- The Apostles Creed
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I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of saints.
At this point the Apostles’ Creed turns its attention from the nature of God and the gospel to the people who are created as a result of the gospel—the church. Humans are relational creatures. We’re made for community. Before sin entered the world, the first thing in all creation that God deemed “not good” was “that the man should be alone” (see Genesis 2:18). After all, we’re created in the image of a triune God: Father, Son, and Spirit (see Genesis 1:26-27). God enjoys community within Himself.
While it may seem popular to believe you can be a Christian without being committed to a local church, that idea is absolutely foreign to biblical Christianity, today and throughout church history. Equally unfounded is the attempt to say you can belong to the universal church but not to a local church.
Because we’ve been made in the image of God, we’re more valuable than the rest of the created order. God desires to commune with us as His people. The tangible presence of God is most often revealed in the communion of the saints. It is God’s good design that we belong to a local church, not that we go to one. There’s an important difference. God has invited you into something greater—new relationships, new community, and new life as His church.”
How can you put these beliefs into action in your life? What do these truths mean for your relationship with a local church?
In Christ,
Pastor Phil