The Pope and You

Pope Benedict XVI has burst upon the American scene with aplomb befitting the visible head of the Roman Catholic Church and Head of State. While evangelical Protestants will never find agreement with Catholicism with its multiple authorities beyond Scripture, the moral influence and common values of pressing issues such as sanctity of life are sincerely welcomed.

A papal visit always recalls an interesting discussion I learned of many years ago when I was pastoring a local church. A parent told me of overhearing her young daughter debating the various merits of her religious beliefs with a young Catholic friend. Things seemed about even until the kids trotted out their biggest guns. The Catholic youngster, in a presumed verbal coup, fired away saying, "But we have the Pope."

The young Protestant was a bit bewildered not having gotten into the intricacies of denominational differences at her young age. "What does that mean?" she asked. "That means he is the Vicar of Christ on the earth." "Vicar? What does that mean?" "That means that he is the personal representative of Christ on the earth." The other girl thought for a moment and then said, "But so am I!" The conversation ended in something of a misty draw as the kids pondered heavy doctrine around with immature minds.

The Protestant girl evidently had been to church enough to understand the unique relationship with Christ that anyone has who has received Him as Savior. Although not articulating the particulars or fleshing out the full impact of New Testament teaching, she was reflecting a basic truth. The Apostle Paul said in Colossians 1:27, "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory…"

Individual representation is universal in the born again family as 2 Corinthians 5:20 says. "Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God."

The indwelling Christ is the centerpiece of New Testament Christianity. The Apostle John focused this truth in 1 John 5:11-13. "And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God."

Peter, assumed to be the first pope by many Catholics, extended the best of personal redemptive relationship to every believer saying, "Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust" (2 Peter 1:1-4).

All believers are indeed the personal representatives of Christ on the earth. Let us never forget it, for we are as Paul declared an "epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart" (2 Cor. 3:2-3).

Dave Virkler