The Church
The church we read about in the New Testament is the church we ought all to be interested in. It is spoken of in the New Testament as "the body of Christ". We are told that God made Christ "head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all". (Eph 1.22, 23.) There may be some things stated in the Bible that are difficult to understand, but surely we can all understand that Christ is Head of the church. Then, "For even as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we who are many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one of another." (Rom. 12:4, 5.) It would be difficult for any one to misunderstand that statement. Then again, "As the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of the body being many, are one body; so also is Christ." (I Cor. 12:12-27.) Then in verse 27, "Now ye are the body of Christ, and severally members thereof." Here the human body is used as an illustration of the Lord's church. And passages of scripture might be multiplied to teach the same simple truth.
The "body of Christ" which is the church is one. It is not divided into various and conflicting sects. In Ephesians 4:4-8 we are told "there is one body and one Spirit, even as ye were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith and one baptism, one God and father of all, who is over all and through all and in you all". Since the "body" is the church, and since there is "one body", of course, there is "one church". Yet, people talk as though God had set up a multitude of churches so that every one may "have the church of his choice"! Since "there is one body", and the Holy Spirit has said this, there is "one church" recognized in the New Testament. This is a statement of fact. It is not an admonition. "There is one body, and one Spirit." Spirit here is the Holy Spirit; not a mere disposition of the members who make up the "one body" which is the church. The Holy Spirit is given to the children of God. (Acts 2:38; Rom. 8:9-11; Gal. 4:6.) The "body" is one, and the Holy Spirit is one and He animates the one body which is the church. Then as there is one body, and one Spirit, we are also "called in one hope." In the "body of Christ" which is the church, we have hope of eternal life and immortality in the great beyond. There is also "one Lord." He is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the head of the church - "One body" and one "Head". It would be a monstrous thing for one head to have several hundred bodies! There is nothing in the realm of nature like that. God never created anything of that sort, either in the physical world or in the spiritual World.
"One faith", "one baptism" are also characteristics of the unity of the "body" which the Holy Spirit is describing in this passage. "One God" who is over all and through all and in all, in the "one body" which is the church, is the way the Holy Spirit writes about the relation of the Father of mercies to those whom he has redeemed. Do I hear some one inquiring: "Which church?" Do you ever hear people ask, Which Lord should I accept? Which God should I worship? Just as reasonable, as to ask mum CHURCH.
I think none can misunderstand the statements in the Bible that church is the body of-Christ."(Eph. 1:22, 23; 4:4-8; Col 1:18, 24.) None will be so bold as to deny this truth. But, is it not as plainly stated that God has reconciled both Jews and Gentiles unto Himself "in one body"? Please read Eph. 2:16. All who are reconciled to God, are "reconciled to God in one body" and since the "one body" is the church, the church is composed of those who are "reconciled to God". Those who are "reconciled to God" are "at peace with God." Those who have not been reconciled to God are not "at peace with God", but are at enmity against God. Among accountable beings here there are only two classes; viz. 1) those who are at enmity against God, and 2) those who are reconciled to God. Those who are reconciled to God are "reconciled to God in one body by the cross." And the "body" is the church. The church is composed of those who are reconciled to God. Those not reconciled to God are not in "the body" nor of the "body". "He is our peace who hath made both one, and brake down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself of the two, one new man, so making peace." (Eph. 2:14-16.) The "law of commandments contained in ordinances" was the "law" God gave to the Israelites when He brought them out of Egypt. He never gave that law to Gentiles. They were separated from the Jews; they were "strangers from the covenants of promise, and were without God and without hope in the world." They were "far off." But, now in Christ Jesus, are "made nigh". Christ died on the cross that He might redeem both Jews and Gentiles, and that He might "reconcile them both unto God in one body by the cross." All who are "reconciled to God" are in "one body" which is his church.
Being reconciled to God we are no more strangers and foreigners, but are "fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God". In other words, all who are reconciled to God are members of the family of God.
The Second Chapter Of Paul's Letter To The Ephesians Begins:
"And you did he make alive when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins, wherein ye once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience." We are "dead through trespasses and sins". When we are thus "dead", we "walk according to the course of this world". When God forgives our sins, we "are made alive together with Christ". When we are "made alive", we are reconciled to God. Sin no longer separates us from God when sin is forgiven. We are separated from sins, "made alive together with Christ", and by the same process, made members of "his body", "which is the church". "Reconciled to God in one body by the cross", made free from sin through the sacrifice of Jesus' blood, we are thus made members of the number who are saved - and that group who are saved is the church. But the "church" in this sense is not an organization, with "headquarters" at some given location here on earth. It is an organism that contemplates Jesus as "head" and every Christian on earth, by virtue of that relationship sustained to Him, a member of His spiritual body. Nowhere in the Bible, is the church in this ecumenical sense, contemplated as being composed of all the various congregations of Christians. No, local churches are not, in the New Testament, contemplated as different units of the church universal. So, when you hear some one speak of the "congregations of the church of Christ", just remember he is talking nonsense. Do I hear some one ask: "Which church should I join?"