Devotional #55

Today, after quite a summer hiatus, we resume our almost daily devotional.  As you may remember we are working our way through the Heidelberg Catechism.

Question 55. What do you understand by “the communion of saints”?

Answer: First, that believers, all end every one, as members of Christ, are partakers of Him, and of all his riches and gifts (a); secondly, that every one must know himself bound to employ his gifts, readily and cheerfully for the advantage and salvation of other members (b).

(a) 1 John 1:3: That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 1:9: God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 8:32: He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
1 Corinthians 12:12-13: 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.

(b) 1 Corinthians 12:21: The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”
Philippians 2:4-8: Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

For your personal reflection:
I heard it again yesterday morning, that pause that almost always occurs when the congregation recites the Apostles’ Creed.  It almost always happens between the phrases, “the holy catholic church” and “the communion of saints.”  Have you  ever noticed?  It’s as if in the congregations’ mind those are two distinct realities.  The truth is, though, they are one and the same.  The word, “catholic”, simply means “universal” (it is not a reference to a denomination).  It refers to the one true church of Jesus Christ extending through time, space, culture and circumstance.  The local church is but the visible part of an invisible and magnificient organism that is ever alive and expanding.

How are you related to those Christians who have gone before you?
What are the implications for your life with regard to those living Christians with whom you share church membership?
Is it possible to be a part of Christ’s “invisible” church and not a part of His “visible” church?