The Doctrine of the Church

Part 1

“The church of the living God, the pillar and ground L of the truth … the household of God … built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone …” (1 Tim. 3:15 and Eph. 2:19, 20).

A pronounced characteristic of modern Christendom is its confused doctrine of the Church. This confusion reveals itself in extreme expressions of Protestant individualism, of Roman Catholic sacerdotalism, and of the “ecumenism” of councils of churches, extremes which often embody and “glorify” the visible differences between communions. Any extreme tends to be harmful, of course. In the case of the Church, the above mentioned extremes tend to diminish both the New Testament fellowship described as “filled with the Holy Ghost … [and] of one heart and of one soul …” (Acts 4:31, 32) and the New Testament task of witness to the Gospel commanded by Christ, even to “the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

What is being taught about the Church that would diminish its nature and mission? In the first place there are those who describe the Church as just another man-made social organization, a loosely-bound group of like-minded individuals. They feel the Church has social relevance only as individual members give it import and meaning. The most commonly accepted but no less erroneous modern teaching sees the Church as an invisible entity (an abstract divine ideal) toward which Christians strive. Then there are those who describe the Church in such strictly mechanistic or authoritarian terms that they seem at times even to presume on the prerogative of the Holy Spirit.

What shall we say to these trends? The Roman Catholic extreme is best referred to the Holy Spirit, while non-Roman Christians universally proclaim and teach a strong apostolic doctrine and fellowship. Let us turn our attention rather to the extreme teaching that Christendom sprang from the post-Ascension era to modern Protestantism full-blown. This concept shows little concern for the New Testament Church and for the subsequent glorious history of Holy Spiritled martyrs, apostolic fathers, and bold bishops who changed the course of human history. Perhaps the basic reason for Protestant confusion is the lack of real concern about any doctrine of the Church. Such ecclesiastical deprivation can be remedied only by careful and thorough inquiry into the Holy Scriptures under the tutelage of St. Paul, the Church’s greatest theologian, missionary and pastor. From such study the following descriptions of the Church will be obvious:

1. The Church is the special community of believers in Christ who through faith in him and by baptism into him through the Holy Spirit are made one with Christ and with each other. Indeed, “the promise [‘Ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost’ at baptism] is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts 2:38, 39). St. Paul describes this fellowship of the Holy Spirit as “the church of the living God” (1 Tim. 3:15), the outward manifestation of the special individual and social relationship of those in Christ. “He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ—He gave us the very life of Christ Himself …” (Eph. 2:5, Amplified New Testament).

A Unique Institution

This special community of the redeemed in Christ is a unique institution, for it is composed of those who, through God’s saving grace in Christ, have experienced both reconciliation with. God and enfranchisement within the redemptive fellowship. Thus they are “no [longer] strangers … but fellow citizens with the saints …” (Eph. 2:19). As “God’s own people … we are joined together harmoniously … in Him—and in fellowship with one another” (Eph. 2:21, 22, ANT). An evidence of the deep concerns of the early Church is the active healing and confessional ministry recorded by St. James (Jas. 5:13–15).

2. The Church is also the visible society in time of those living (abiding—see John 15) in Jesus Christ, nourished and sustained by the Holy Spirit. Members of the Apostolic Church are “called of Jesus Christ … to be saints … (Rom. 1:6). It was this sense of personal invitation and close identity of the Church with Christ (called his “bride” by the writer of the Revelation 21:9; 22:17) which led John Calvin to observe, “St. Paul calls Christ the Church.” This is indeed an accurate observation of fact. It is erroneous to say that the disciples formed the Church to perpetuate the high ideals and lofty teachings of an unusual Master. Jesus Christ is the Church and unto himself he calls (invites and bids) and draws not only the Jewish disciple/apostles but also those “of the Gentiles … [who] shall be called the children of the living God” (Rom. 9:24, 26). It is the “church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood” (Acts 20:28).

Fellowship Foremost

Such a dynamic organism must be visible. Members as well as initiation and liturgical rites; formularies of faith, order and discipline; new Spirit-directed life; and missionary labor compose this Church visible. But first and foremost the Church is a fellowship of Christ’s men (Christians), a fellowship of his followers and of the brotherhood of which he is the Head. St. Paul reminds us that “He … is the head of the body, the [his] church;” in him “all things consist [are held together]” (Col. 1:18, 17); God “hath put all things under his feet and gave [appointed] him to be the head over … the church” (Eph. 1:22).

