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Acts 2:42
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
How do we identify a true church of the Lord Jesus Christ? This is an important question, for there are many groups that call themselves churches, many of which hold beliefs on essential matters that are completely irreconcilable with other churches. The Protestant Reformers had to answer this question when they debated those who remained loyal to the papacy, and their study of Scripture led them to identify three marks of a true visible church.
First, a true visible church will preach the true gospel of Christ. This must be so because Jesus Himself said that the church is built on the confession that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16–18). The church exists to be “a pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15), to hold up the true saving message of Jesus’ person and work before the world. If a church is not doing this, it can hardly be recognized as a true church. In fact, any individual or institution that preaches a gospel other than the one preached by the Apostles is under the divine curse (Gal. 1:8–9).
Second, a true visible church administers the sacraments properly. Throughout church history, there have been aberrations in sacramental practice from time to time. In the early church, baptism was sometimes delayed until a person was on his deathbed to ensure that the sins of his entire life were washed away. During the medieval period, one or both of the elements of the Lord’s Supper were often held back from the laity out of fear that the people might inadvertently do something sacrilegious with the bread or the wine. These practices reflect an erroneous view of how the sacraments work and how they are connected to the reality of Christ and salvation.
Third, a true visible church practices biblical church discipline. Sometimes this mark is not mentioned separately but is incorporated with the right administration of the sacraments. This is because church discipline involves the exercise of the keys of the kingdom: admitting people to the sacraments based on a credible profession of faith or barring them from the sacraments because of unrepentant sin. Church discipline in both its positive aspects (teaching the truth of Scripture) and its negative aspects (confronting sin and calling for repentance) is necessary for a church to be a church (Matt. 18:15–20; 1 Cor. 5). If boundaries are not drawn and enforced, the church becomes just another social club.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
The Reformers looked to the practice of the earliest Christians to identify the marks of the church. Commenting on today’s passage, Francis Turretin writes that “wherever the doctrine of the apostles and the legitimate use of the sacraments and of prayers are, there the true church of Christ certainly is.” Let us look for these marks when we are searching for a church to join.
For further study
- Isaiah 52:7
- Mark 14:22–25
- Acts 10:47–48
- Galatians 1:11
The bible in a year
- Ezekiel 17–19
- Hebrews 13