Fel­lows­hip in the Holy Spi­rit joins be­lie­vers in a cong­re­ga­ti­on, in­to which God cal­ls new mem­bers. God’s cong­re­ga­ti­on is not a tem­po­ral ins­ti­tu­ti­on or as­so­ci­a­ti­on. It is cre­a­ted by a bond through faith with Je­sus Christ and ot­her be­lie­vers. Life in the cong­re­ga­ti­on of God brings joy and pe­a­ce in­to one’s he­art.

The cong­re­ga­ti­on is of es­sen­ti­al sig­ni­fi­can­ce in God’s sal­va­ti­on plan. God cal­ls pe­op­le in­to His cong­re­ga­ti­on. Abi­li­ty to hear and ac­cept this call is sheer grace of God (1 Cor. 1:2, 9). God’s cong­re­ga­ti­on is pre­sent where the re­dee­ming grace of God is ma­ni­fes­ted on earth. Re­dee­ming faith can on­ly be found in the cong­re­ga­ti­on of Christ. God is pre­sent in this cong­re­ga­ti­on and le­ads it with his po­wer.

Mem­bers­hip in God’s king­dom is gai­ned through faith

The main pur­po­se of the proc­la­ma­ti­on of the gos­pel, the good mes­sa­ge, is to cre­a­te and main­tain faith in Christ. Where there is faith through the gos­pel, the fel­lows­hip and com­mu­ni­on through the Holy Spi­rit joins be­lie­vers in­to a cong­re­ga­ti­on. This is ref­lec­ted in the work of the cong­re­ga­ti­on, and it is al­so vi­sib­le to pe­op­le out­si­de the cong­re­ga­ti­on (John 13:35; 1 Pet. 2:12). The Holy Spi­rit joins be­lie­vers li­ving in dif­fe­rent parts of the world in­to a sing­le cong­re­ga­ti­on of God.

Ba­sed on the re­demp­ti­on ear­ned by Christ, each hu­man being is born in­to this world as a be­lie­ver. To pre­ser­ve this faith, the child is bap­ti­zed and pla­ced in the care of God’s cong­re­ga­ti­on. If the child is not al­lo­wed to live in the care of the cong­re­ga­ti­on, his faith ul­ti­ma­te­ly fails and he lo­ses his con­nec­ti­on with God. It is pos­sib­le, ho­we­ver, to re-es­tab­lish this con­nec­ti­on with God by be­lie­ving the gos­pel pre­ac­hed from God’s cong­re­ga­ti­on. The core of this gos­pel is the for­gi­ve­ness of sins (Mark. 16:15–16; Luke 24:47; John 20:21–23).

Faith is nur­tu­red in the cong­re­ga­ti­on

Faith does not on­ly con­nect pe­op­le but al­so keeps them to­get­her in the be­lie­ving cong­re­ga­ti­on of God. That helps them to main­tain a li­ving con­nec­ti­on with Christ (Rom. 12:4–5). Faith is nur­tu­red in the cong­re­ga­ti­on (1 Cor. 12:26–27; 1 Thess. 5:14). God’s cong­re­ga­ti­on gat­hers to hear the voi­ce of Christ, which spe­aks through the Holy Spi­rit in the proc­la­ma­ti­on and inst­ruc­ti­on of the cong­re­ga­ti­on, (John 10:14–16, 16:13–16).

The smal­lest cong­re­ga­ti­on gat­hers where two or three be­lie­vers meet in Je­sus’ name (Matt. 18:20). For each in­di­vi­du­al Chris­ti­an, the home Zion is the most im­por­tant link to the cong­re­ga­ti­on. The child­ren of God in the home Zion know each ot­her and are ab­le to help and sup­port each ot­her in their en­de­a­vor in faith. Je­sus ad­vi­sed eve­ry­bo­dy to be obe­dient to what the Spi­rit spe­aks in the cong­re­ga­ti­ons (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29).

