My Church is Better Than Yours

On Sunday at ASBC, I started John 3. I’ve been preaching through John’s gospel since October, and I’m still only to Chapter 3.

That’s funny, but working through it slowly really does produce more fruit. Here at the beginning, John has made human depravity very clear to his audience. Jesus would not entrust Himself to the people who believed in Him because He knew what was in them. He knew every intent of the human heart was only wicked all the time according to Genesis 6. At the beginning of Chapter 3, John very clearly states that no one has the ability to see the kingdom of heaven unless he is born again. We can’t determine who will be born again. The Spirit moves according to the Spirit’s will to cause this rebirth before John ever begins talking about human belief or confession.

This essential depravity of man is the most basic concept of the Gospel message followed closely by the fact that if I’m going to be saved, God must do it wholly because I don’t have the ability to see the kingdom of heaven.

I made this specific application on Sunday morning. Because I believe no one can see the kingdom of heaven with his natural eyes and God must do all the saving in a monergistic way, I must believe God can save anyone. He can save people who even believe differently and hold a different confession than I do because He is literally all powerful and sovereign. He can save Baptists, Methodists, Anglicans, Catholics, Muslims, Hindus, and Atheists according to His will by causing them to be born again of the Spirit rather than of the flesh.

As I am scrolling social media over the last several weeks, I notice a lot of arguments about which denomination or which church is the best. Catholics think they are the only church. They claim to have given the bible and have descended directly from the apostles. While everyone else is trying to follow the Bible, the Catholics are out there claiming that the Bible is based in the Catholic Church. It’s easy to pick them out because they are being so loud at the moment, but I get to thinking about all the things different denominations claim while they are trying to be better than others. To focus in a little more, there are all the things different local churches will claim and do to try showing they are better than others local churches. In the same vein, preachers and pastors will make claims and do things while trying to show it is better to listen to them and attend their services than it is to listen to the preacher down the street and attend his church. I’m reminded of about James and John arguing as to who was the greatest, asking Jesus to seat them at his right and left. Only Jesus could go to the cross. He had to go alone. The Pope didn’t die to save us. Mary didn’t die to save us. Peter didn’t die to save us. Pastor Jim didn’t die to save us. Only Jesus did that. Only the Holy Spirit can cause anyone to be born again.

If my religion or participation in church can’t get me close to God. I am humbled. No matter my religion, I am no better or closer to God than any other person. Woe to me if I think I am closer or my church can get people closer to God. Unless someone is born again, he can’t even see the kingdom of heaven. I hope you will take a moment and go listen to those two sermons. You can find them at alexsbc.church, on any podcasting platform, and YouTube. I’ll include them in the blog here as well:

Just by the basic biblical doctrines of our depravity and need for regeneration before we can have faith, we must conclude that no church, denomination, or even religion is any better than any other because no matter their sincerity, ritual, or outward actions no religion can get us close to God. We must be born again. Only the Spirit can do that according to His determination, not ours. When we debate who is better or relentlessly try to constantly convert one another to our own points of view as if we sit closer to Jesus than anyone else, I fear Jesus responds to us like He did to His own disciples following the shame of James and John.

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them. It is not this way among you, but whoever withes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:25b-28).

Jesus consistently gave this instruction. We too often respond to Jesus’s instruction by continuing to argue about who is better, more intelligent, more apostolic, more biblical, more entertaining, and more ritualistically clean. It’s like we have missed the whole point of the gospel. If we really wanted to be apostolic, we would serve one another rather than try to appear superior. Not even Jesus did what we are doing. Here we see all of our Christian denominations trying to convert one another and argue over legitimacy and all the while ignoring Christ’s very plain words. Jesus came to serve, not lord His authority over people like the unbelievers did. Jesus actually had authority. He instructed the apostles to become servants rather than leaders or heads or popes. If we are going to have ministries like them, to be God-honoring local churches, our lives and our interactions with one another must be about service, not proving our superiority. After all, none of us can see the way to the kingdom of heaven with our natural eyes. Only Jesus has been there. Only He can deliver us. Only the Spirit can cause us to be born again.

My local church is not better than yours. My religion is not better than yours. Yours is not better than mine. God must save us all in Christ according to His will. Our religious works will never bring us close to God. Our spiritual disciplines cannot prepare the way before us. The sacraments will not actually maintain or increase our status. Nicodemus fell into that trap, and Jesus criticized him for not even understanding worldly things. Only the Spirit can do that, and like the wind, we can’t determine where He comes from or where He is going.

Brothers and sisters, please humble yourselves. This “I’m better than you” sibling trisk is beneath us. Let’s be more like the beggar asking for mercy and less like the Pharisee thinking God that he is not like the beggar. Our pretend knowledge doesn’t matter. Our rituals and sacraments fall short of God’s glory. Let us come to Him sincerely with the nothing we have to offer. God is good. He is good to all His children even though we have nothing to give.