The Nicene Creed affirms that the church is one, holy, catholic and apostolic. I discussed what is means that the church is one here. When the creed affirms that the church is holy it is making at least three important points.
First, the church is holy in a forensic sense. That is, our affirmation is not suggesting that the church’s members are somehow morally pure. It is instead affirming that because of the work of Christ for us we are declared by God to be just. Our sin was punished at Calvary. His righteousness has been imputed or reckoned to us. In this sense we are holy.
Second, that said, we are holy in that we are being changed. In the first instance we are speaking of our justification. Here we speak of our sanctification. The root of that term is “sanctus” which is Latin for “holy.” While we still struggle with the remains of sin in us, sin’s power over us is broken. We have been given a new heart, from which we cry out for God’s mercy in Christ. We have been indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus Himself said that “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:35). This love is a kind unknown by those outside the kingdom. We are indwelt by the same Holy Spirit, and so are united in a way the lost cannot fathom.
Third, we are holy in that we have been set apart from the world. We have a tendency to think of “holiness” strictly in terms of moral purity. While this is a part of what the word means, equally important is its meaning of being set apart. The church is called to be holy in this way.
There are, in fact, two Greek words in the New Testament that are translated “church.” The first is “kuriake.” This has the same root as “kurios” which means “Lord.” The church is those who belong to the Lord. The other term so translated, however is “ekklesia” from which we get our English word “ecclesiastical.” In the Greek the word might be literally translated as “the called out ones.”
We are set apart, called out, from the world, into His presence, from the darkness into His marvelous light (I Peter 2:9). Part and parcel of this is putting behind us the ways and patterns of this world. We are commanded not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2).
The church then is those who have been declared to be righteous. Those who have been called to grow in righteousness. Those who have been set apart from the world. Without the first, the latter two are not possible. Out of the first, the latter two we pursue.
This is the forty-seventh installment of an ongoing series of pieces here on the nature and calling of the church. Stay tuned for more. Remember also that we at Sovereign Grace Fellowship meet this Sunday June 8 at 10:30 AM at our new location, our beautiful farm at 11281 Garman Road, Spencerville, IN. Please come join us.