it comes to my mind the sermon by Jonathan Edwards, "Sinners at the hand of an angry God", which he preached to a congregation, that although orthodox, did not show any signs of regeneration in their lives.

Which is then, the mark of a true church? I don't wish to put down the a good, solid biblical preaching, as I don't wish to put down the reception (if one is Lutheran or Calvinist) or the participation (if one is Baptist or something else) of baptism and the Lord's Supper. But I need to be biblical as to what defines a true church. And this brings me to Pentecost, and the Pauline letters.

We find in Acts 2, that the church is empowered by the power of the Holy Spirit. According to my reading of the text, this is what puts them apart from not only the other jews, but with the rest of humanity as well. We see later in the letters of Paul, how the Holy Spirit not only marks the members of the church as different from all other people, but also as making them the church, but also God's temple:

1 Corinthians 3:16 (New International Version)

¹⁶Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?

and:

1 Corinthians 12:12-13 (New International Version)

¹²The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. ¹³For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

In another passage, Paul refers to the fact that believers are sealed with the Holy Spirit that guarantees the promises to them:

2 Corinthians 1:22 (New International Version)

²²set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

And:

2 Corinthians 5:5 (New International Version)

⁵Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

And:

Ephesians 1:13-14 (New International Version)

¹³And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory.

We can see then, in this passages, we find that what Paul sees as the sign of the true church, is not what the Reformers saw, rather, is something that in the Reformation was somewhat neglected. Today, this sign of the true church would be a controversial one for many reasons, especially among those that although accepting the Holy Spirit as the third member of the Trinity, don't accept that he is active in today's age as it was in the time of the apostles. Another reason that this sign may be controversial is that is very subjective, and the evangelical fundamentalism, with its roots in the 18th century, rejects all that cannot be examined with an objective view. Nevertheless, as we can see, for Paul, it is the reception of the Holy Spirit that marks out those who are the true church.

Following Paul's argument then, what really sets the church apart is that she has received the gift of the Holy Spirit, the guarantee that all the promises made in Scripture regarding us will come true.

I think this this position does more justice to the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, since it shows that the Holy Spirit empowers all believers to do the work, not only inside the church, but outside as well. This in turn, solves the issue of what is the real work of church, since the believer possesses, or rather, is possessed by the Holy Spirit at all times and at all places, thus, makes the believer act more ethically in the market place.

I believe that this view serves the text better, and shows how the work of the church goes well beyond the confines of the walls within a temple. I have not been meaning to be exhaustive on this issue, but to point a way forward in this continuing conversation.

Luis Alberto Jovel