| Extract
THE
CHURCH by T. W. Carron
WHEN
MEN SPEAK of the Church they usually have in mind the mass of
religious systems professing the Christian name, including, for
example, the Church of Rome, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the
Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian Churches, the Congregational,
Baptist, Methodist, and many other bodies and fellowships. These
systems and sects, which compose Christendom, are not however
the Church described in the New Testament. Some contain
obviously a very large proportion of persons who are Christian
in name only, and many who deny the very foundations of the
Christian faith. As foretold by the apostles, false teachers
have entered the Christian profession, and they have gained many
followers. In 2 Timothy 2.19 the apostle Paul says: "The
Lord knoweth them that are his", implying that man may not
know. The Lord Himself, in the parable of the wheat and tares,
said that among the wheat (whom He described as the children of
the kingdom), the enemy would sow tares (whom He described as
the children of the wicked one). He speaks of the field in which
the wheat and tares are sown as the world, not as the
Church. This is an important distinction, which is often
overlooked. The Church universal according to the New Testament
is not a mixture of wheat and tares but Christ's own
building, and it is unthinkable that He would build any spurious
material into His Church. In Matthew 16.18 we read: "upon
this rock (referring to Peter's confession of Himself as the
Christ, the Son of the Living God) I will build my church".
Peter's confession was based on a supernatural revelation by
God, the Father. This was the rock. The claim of the
Roman Catholic Church that the Lord was proposing to build His
Church on Peter is utterly repugnant to the whole teaching of
Scripture. Such a notion was not held by the early Church. The
collateral idea that Peter was the first pope is also without
historical foundation.
It may be well to point out at this stage that much is said
about local churches but we shall deal with this later. Here we
are dealing with the Church in its complete, age-long, or
"universal" aspect ', as composed only of born-again
persons who have received the Holy Spirit. Such persons Peter
calls living stones. All others are dead in trespasses and sins,
whatever they're religious or ecclesiastical profession may be.
It
should be observed that most of the references to the Church
"universal" are found in the Epistles to the Ephesians
and Colossians. These references we now deal with. In Ephesians
1. 22-23 Christ is presented in all His glory as Head over all
things, and the Church is said to be His body, the fulness (the
counterpart or complement) of Him who fills all in all. It is
impossible to conceive any greater role for the Church than
this. He is the Head and the Church is His body. The body is the
means of expression, and in the coming day of glory Christ will
express Himself through the Church, His body. She is moreover
His complement. As Adam, head over the physical creation, needed
the woman as his complement, so it has pleased God in His wisdom
to give Christ a complement the Church, composed of all those
who, through the ages, have been redeemed, and baptized by the
Holy Spirit into one body. As Paul says in Ephesians 5.
32, "This is a great mystery". The same truth is
presented in Revelation 21. 9 where the angel tells John "I
will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife" and proceeds to
show him the holy city in which the glory of God shines in the
coming age of glory. Such is the divine presentation of the true
Church. The judgment of the false church is described in
Revelation 17. The true Church is invisible as a united whole
today. Many of those who compose it are with Christ and the
members on earth are hidden in the mass of Christendom. However
while hidden in her completeness from human eyes, the Church is
known and recognized in heaven and even now through her
is perceived by angelic beings the all-various wisdom of God.
They see God at work in redemption. They witness joy in their
presence when a sinner repents. They see God's ways as the
living stones are formed for the great building which Christ is
erecting - His Church, Eph. 3. 10.
In
Ephesians 5 the apostle uses the relationship of husband and
wife - the closest and most intimate relationship God has
created - to illustrate the relationship of Christ and the
Church. Christ "loved the church", he writes,
"and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her,
having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that
he might present the church to himself in splendour, without
spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and
without blemish", vv. 25-27 R.S.V. Christ foresaw the
Church in all her beauty as His bride-to-be when He gave Himself
up for her in order to redeem those who were to form it.
Doubtless this was in His mind when, in parable, He spoke of the
merchantman seeking goodly pearls, who having found one pearl of
great price, sold all He had to secure it. (A common
misinterpretation of that parable makes Christ Himself the
pearl. Sinners however cannot be compared to a merchantman
seeking goodly pearls. Unregenerate men seek the evil things of
this world. The prodigal son was not seeking goodly pearls when
he wasted his substance in riotous living). In Colossians, which
brings before us the glory of Christ as the One by whom and for
whom all things were created, it states that one of His glories
is that He is the Head of the Church, 1. 18, and the Church is
again said to be His body in 1. 24.
In Hebrews 12.
23 the Church is described as the Church of the first-born ones
whose names are written in heaven. First-born here refers to
pre-eminence, not order of time. The Church is composed of
Christ's brethren. There can be no higher rank than this on
earth or in heaven. Hence they are the Church of first-born
ones. These Scriptures demonstrate clearly the nature, status
and destiny of the Church "universal" as presented in
Scripture., and clearly distinguish it from the mass of sects
which in men's eyes is the Church. It is hidden today, but it
will be displayed in glory with Christ in that day described in
Revelation 19. 6-7: "And I heard as it were the voice of a
great multitude, and as the voice of many waters., and as the
voice of mighty thundering saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God
omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour
to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath
made herself ready". |
