The Church: A Closer Look

The Bible says the Church is the Body of Christ. We already saw that Jesus founded His Church on the profession and proclamation that He is the Son of God who came in the flesh to this world. Christ is the Founder of the Church and He is also the Head of the Church:

Christ is head of the church - Ephesians 5:23

He is the head of the body, the church - Colossians 1:18

All true believers are members of His body and together head and body make up a single entity:

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. - 1 Corinthians 12:27 (ESV)

More explanation is provided:

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. - 1 Corinthians 12:12 (NIV)

All the members of the body together with the head form as it were a single organism. The Head and Body are one. In terms of Godhead the body cannot be compared at all to the Second member of the Holy Trinity, but in terms of the Spiritual Body of Christ the Head and Body are bound together as unit.

Different members of the body have different roles to play - different giftings and callings - but if we miss this inherent oneness of the Body then we are missing the essence of what the Body of Christ is. 

In Ephesians 4:25 we are told that we are members of one another. In other words, since we are all a single entity, what one member does affects everybody else in the Body. As Christians, we do not act alone in a vacuum.

During the High Priestly Prayer of John 17 Jesus three times prays that the Church would be one (verses 20-24):

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. 

Jesus twice states that the result of true Christian unity is that the world will know the Father has sent Him.

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity teaches that there is One God in Three Persons - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Three yet One. Jesus appeals to His oneness with the Father to as a parallel to the oneness that is to exist in the Body of Christ.

Jesus also says twice that the more the Church manifests the oneness for which He prays, the more the world will recognize that His Body is present (in the form of the Church). When the Body of Christ divides itself into hundreds of denominations, separates according to nationality, socio-economic status, or race, we are not manifesting oneness in the least. The world yawns. 

Thus far we have used two illustration to emphasize the oneness of the Body of Christ. We looked at a human body having many members that together form one body. And we saw how Jesus used the oneness of the Godhead (the Trinity) to talk about the oneness of the Body of Christ (together with Jesus the Head). Scripture has still more to say about the oneness of the Body of Christ:

And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!  Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.”  And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. - Revelation 19:6-8

Throughout the Book of Revelation the Lamb is used as a symbol for Jesus Christ. This symbolism derives from the Passover Lamb which God commanded Israelite families to kill and eat during their exodus from Egypt (see Exodus 12). The white garments the Bride is wearing identify her as the Church. Revelation associates white garments with the Church nine times (see Revelation 3:4, for example). The white garments represent holiness, salvation, and righteousness:

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD;
my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

The jewels of the bride indicate reward, a subject to which we shall return at a later time. For now the point is that Jesus calls the Church His Bride. The Apostle Paul uses the love that a man has for his wife as an analogy for the love that Christ has for His Church, using a feminine pronoun to describe the Church:

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her... - Ephesians 5:25

The Bible defines the marriage bond between man and wife very early on, just after the creation of the world and of mankind:

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. - Genesis 2:24

The spiritual, emotional and physical bond that is created between a bride and groom when they come together in sexual union - this is the picture we are given to describe the relational intimacy that Christ desires to cultivate with His Bride, the Church.

This is a primary reason that Satan has so attacked and undermined the Biblical definition of marriage, he wants to mar and undermine the analogy the Word of God has given us to illustrate the relationship between the Bride and Bridegroom (the Church and Christ). 

Here are a couple more verses to chew on:

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. - Ephesians 4:4-6

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. - Galatians 3:27-28

Let us now turn to the Book of Acts to see a detail that is easily overlooked. In 1 Corinthians 15:9 Paul says that he persecuted the Church. But notice what the risen Lord Jesus said to Saul (Paul's pre-Christian name) on the road to Damascus:

"Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" - Acts 9:4

So did Paul persecute the Church? Or did he persecute Jesus? That's our take-away - to persecute the Church is to persecute Christ. Why? Because we are His Body and He is our Head. Whenever the Church is persecuted and is suffering here on the earth, Jesus is present among His beloved people and suffering along with them. He never leaves us and He never forsakes us (Hebrews 13:5)!

Here is another example from Scripture along the same line - easy to overlook but telling once revealed. In Acts 2:40-47 we are told how the Church added to their number (NIV) everyday as Peter and company preached, taught, broke bread (took communion) and baptized. What is meant here is that these new believers were being added to the Church. A little later in Acts 5:14, and then again in Acts 11:24, a similar phrase is used but with a subtle difference. I believe this detail was put there intentionally by the Holy Spirit to illustrate precisely what we have been looking at here:

And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women

And:

And a great many people were added to the Lord.

Hopefully by now the point will be clear - to add to the Church is to add to the Lord, and to add to the Lord is to add to the Church. These are two ways of saying the same thing!

We are one with Him and one with each other. We really need to take this to heart! 

As we conclude this section, let us briefly look at three more illustrations straight from the pages of Scripture. The first is from John 15:5:

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

To abide in Christ is to live the Christian life with Christ as the source. It is to remain connected to and dependent upon the Lord Jesus - to be one with Him. There is One Vine and through Him the many branches bear fruit. 

1 Peter 2:4-5 shows us that the Church is the Temple of the Holy Spirit:

Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Just as the Body of Christ has many members that form one body, so too is the Temple of the Holy Spirit (the Church) made up of many living stones forming one temple. 

Finally, there is John 10:16:

…and there will be one flock and one shepherd.

Again hopefully the analogy will be obvious - one flock comprised of many sheep with one Shepherd as its Head. 

Since the Bible has so much to say about the oneness of the Body of Christ we would do well to meditate on this oneness and to pray for unity in the Church. A good place to start is by making Jesus' prayer in John 17 our prayer.  

Father, may we in the Body of Christ be one just as You and the Son are one. Help us to abide in Christ and to be made perfect into one, that the world may know You have sent your Son and that you love the Church like you love your Son. May the love that you have for your Son Father be in us, the Church. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. 

The more we become one as a body of believers the more we will incarnate the Living Savior in a world full of lost and dying souls. May the Lord grant us revelation to see who we are as the Body of Christ! 

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