the Fourth Week after Easter
Daily Devotionals
Grace for Today
Matthew 16:18
‘My church’
Read Psalms 102:1-28
What is the Church? The church is not a material building. The church is not a particular denomination of believers. The church is not a particular, individual congregation of believers. And the church is not a combination of all the various churches and denominations of the world. The church of our Lord Jesus Christ is made up of all true believers throughout all ages, both in heaven and upon the earth. It includes all who have repented of sin and fled to Christ by faith and have been made new creatures in him by the grace of God. All who are truly saved by the grace of God, washed in the blood of Christ, clothed in the righteousness of Christ and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit are in the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the body of Christ. This is the bride of Christ. This is the whole family of God, whose names are written in heaven. The members of this church all come to the throne of grace. They all worship with one heart. They are all children of the same Father, members of the same family and heirs of the same promises. This is the church that is in Christ and the church in which Christ dwells. This is what Paul says, concerning all true believers and the one true church of our Lord Jesus Christ: ‘Ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant’ (Hebrews 12:22-24)
This is the church which Christ loved, the church he came to save, the church he purchased with his own blood, the church of which he is the Head, the church which he rules and governs all things. This is the church which the Lord Jesus Christ shall present before his Father in glory. ‘Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish’ (Ephesians 5:25-27).
