Are we people of a sect or of the gospel?

In practice, evangelicals have often tended to be individualists in their faith. But our understanding of what it is to be truly evangelical should be taken not from evangelical practice but from the evangel.

Evangelicals are people who have been born again, but to be born again is to be born or baptised into Christ (Rom. 6v3; Gal. 3v27). From the moment of our regeneration, we are part of a bigger whole, the body of Christ (Rom. 12v5; 1 Cor. 12v13).

This means that, as J.I. Packer noted, an important part of our new life in the Spirit is our fellowship in the body of Christ. But for that fellowship to be truly evangelical, it must be the evangel that brings the unity, and not any other agenda or identity. The apostle Paul wrote to the Gentiles in Ephesus of how Jews and Gentiles are brought together in Christ: Christ Jesus is the cornerstone of the fellowship, and His teaching the foundation of its unity (2v14-20). And so it must be for those who have no boast except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. 6v14): there can be no second class and no segregation in Christ’s church.