Among the many essays submitted to CHRISTIANITY TODAY, this exposition of the doctrine of the Church is one of the most significant. Those who do not share its Episcopal orientation will be rewarded nonetheless by its firm reach for New Testament realities.

Further, the Church possesses the assurance of victory already won by Christ Jesus, eternal Saviour and King. Even the gates of hell “shall not prevail [hold out] against Christ’s Church (Matt. 16:18). The final, most glorious assurance of all is Christ’s promise of victory over death to believing and abiding Christians because of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. St. Paul thus sings the Church’s triumph song: “Death is swallowed up [utterly vanquished] in victory.… Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord …” (1 Cor. 15:54, 57, 58).

3. As the very “body of Christ” divinely established by God in Christ, the Church is commissioned to fulfill his mission under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is the absolute minimum description of St. Paul’s doctrine of the Church (see the Apostle’s great teaching in Romans 7, Ephesians 3, 4 and 5, and 1 Corinthians 12, as well as that of Philippians 3 and Colossians 1). The New Testament Church considered itself the continuing instrument of God’s purpose and plan begun in Christ and now evidenced within its “new life” fellowship and witness. God intends “the perfecting of the saints [all baptized and abiding Christians] … for the edifying [the building up] of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith” (Eph. 4:12, 13). “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus …” (Eph. 2:10). It is from the mighty acts of God in Christ (incarnation, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension) that the Church derives its true life and its dynamic proclamation and missionary witness. In a brilliant autobiographical passage St. Paul describes the common apostolic stewardship: “… who now rejoice in my sufferings for his body’s sake, which is the church …” (Col. 1:24).

4. The Church is both a universal and a local entity, “his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Eph. 1:23). The apostles established each local unit to be a reproduction, a microcosm, of the “one body” “established in the faith” and “confirmed” (strengthened and disciplined) by the apostles as they on their visits delivered “the decrees … that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem” (Acts 15:41; 16:4, 5). St. Paul seems to know nothing of the modern anomaly of “solitary Christians.” Fie counsels Christians, “… brethren, become followers [imitators] of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus …” (1 Thess. 2:14). The Apostle cautions individualists: “Do not let yourselves be [hindrances by giving] offense … to the church of God” (1 Cor. 10:32). It is obvious from the pastoral letters of St. Paul that he considered his apostolic-episcopal office as Spirit-inspired authority within the body of Christ, the Church. This is a far cry from modern individualism which resents any external authority in faith or morals, even if it proceeds from the Church, directed by the Holy Spirit himself.

5. The Church is both an institution and a doctrine. It is “the household of God … built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone” (Eph. 2:19, 20), an organic institution entrusted by Christ with the mission of witnessing to the Gospel and of converting the world under the direction of the indwelling Holy Spirit. The institution is comprised of all baptized Christians who, through Christ, “have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Eph. 2:18). The doctrine of the Church is best outlined by St. Paul (“I speak concerning Christ and the church”) in his letter to the church at Ephesus (5:23–32):

a. “Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body” (v. 23).

b. “Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water [baptism] by the word” (vv. 25, 26), “That he might present it to himself a glorious church … holy and without blemish” (v. 27).

c. “The church is subject unto Christ …” (v. 24).

d. Christ “nourisheth and cherisheth … the church” (v. 29).

e. “… we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones” (v. 30).

In chapter 4 of his Epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul pinpoints the divine work of Christ’s Church as the attainment of “the measure of the stature and the fulness of Christ … [and] speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: from whom the whole body [the church] fitly joined together … maketh increase of the body into the edifying of itself in love” (Eph. 4:13, 15, 16). Further, the essential unity of the Church is the person of Jesus Christ. The acknowledgment and confession of our One Lord, Jesus Christ, “Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16), the Christian’s Saviour, King and Lord of life, bring in “the dispensation of the fulness of time … [that] he might gather together in one all things in Christ” (Eph. 1:10). “For we [no matter how numerous we are] are one … body: for we are all partakers of that one bread [the communion of the body of Christ]” (1 Cor. 10:17).

Because Christians have unity in Christ both the rule and peace of God are acceptable “to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful” (Col. 3:15). Such an historic view of the Church needs to be recovered by the contemporary but no less special society of the redeemed in Christ, his “One Body,” that Body of which he is indeed the head and organic unity. The closer we come to the New Testament doctrine of the Church as a divine, Spirit-directed fellowship in Christ, the more apparent will be the unity we seek.

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