Are we people of a sect or of the gospel?

In practice, evangelicals have often tended to be individualists in their faith. But our understanding of what it is to be truly evangelical should be taken not from evangelical practice but from the evangel.

Evangelicals are people who have been born again, but to be born again is to be born or baptised into Christ (Rom. 6v3; Gal. 3v27). From the moment of our regeneration, we are part of a bigger whole, the body of Christ (Rom. 12v5; 1 Cor. 12v13).

This means that, as J.I. Packer noted, an important part of our new life in the Spirit is our fellowship in the body of Christ. But for that fellowship to be truly evangelical, it must be the evangel that brings the unity, and not any other agenda or identity. The apostle Paul wrote to the Gentiles in Ephesus of how Jews and Gentiles are brought together in Christ: Christ Jesus is the cornerstone of the fellowship, and His teaching the foundation of its unity (2v14-20). And so it must be for those who have no boast except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. 6v14): there can be no second class and no segregation in Christ’s church.

This is not easy or natural for us, since we all come into the church with our own particular cultural identity, an identity we easily confuse with the gospel. And so the church can appear to be just another club defined by ethnicity or class or politics. But, as Conrad Mbewe writes: “We must never limit our church’s membership to one tribe or one ethnic group.” To the extent that our church is defined by such identities, it is not evangelical.

So, just as evangelicals will fight their own individual sin as they keep in step with the Spirit, so we must fight the collective sin of allowing anything but the gospel to be the cause of our unity. We must live out the truth that all who are born again are one in Christ Jesus, and one only in Christ Jesus, not by any other identity (Gal.3v27-28). Only then do we testify that the gospel gives us hope for bringing Jew and Gentile, male and female, black and white, rich and poor, all together into the loving household of God.

Paul calls the Roman Christians to be gospel people: amid their differences (12v3-8), they are to “love one another with brotherly affection” (12v10; also 12v13-21; 13v8-14). Paul recognises that while they share a common gospel, they will differ over a number of other matters (e.g., what to eat and special days), and he asks them not to judge or grieve each other over such matters (chapter 14).

What is striking is the complete difference of tone to Galatians 1, where Paul sees the Galatians turning to “a different gospel” (v6). For Paul, to change the gospel is intolerable (v8). But in Romans 14, it is not the gospel that is the cause of disagreement. The gospel is not a matter over which we can cheerfully diverge. Yet the people of the gospel, while never turning from the gospel itself, should clearly exercise some latitude over many other issues over which Christians differ. In fact, they should actively “watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles” (16v17). That is what it means to be people of the gospel rather than people of a party.

Similar notes can be heard in 1 Corinthians. To a highly tribal church riven by the cries of “I follow Paul” or “I follow Apollos” or “I follow Cephas” or “I follow Christ” (1v12), Paul calls for unity in Christ alone and the word of the cross (1v13-31). While the gospel must never be compromised by our actions (chapters 5–6) or our beliefs (chapter 15), Paul calls for a unity found in the gospel (11v17–14v40) that does not depend on complete agreement on all things (chapter 8). In that way we prove that we are not of a sect, but of the gospel.