Christ's Spotless Bride -- New Testament Images of the Church (Part Two)

In an age of growing uncertainty, increasing angst, and divisive tribalism, a number of strategies (often politically focused) have been proposed to stem the rising tide of unbelief and the social havoc of our times. But one important area of doctrine which speaks to these issues is often overlooked—ecclesiology, the doctrine of the church. In the first of this series (Christ’s Spotless Bride) I addressed some of the reasons why the doctrine of the church is not of interest to many, and why I think reflection on the nature and mission of Christ’s church offers important, if overlooked, answers to many of our current woes. In this and the next piece in this series I will consider a number of the images given us in the New Testament in order to stimulate thinking about how the church offers solutions to these contemporary problems, and then address some of the ways we ought to think about the church. These images of the church in the New Testament, along with the attributes and marks of the church (which will be taken up later), help us to better understand the nature of the church and the comfort to be found in the new covenant community.

New Testament Images of the Church

There are a number of images used in the New Testament to describe Christ’s church. Such images are but one way of approaching the doctrine of the church.[1] To understand the value of these images, an analogy to the doctrine of God (theology proper) might help. Scripture teaches us about God (who is incomprehensible in himself) not only by ascribing certain attributes to him (e.g., justice, knowledge, power) but also by identifying him as a certain kind of person or having a certain kind of role (e.g., king, shepherd, warrior).

But these attributes of God are analogical and anthropological and cannot be absolutized. God is like but also unlike human kings, and being a king does not exhaust who God is. Similarly, the church displays the images given us in certain respects, but none of them describes the church comprehensively. Louis Berkhof speaks of “figurative designations of the Church, each of which stresses some particular aspect of the Church.”[2] That is my approach here. There are certainly a number of these images given us in the New Testament which are well worth consideration.

The Inauguration of the New Covenant Community

In Acts 2:41-47, Luke reports the following events as a consequence of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

These events were unique to that tumultuous period in redemptive history in which the age to come breaks in upon this present evil age, and the kingdom of God has come in the power of the Holy Spirit. F. F. Bruce points out that “the conviction of sin that followed Peter’s preaching was no momentary panic, but filled the people with a lasting sense of awe. God was at work among them; they were witnessing the dawn of the new age. This impression was intensified by the wonders and signs performed through the apostles.”[3]

The apostolic church was composed of several thousand newly baptized believers, who devoted themselves to four particular activities spelled out in Acts 2:42: 1). The apostles’ teaching, 2). The fellowship, 3). The breaking of bread, and 4). “The prayers.” These activities became the foundation of Christian worship and grounded the orientation of the Christian life in the apostolic age which commenced. Word and sacrament are at the center. Believers in this transitional period also practiced a sort of communal living, and witnessed the signs and wonders associated with the apostolic office.

Initially, public assembly and worship (the koinonia) took place in the temple precincts, but then moved into local dwellings for the fellowship meals, described by Luke as “the breaking of bread.” Those who heard the word preached–the authoritative teaching of the apostles–were baptized and celebrated a fellowship meal with other believers. The “fellowship meal” may be a carryover from a Jewish fellowship meal (the haburah), but given the connection made by Luke to “the fellowship” and “the prayers,” this likely points in the direction of the Lord’s Supper. This connects the preaching of the word to the administration of the sacraments (the latter derive their efficacy from the preached word) from the earliest days of Christianity.

Longenecker offers this summation: “what can be said here [in Acts 2] is that Luke shows, both in his emphasis on the early Christians’ meeting in the temple courts and on the favor accorded them by the people, that early Christianity is the fulfillment of all that is truly Jewish and that it is directed in its mission first to the Jewish world.”[4] The future of Jew and Gentile in God’s redemptive purposes is explained in the subsequent ministry of Paul, especially in Romans 9-11 and Ephesians 2:11-22.

