Confessing Evangelical

If you're anything like me, then you'll be prone to frequent bouts of near-despondency at the state of the church and the prospects for the survival of the Gospel, particularly in the West. "By schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed". I therefore found the opening essay from Hermann Sasse's "We Confess the Church" very encouraging:

The preservation of the church is no smaller miracle than its founding, just as the preservation of the world is no smaller miracle than the creation. It is by no means self-evident that the church should continue. Many a people among whom there was a flourishing church has rejected this church. There is no sadder sight than the ruins of old churches, such as may be seen in parts of Asia which have sunk back into heathenism.

No lesser man than Martin Luther reckoned with the possibility that the church might one day be taken from our people. "God's Word and grace is like rain which falls on one place and then goes on to fall on another, not returning again to where it once was before." He pointed out to those lands which were once a part of ancient Christendom but which sank back again into heathenism, and he spoke the warning: "You Germans must not imagine that it will be yours forever. Unthankfulness and scorn of it will not let it remain."

But while there is no promise that individual churches will survive, or that individual nations will retain the Gospel, the promise still stands that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. However, the evidence of church history demonstrates how this is far from self-evident. What, therefore, is the secret of the church's survival?

The answer is found in the title to Sasse's sermon - "Jesus Intercedes for His Church" - and in its text, John 17:6-23.

Christ prays for us, and His prayer is heard. ... He prays for us. He prays for His church on earth. This is the miracle of the church's preservation. Hear Luther's confession of this fact:

It is not we who are able to maintain the church, nor could those before us, nor will those who come after us be able to do so. It is only He who says, "Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age." It has always been He, is He now, and will always be He. As it is written in Heb 13, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." And Rev 1, "...who is and who was and who is to come." He is the Man. That is His name, which belongs to no other man, nor may it be given to any other.

Oh, if one could only believe this! Oh, if we would be learn from this great and childlike trust of Luther's! How much less would cares for the church oppress us if we would only cast our cares upon Him who has taken the care of the Church upon Himself.