The church and its healing nature

When asked what is the church? pitched to an audience, Christian or not, we would find an enormous variety of responses. For Christians it is not only the sanctuary or temple, but rather what 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 edify it while edifying himself by serving. God according to the gift you have 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 different living organism that transcends its own borders and makes its members special before God. Jesus is the essence of the church and its model of life is the main source of Christian inspiration. The church points beyond itself to Christ, who built it and is the axis on which the life of those who believe in Him turns.

Everything that the church does inwardly and outwardly is based on the activity of God in his son Jesus Christ. The church is a great reservoir of God's grace, and as you and I know, God's grace is inexhaustible. That is why it is the sanitarium par excellence to restore the soul of those who have no hope, satisfy the spiritual hunger and knowledge of those redeemed by Christ and bring the message of salvation to a world torn apart by sin and depravity for the sole purpose to glorify God.

I want to dwell on the enormous responsibility of the church to minister inner healing to its members, to be the hospital to spiritually restore those people affected by situations in their lives that are a consequence of destructive feelings and experiences and that have generated resentment, depression, jealousy, envy, self-destruction, bitterness, sadness, fear and many others that destroy 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 come from the pain of the world and because they have not known that the nature of the church is irrevocably conditioned by the life and teachings of their Lord. And it is here where the church of Christ, by its nature and by decree of its founder, glorifies God by reaching out to him a friendly and pious hand, teaches him to apply love and exercise forgiveness and thus seek and find inner peace through 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 community of faith of Christians, the therapeutic means for your spiritual healing. If we are not healed internally, it will be practically impossible to become a true witness of Jesus Christ and fulfill the Great Commission entrusted to each one of us, it will not become a useful instrument to serve God.

How does the church heal? What is the method used by God to bring deliverance to his people? The gospel of Jesus Christ! Herein lies the greatest force to break down all the barriers of pain, apply love, exercise forgiveness and cast out everything that binds us and what removes our ability to find in Christ and in his beautiful bride, his church, the main source of healing, light and inner peace. God bless you!

Editorial Note: If you want to deepen this reflection, we recommend that you study Pastor Roberto Miranda's sermon entitled " The nature of the Church ".