The Church and Its Healing Nature

If the question ‘What is the church?’ were posed to an audience, Christian or not, we would encounter an enormous variety of answers. For Christians, it is not merely the sanctuary or temple, but rather that which gives it a sacred character as the body of Christ: a spiritual house in which the believer assumes an active role and contributes spiritually to building it up while also building himself up by serving God according to the gift he has received. We are not simply a community of believers, but a community of believers in Christ Jesus, and this is what makes the church a distinct living organism that transcends its own boundaries and makes us, its members, special before God. Jesus is the essence of the church, and his model of life is the Christian’s principal source of inspiration. The church points beyond itself to Christ, who built it and is the axis around which the life of everyone who believes in him revolves.

Everything the church does inwardly and outwardly is sustained by God’s activity in his Son Jesus Christ. The church is a great repository of God’s grace, and as you and I know, God’s grace is inexhaustible. That is why it is the sanatorium par excellence for restoring the souls of those who have no hope, satisfying the spiritual hunger and thirst for knowledge of those redeemed by Christ, and carrying the message of salvation to a world shattered by sin and depravity, with the sole purpose of glorifying God.

I want to pause and consider the church’s enormous responsibility to minister inner healing to its members, to be the hospital that spiritually restores those affected by situations in their lives that result from destructive feelings and experiences and that have generated resentment, depression, jealousy, envy, self-destruction, bitterness, sadness, fear, and many other things that weigh down life and steal the peace of the spirit and the joy that comes from the Lord.

They are the victims of sin, bearers of wounds that do not heal because they arise from the pain of the world and because they have not realized that the nature of the church is irrevocably shaped by the life and teachings of its Lord. And it is here that the church of Christ, by its nature and by decree of its founder, glorifies God by extending a friendly and compassionate hand to them, teaching them to put love into practice and exercise forgiveness, and thus to seek and find inner peace through the gospel of redemption. If you have been born again and are tormented by these feelings, I invite you to find in the church—that is, in the Christian community of faith—the therapeutic means for your spiritual healing. If we are not healed inwardly, it will be practically impossible to become true witnesses of Jesus Christ and fulfill the Great Commission entrusted to each one of us; you will not become a useful instrument for serving God.

How does the church heal? What method does God use to bring deliverance to his people? The gospel of Jesus Christ! Here lies the greatest power to tear down all the barriers of pain, put love into practice, exercise forgiveness, and cast out everything that binds us and everything that takes away our ability to find in Christ and in his beautiful bride, his church, the principal source of healing, light, and inner peace. God bless you!

Editorial note: If you would like to explore this reflection more deeply, we recommend studying Pastor Roberto Miranda’s sermon entitled ‘The Nature of the Church.’