What is the Church?
Note the question carefully. It is not, Who belongs to the
Church, or How should the Church be structured, or What is the
role of the Church in the world? These and other related
questions are indeed important, but none can receive a
satisfactory answer unless we first understand what the Church
is.
A people called by God
“Church” comes from the German
kirche,
which in turn derives from the Greek
kyriakon, meaning
“of the Lord.”
However, in English translations of the New Testament, the
Greek word normally translated “church” is
ekklesia,
which combines the verb
kaleo, “to call,”
with the prefix
ek, meaning “from.” Paul
often speaks of “the church of God,” which sets this
group of people apart from secular gatherings and indicates
that the Church is a people created by and belonging to God.
Thus an initial answer to the question “What is the
Church?” is “a people who are called by God.”
Since the act of God in calling out his people and founding
the Church is mediated by Jesus Christ, we cannot understand
what the Church is without knowing who Jesus is. So we must
understand the person and work of Jesus Christ, fully God and
fully human, who became incarnate to restore the sin-ruptured
relationship between God and his human creation.
The connection between Christ and the Church is especially
visible in Ephesians and Colossians, in which statements about
the Church become statements about Christ, particularly as
this connection is expressed when the Church is called “the
body of Christ” (Eph. 1:22-23; 4:11-15; Col. 1:24; 3:15).
The body of Christ
To say that the Church is the body of Christ is to say that
it is not primarily an organization or institution but a
living organism, one made up of many parts that relate to and
depend on one another (I Cor. 12:12-27), all of which have
Jesus Christ as their head (Eph. 5:23; Col. 1:18) and depend
on him for their growth (Col. 2:19).
“Calling the church the body of Christ,” writes
Wolfhart Pannenberg, “is no mere metaphor nor is it just
one of the Biblical ways of depicting the nature of the
church. Instead, the realism of the inseparable union of
believers with Christ that finds expression in the idea of the
church as the body of Christ is basic to an understanding of
the church.”
Although “the body of Christ” describes the basic
character and nature of the Church, and although the body can
never be separated from Christ even though it must not be
confused with Christ, the body can at times act in ways that
are contrary to its nature. Consider, for example, the church
at Corinth which, within the lifetime of those who had walked
with the incarnate Jesus, was being pulled apart by its own
members.
Is Christ divided?
“Is Christ divided?” Paul asked the rapidly
factionalizing Corinthian Christians (I Cor. 1:13). His
question is rhetorical, requiring a negative answer. If Christ
is not divided, and if the Church is the body of Christ, can
the Church be divided? Again, the answer must be no.
The New Testament does not distinguish between congregation
(the body of Christians gathered at a specific place) and
Church (the totality of all Christians). The
ekklesia
is neither a secondary union of local congregations nor an
organizational sub-unit of the one true Church. Rather, both
the local assembly of Christians and the extended community of
believers are the
ekklesia.
This Biblical understanding of the Church as one body speaks
directly to a question causing great controversy today: Should
I (or we) leave this church?
One may, for a variety of reasons, leave a particular
congregation or denomination. (And that is usually the
question underlying discussions of “leaving the church.”)
Unfortunately, lack of precision concerning the meaning and
use of such words as “church,” “congregation,”
and “denomination” has resulted in much confusion on
this topic. Some have suggested that “leaving the church”
is schismatic, a tearing apart of the body of Christ, and
therefore sinful. However, if the Church is the body of
Christ, and if the body of Christ is indivisible, then leaving
the Church is not a sin but an oxymoron. For at no point in
the process of changing congregations or denominations does
one cease to be a member of the body of Christ.
All Christians at all times are members of one body (Rom.
12:4-5; I Cor. 12:27). Like the existence of individual
congregations, the existence of varied denominations does not
compromise that unity. The Church is not constituted by the
time, place or style of its worship. It is not defined by a
congregational, episcopal or presbyterian form of governance.
The Church is now what it always has been and eternally will
be: the people called by God, the body of Christ.
What is the Church?
As the called out people of God, the body of Christ, the
Church is first and foremost a theological – not
anthropological, sociological or political – entity.
Therefore the question “What is the Church?”
ultimately must be answered in terms of God and our divinely
initiated relationship with him.
The Church is the visible, earthly expression of the people
of God, whose true home is heaven. Since God’s call to
Abram there has been a people of God. Since Jesus’
resurrection the people of God have been the body of Christ.
Because it has been formed by God and forms a single society
with the citizens of heaven, the Church transcends history
while remaining concretely historical.
The Church is the whole communion of persons called by God
the Father to acknowledge the Lordship of his Son Jesus, in
word and sacrament, in witness and in service, and, through
the power of the Holy Spirit, to collaborate with Jesus’
mission for the sake of the Kingdom of God.
The Church is one, just as there is only one God, one faith,
one baptism, one hope. Individual congregations are in
communion among themselves because in Christ they are in
community with God.
These truths, which merely hint at the depth of the realities
they convey, are both temporal and spiritual. They are seen
only in part. They remain objects of hope. One day they will
be realized in a richness that exceeds our comprehension.
In the next issue of The Presbyterian Layman
we
will consider such issues as the marks of the Church and
possible responses when a congregation or denomination fails
to exhibit those marks.