The foundation of any true church is the faithful proclamation of the gospel from the Word of God (2 Timothy 4:2–5). Without this foundation, you do not have a church—that is to say, you may have a gathering of faithful attendees every Sunday morning, but they do not constitute a church. A church, as Mark Dever writes, “arises only from the gospel” (Dever 2012, The Church, x). There is no other foundation for a church but Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 3:11; 2:1–5).
The gospel is the good news that God, out of love for the world (John 3:16), has given us Christ to lift the curse of death that has bound humanity since the Fall (Romans 5:12). Unable to escape spiritual, physical, and eternal death, man finds in Christ—through His atoning sacrifice—the hope of life (Romans 6:23; 1 John 4:10).
Christ lived a perfectly righteous life, demonstrating power over sin; He died, bearing our punishment (Isaiah 53:5–6); and on the third day, He rose, conquering death and offering eternal life to all who believe in Him (1 Corinthians 15:3–4; John 11:25–26).
This idea of the gospel as the foundation of a building is not to suggest that we begin with the gospel on the first level and then move on to other things as we build higher (Galatians 3:3). That would be a mistake. The image serves only to illustrate that a church built on any foundation other than the gospel is not a church. Such a church is not the work of Christ, who ultimately is the one who builds His churches (Matthew 16:18).
As each member of a local church participates in its building up, it is vital to understand that in this task, we begin and end with the gospel (Colossians 1:22–23). God has ordained that the gospel should stand at the centre of the church and permeate everything we do. He has appointed that His chosen people be saved and sanctified through the faithful proclamation of the gospel—in both word and deed (Colossians 3:16–17).
In a healthy local church, the gospel is not only proclaimed to save the lost but also to sanctify the saved. It is not only taught and learned but also lived out by its members (Philippians 1:27). They are equipped by their leaders to embody the gospel they’ve received and to carry out the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:12). Its members love, teach, encourage, and disciple one another—and they evangelize the world. A church like this understands that they are, as Mark Dever puts it, “the gospel made visible” (Dever 2012, The Church, xi). They are the tangible display of Christ’s accomplishments on the cross.
I have had the pleasure of working for Tommie van der Walt here at Imprint, and much of what I know about the church I’ve learned through his discipleship. He is, as many who
know him would attest, a man who deeply loves the church. He has fittingly described the gospel as the church’s DNA. “Change the DNA,” he says, “and you change the very nature and purpose of the church. When the gospel is removed or misapplied—in the preaching of Scripture, the praying of Scripture, the reading of Scripture, the singing of Scripture, the waters of baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and in membership and discipleship—the church’s DNA is altered.” An unhealthy church, therefore, often reveals either a distorted gospel or an insufficient supply of it. For a church to become healthy and God-honouring, it must be nourished by a rich and faithful supply of the gospel. And the most foundational instrument for this nourishment in the local church is the preaching and teaching of the Word of God (Dever 2013, 9 Marks of a Healthy Church, 42).
The Word, rightly taught and applied, is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17). It builds up the church and guides its members in obedience. If we do not use the Word as it is meant to be used—to preach the gospel—but instead use it to preach prosperity, legalism, self-help, ideologies, or to tell irrelevant stories, as many do, then we are not serving God’s redemptive purpose but standing in opposition to it. The Scriptures must be used as Christ used them: “He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27). This is what saves and sanctifies the people in our local churches (John 17:17; Acts 20:32).
True faith comes from hearing the good news about Christ’s work on the cross, says the Apostle Paul (Romans 10:17). This good news is God’s power for saving everyone who believes (Romans 1:16). In salvation, God performs a unique work in a person’s life: through regeneration, they are made a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17); their sins are wiped away (Acts 3:19); they are justified in Christ before God (Romans 5:1); and they are adopted into the family of God—the universal and local church (Galatians 4:4–7).
This is why understanding church membership matters. Too many people think of salvation as merely personal—just getting to heaven and avoiding hell. But we are not saved in isolation; we are saved into a family. The invisible realities of salvation are symbolically declared in the ordinances, as well as in church membership (Jamieson 2016, Understanding Baptism, 6).
The church exists, like all things, for the eternal purpose of God (Dever 2012, The Church, x). Indeed, it lies at the very centre of God’s purpose (Ephesians 3:10–11). It is not His afterthought or an accident of history. He has chosen, of His own accord, to build it—and He has chosen the gospel to be the means by which it is built (Matthew 16:18).
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