In­ter­nal and ex­ter­nal ap­pe­a­ran­ce of God’s cong­re­ga­ti­on

God’s cong­re­ga­ti­on is not a tem­po­ral ins­ti­tu­ti­on or as­so­ci­a­ti­on but fel­lows­hip in faith with Christ and ot­her be­lie­vers. The cong­re­ga­ti­on can­not be seen and per­cei­ved out­ward­ly to be the cong­re­ga­ti­on of God (Luke 17:20–21; Matt. 11:27; John 16:1–3). Nor can the pre­sen­ce of the cong­re­ga­ti­on be stu­died scien­ti­fi­cal­ly or per­cei­ved by the ey­es or by ra­ti­o­nal de­duc tion. (1 Cor. 1:18–24). Je­sus, ho­we­ver, re­min­ded us: ”By this eve­ry­o­ne will know that you are my dis­cip­les, if you love one anot­her” (John 13:35).

Ac­cor­ding to the Augs­burg Con­fes­si­on, God’s cong­re­ga­ti­on is a com­mu­ni­ty of be­lie­vers where the gos­pel is pre­ac­hed pu­re­ly and the sac­ra­ments are ad­mi­nis­te­red cor­rect­ly. The cong­re­ga­ti­on con­sists of be­lie­ving pe­op­le, in whom the Holy Spi­rit li­ves and acts. The cong­re­ga­ti­on is the hou­se of God among pe­op­le (Rev. 21:3). Life wit­hin God’s cong­re­ga­ti­on gi­ves a won­der­ful joy and pe­a­ce in­to the be­lie­ving per­son’s he­art, which he wants to keep (Phil. 4:7).

God sees in­to man’s he­art

If a per­son does not be­lie­ve in Christ, he will not be sa­ved by me­re­ly fol­lo­wing the cong­re­ga­ti­on. When a per­son gi­ves up faith, he al­so lo­ses the li­ving con­nec­ti­on with the cong­re­ga­ti­on, even if he may still fol­low it out­ward­ly.

Ac­cor­ding to God’s word, there are al­so pe­op­le wit­hout li­ving faith amongst the cong­re­ga­ti­on. Je­sus spoke about such pe­op­le in his pa­rab­le of the ten vir­gins (Matt. 25:1–13), wheat and ta­res (Matt. 13:24–30, 36–43) and the dead fish caught in the fis­hing net (Matt. 13:47–50). It is not al­wa­ys pos­sib­le for us to see that a per­son lacks faith, but God sees in­to eve­ry­o­ne’s he­art.

Je­sus said that he is the vine and be­lie­vers are its branc­hes (John 15:1–10). If the li­ving con­nec­ti­on with Je­sus bre­aks, the branch dries up, and God cuts it off from the vine. Rat­her than cut­ting off a dry branch, ho­we­ver, God pru­nes and nur­tu­res it. He is pa­tient and waits “for yet anot­her ye­ar” to see if there are fruits of faith (Luke 13:6–9). He lo­ves even those who have lost their faith and ex­horts them to re­pen­tan­ce (Rev. 3:1–3). Still, the time of grace and wai­ting is li­mi­ted.

To keep faith and pe­a­ce with God, the be­lie­ver needs to hear the gos­pel and the proc­la­ma­ti­on of the for­gi­ve­ness of sins. The pro­mi­ses of God’s word en­cou­ra­ge us to be­lie­ve and to tra­vel with our es­corts in God’s cong­re­ga­ti­on. Christ him­self is with his be­lie­vers and does not want to aban­don even the we­a­kest child of God. One day God’s cong­re­ga­ti­on shall re­joi­ce and prai­se God in he­a­ven (Rev. 7:13–17).

Text: Mat­ti Han­hi­su­an­to

Pub­lis­hed: SRK Ye­ar­book 2012

Trans­la­ti­on: S.-L. L.

Jul­kais­tu eng­lan­nin­kie­li­ses­sä kie­li­lii­tees­sä 4/2014