True Catholicity
Lord's Day Exhortation
We confess with the Nicene Creed that the church of our Lord Jesus Christ is one.
As the Apostle Paul wrote, there is “one body and Spirit,” just as there is also one hope, “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all” (Eph. 4:4–6). Likewise, in what is called our Lord’s High Priestly prayer, Jesus asked the Father that all who believe in Him would be one, just as He and the Father are (Jn. 17:20–21). And we have every reason to believe that Christ’s prayers are answered.
But if this is really true, if the church is one, how should we understand the divisions we see today?
In the house of Christendom, we have the big divisions like Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox. In our own Protestant hallway, you’ll find dozens of denominations in different rooms with all sorts of differences, and in our most excellent Reformed room, we all hold to the same basic Confessions and still can’t get along. Where exactly is the oneness in all of this?
First, we confess the church is one by faith, and not simply by sight. Despite our very real and important differences, true Christians are united by a simple and fundamental faith in Christ and His gospel. And we are not only united by our common faith, but by Christ Himself, who is the head of the church, His Body (Col. 1:18). Christ is the source of our unity, and it is a very real one grounded in Him.
Second, we should not see the multiplication of local congregations or denominations as a necessary denial of unity. From the start in Jerusalem, the church began to meet in various locations under different leaders, and continued to spread to Judea, Samaria, and the regions beyond. In fact, the multiplication of local churches, and many of them, is part of God’s plan. As J.I. Packer once put it, every local congregation is “called to fulfill the role of being a microcosm of the church as a whole.”
And so as you look around this morning, see the one church of Christ in this room. And then when you drive home past other faithful churches in our town, and as you consider all of God’s people in our nation and throughout the world from many different traditions—see the church of Christ, one Body, united in Him.
This exhortation was given on October 12, AD 2025, at King’s Cross Church in Moscow, Idaho.