The Gates of Hell

“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”—Matthew 16:18

There is only one institution the world over against which the gates of hell cannot prevail, and that is the church. But what is the church? And why is it important? It’s easier to say what the church is not. It’s not a building, a denomination, a Eucharistic society, or a business. It’s a group of people who have trusted in Christ alone for salvation and have been united by Christ in a single body—with Him at the center, called into a special relationship in order to display Jesus’ presence in their lives so that God might receive glory. The church is the visible display of Christ’s working in the world, demonstrated through the Great Commission and Great Commandment for the purpose of winning the lost and destroying the works of the devil, as it testifies to the reality of God’s existence, His condemnation of this fallen world, and means of salvation provided through the sending of His Son to die in the place of sinful man.

The church is both visible and invisible, local and global, universal and specific. It knows no geographic, ethnic, or national boundaries. It only knows sinners who have trusted in the Christ of the Scriptures as the sole means of escaping the holy wrath of God. It is an institution and organism with Christ at the head. The church is universal in that it exists the world over; it is also local, with believers united with other believers in local bodies for the purpose of mutual instruction, admonishment, fellowship, evangelism, and worship. However, there is a great deal of conversation among people today who wish to separate Christ’s church from Christ Himself. In referencing the popular thought among unbelievers, some church leaders have testified that they love Jesus, but not His church. And while such language seems good from the outside, it fails to take into consideration that the church is the visible manifestation of Christ’s presence on earth. Now, all Christians would wholeheartedly agree that while the church is supposed to exude and manifest Christ, the church has not done so very well. Sometimes known more for pettiness, self-righteousness, and a host of other illnesses, the stones cast at the church are almost too many to count. But it is still the church—in all of her problems and pettiness against whom the gates of hell will not prevail. Or as Augustine captured both the reality of the charges against the church while at the same time reminding us of our responsibility in it, “The church is a whore, but she is still my mother.” The church, though deeply flawed, is still God’s chosen instrument of showing the world who He is, and while she may falter and fail in her task to a large extent by many individuals and groups within her, she will still nonetheless prevail at the end of time.

But what does that mean for us? It means that we are not allowed to remove ourselves from her any more than a sailor is to jump ship, when the boat has been promised by God not to sink. Too many Christians today, in their zeal for purity for the church, have sought to remove themselves from her because of their belief she is corrupt—but such an act, while idealistically noble, is myopic at best and rebellious at worst. To place ourselves outside of Christ’s body in order to identify her ills—is like looking in the mirror in order to point out flaws and then walking away to not look at the mirror again because we don’t want to see them any further. Or like being sick and going to the emergency room and then seeing the other sick patients and not wishing to stay any longer because there are other sick people there. While you may leave the hospital in order not to see or be around so many sick people, you are removing yourself from seeing the Great Physician as well, because that is the only place where He may be found. There is no other place God has established to find the Great Physician of our souls.

The fact is—we need other believers. It is in our interaction with other believers that we discover how sinful we really are. We cannot find out how selfish we are until we try to serve. And we can’t see the fruit of Christ’s presence in our lives if we are continually cutting ourselves off from others. I can only love if I have someone to love, I can only encourage and be encouraged in the same manner. We need to be with one another—to speak truth into one another’s lives—which is a two-way street—speaking and being spoken to.

What about you? Are you involved in a church? Or have you left it? Have you set yourself up as a lone ranger Christian? Or have you agreed to fellowship among the faithful? It is only the church that will prevail, and we cannot remove ourselves from it. God doesn’t want us to—He doesn’t remove us from churches, but places us in them so that we might become more like Christ and that He might receive glory. Amen.