The Church: A Closer Look

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

Christ is the 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

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 one of another. In other words, since we are all a single unit what one member does affects the rest of the Body. We do not act alone in a vacuum.

During the High Priestly Prayer of John 17 in verses 21 and 22 Jesus twice prays that the Church would be one:

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

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 (His Church).

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 or socio-economic status, or segregates by race on Sunday morning, is it any wonder that the people of the world yawn at the idea of the One Universal Church?

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. We also noted that the Head - Christ - and the Body together are one. Scripture has still more to say about the oneness of the Body of Christ:

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds 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, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up 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 his mother and hold fast 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 to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism,one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in 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 no male and 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 I had overlooked so many times until it was pointed out to me a few years ago. 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 that is found in a detail that is easily overlooked. In Acts 2:40-47 we are told how the Church 'added to their number' 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 more than ever believers were 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!

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 shows us that the Church is the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is the called the cornerstone several times in Scripture - Psalm 118:22, Acts 4:11, 1 Peter 2:6, Ephesians 2:20. (We briefly looked at the meaning and function of a cornerstone in the previous article.) With this in mind look at verses 4 and 5 of 1 Peter 2:

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Just as Jesus is the Head of the Body of Christ, He is the Cornerstone of the Temple of the Holy Spirit. 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. As mentioned in Part I, the Apostles and Prophets make up the foundation of the Temple (Ephesians 2:20). Revelation 21:2 seems to mix the metaphors of the Bride of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit, describing it as an Eternal City called New Jerusalem:

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

I don't pretend to fully understand what this is saying, but it sounds pretty glorious! 

Finally, there is John 10:16:

So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

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. (See John 17 again.) 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! 

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