After Pentecost, the church is in many ways the fulfillment of Jesus’s words in John 14:12, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” These greater works are already coming to pass with the conversion of three thousand souls and the first assemblies of the Christian church to worship the risen and ascended Christ.

The People of God

This image is not merely a generic use of “people” (as in, there are many people in the world), but a kind of social-political use: a community bound together through a shared identity as believers in Jesus, a common faith (as Christ revealed the gospel to the first apostles), and an allegiance to Christ as prophet, priest, and king. As used in the New Testament, the “people of God” is a specific reference to those particular people whom God elects, calls, justifies, sanctifies, and then incorporates into the “people of God” (Romans 8:28-39). 1 Peter 2:9-10, also comes to mind in this regard.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

This image has loud echoes from the Old Testament. As Israel was the national people of God, so now the church is the new covenant people of God, which includes many believing Jews. According to Herman Bavinck:

The word קָהָל (qāhāl), ἐκκλησια (ekklēsia), by virtue of its derivation from verbs that mean “to call together,” already denotes a gathering of people who come together for some purpose, especially a political or religious purpose, or, even if at a given moment they have not come together, are nevertheless mutually united for such a purpose. Under the Old Testament dispensation Israel was the people that had been called together and convened for God’s service. In the New Testament, the people of Israel have been replaced by the church of Christ, which is now the `holy nation, the chosen race, the royal priesthood’ of God.[5]

Although Bavinck does speak of the church “replacing Israel,” in context it is obvious that he means the one people of God (the elect) are identified as Israel in the Old Testament and as the church in the New— not that there are two different peoples with different redemptive-historical purposes as dispensationalists mistakenly assume.

J. A. Heynes clarifies the precise nature of the church’s relationship to Israel. “The Church is this new people, the new community of the Lord . . . . but this does not mean that the covenant with Israel is thereby terminated; it has been extended continuing with other nations. Salvation is not denied to Israel but proclaimed to other nations. The old covenant has not been exchanged for another one, but is perpetuated in a new covenant.”[6]. This is an important point given the dispensational accusation that the Reformed teach that the church “replaces” Israel. The people of God had a primarily ethnic identity (national Israel) which is now expended to include those from every race, tribe, and tongue under heaven.

In 2 Corinthians 6:16, God’s covenant promise given to Israel is now reaffirmed of the church. “What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, `I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people,’” echoing the promises God made to Abraham and Israel now fulfilled in the church.

The people of God are said to be his own possession. In Titus 2:14, Paul speaks of Christ, “who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works,” In 1 Peter 2:9, the apostle looks back to Exodus 19:5, writing, “but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light,” and adding “but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

Grounded in God’s gracious election and calling, we learn that those who were not a people, are now God’s people. According to Paul in Romans 9:25-26; “As indeed [YHWH] says in Hosea, `Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved,’ `And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” The same idea is expressed in 1 Peter 2:10, “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” Peter and Paul both draw upon Hosea 1-2 with his reference to ammi (my people), lo-ammi (not my people).

All those who trust in Jesus Christ are now identified as “the people of God” (ammi) since believers are members of the new covenant.

Family/Household of God

While “people” suggests a large community with political attributes, the language of “household” suggests a smaller and much more intimate community. In Ephesians 2:11-22, Paul explains that Christ’s purpose is to make believing Jews and Gentiles one household. In Ephesians 2:18, Paul speaks of this household as being under one Father (2:18). In Ephesians 2:19–20, Paul specifies, “so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.” 1 Timothy 3:15a also applies, when Paul writes, “if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God.” Paul ties the image of a household to how we ought to conduct ourselves, specifically to the way we live in our family unit. Any healthy family will have a unique family culture, a way of life, and habits and practices.

Yet, the family imagery in the gospels seems to point more toward the church as a community which becomes an even more important family, especially in light of the relativization of earthly families that Christ’s work establishes, and the possible need to give them up. In Mark 3:31-35, Jesus says, “whoever does the will of God are my mothers and brothers,” and in Mark 10:29-30 he describes how those who leave family and homes for his sake become his mother, sisters, and brothers.

Theologically, ideas of God as Father (Matthew 23:9– “for you have one Father, who is in heaven,”), Jesus as brother (Romans 8:29, “firstborn among many brothers”), believers as children of God and as co-heirs with Christ (John 11:52– “and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad,”), are all important here–all pointing to the church as a spiritual family, which serves as the community for disciples of Jesus. To speak of our fellow Christians as “brothers and sisters” as is common in the New Testament, presupposes that we belong to the same family and household of God.

The Body of Christ

This is a particularly Pauline category (cf. Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 1, 4; and Colossians 1). But some broader redemptive-historical points can also be found in Paul’s use of the “body of Christ” metaphor. The “body of Christ” is closely tied to the expression “in Christ” (cf. Romans 8:1,2; Galatians 2:17), which, in turn, must be set over against another expression, “in Adam.” Adam represents all of fallen humanity, and is the corporate figure behind Paul’s expression “body of death” (Romans 7:24). But “in Christ,” all believers are transferred to a new body, a new humanity (cf. Romans 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 15:45-49). Just as Adam was the federal and biological head of the old humanity, there now is a body of life of which Christ is head (Romans 5-8).[7]

According to Douglas Moo, in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul speaks of “one Spirit” who creates “one body,” a body (unity) which has many parts (diversity), seen in Paul’s simile of the human body as analogous to the church and its members (vv. 15-26). Even insignificant parts of Christ’s body play an important role. Paul’s widespread use of the phrase “body of Christ,” may be influenced by the use of the term “Christ’s body” in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, and in Paul’s use of Christ and Adam as corporate or representative figures.[8]

Berkhof notes that this image of the body stresses the organic unity of the church which stands in relationship to Christ as her head [9], while Heyns emphasizes how unity and diversity are both important in a human body, and so also in church.[10] . Both points are important to consider.

We see this unity-in-diversity theme in Romans 12:4-8 (one body, but different gifts); 1 Corinthians 12:4-31 (one body with many members and different gifts). In Ephesians 4:4, 12, Paul uses this image to speak about gifts and unity, but here it concerns giving officers to build up the church in unity.

In Ephesians 1:23, Paul speaks of the church, “which is [Christ’s] body, the fullness of him who fills all in all,”while in Colossians 1:18, the apostle says of Christ, “he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.” Paul uses the image of head and body to emphasize Christ’s headship. So, body imagery communicates something about our relationship to Christ and to each other.

Things to Consider

In an age of uncertainty, Jesus tells us, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against my church” (Matthew 16:18), and that “God works all things together for good” (Romans 8:28). In an age of angst, isolation, and loneliness, Paul reminds us that the church is one body, with many members (1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4). In an age of tribalism, we love others because God first loved us (1 John 4:1). Paul adds that “love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:4-6). Such love arises from faith and should permeate the new covenant community (Ephesians 6:23).

And even when Christians fail to do these things and through sin bring harm to other members of Christ’s church, the Savior’s love and mercy is greater still.

To read the next in the series New Testament Images of the Church (Part Two)

__________________________________

[1] The classic work is that by Paul Minear who lists 96 analogies or images of the church in his book, Images of the Church in the New Testament (Philadelphia: Westminster Press 1960).

[2] Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 557.

[3] F. F. Bruce, The Book of Acts, rev. ed., NICNT (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1988), 73.

[4] Richard N. Longenecker, “The Acts of the Apostles” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 9, ed. Frank Gaebelein, and J. D. Douglas (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984), 291.

[5] Bavinck, Christian Dogmatics, 4.296.

[6] J. A. Heyns, The Church, 39-40.

[7] J. A. Heyns, The Church, 50-51.

[8] See Moo, A Theology of Paul and His Letters, 148.

[9] Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 557.

[10] J. A. Heyns, The Church, 53-54.