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The church is the goal God wants to obtain in His eternal economy. Each one of us who is saved participates in this goal, that God may obtain His heart’s desire according to His good pleasure. Therefore, we must also know the church.
1) “On this rock I [Christ] will build My church” (Matt. 16:18).
The church is what Christ will build through His death, resurrection, and ascension. The term “church” is ekklesia in Greek which means the called out assembly. Thus, according to its literal meaning, the church is the congregation called out from the world by God. It is not a church building or any edifice for the worship of God.
1) “The church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:22-23).
The church is the Body with Christ as the Head; it is constituted for Christ in His life and Spirit with all those who have believed into Him. It is a living organism and not a lifeless organization, such as the clubs and associations in society.
The body of a man is the fullness of a man to be his expression. Likewise, the church is the fullness of Christ to be His expression. Since Christ is the One who is unlimited, extensive, and filling all in all, He needs a great Body to be the fullness of Himself who fills all in all to express Him in all things.
1) “Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her” (Eph. 5:25).
This word reveals that the church is also Christ’s counterpart. As the Body of Christ, the church receives life from Him for His expression; this is a matter of life. As the counterpart of Christ, the church receives His love for the satisfaction of His heart’s desire; this is a matter of love.
1) “That you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth [reality]” (1 Tim. 3:15).
To Christ, the church is His Body and His counterpart, while to God, the church is His house. On the one hand, this house refers to God’s dwelling place, and on the other hand, it refers to God’s family, God’s household. These two, God’s household and God’s dwelling place, are just one. God’s household is the very house for God’s dwelling (Eph. 2:19, 22). A person’s house is his place of living, residing, and rest. The church, being God’s house, is also such a place to God. Today, the living God is living, residing, and resting in the church on the earth.
God is living, and the church as His house is also living, having the life of God, living, residing, and resting with God. Thus, the living house of God is the pillar and base of all His reality, which is the reality (truth) of the universe. Everything of this living God is the reality in the universe. Without Him, the universe is vain and empty; yet all His reality is being supported and upheld by the church, which is His living house.
1) “And having put on the new man, which is being renewed unto full knowledge according to the image of Him [Christ] who created him; where [in the new man] there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, freeman, but Christ is all [men] and in all [men]” (Col. 3:10-11).
Just as all of mankind is a corporate old man created in Adam, the church is also a corporate new man. Christ, having abolished on the cross all the ordinances which caused discord among men, created this new man in Himself (Eph. 2:14-15). This new man bears the image of its Creator, Christ, who is its life and its content. In this new man, there are no persons of the old creation belonging to any race, religion, culture, or class. Only Christ is all the constituents of this new man and is in all its constituents. The church as the Body of Christ takes Christ as its life for His expression; the church as the new man takes Christ as its person for the fulfillment of God’s will.
1) “The church of God…those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints” (1 Cor. 1:2).
The church is constituted with all those who have believed into Christ and who possess His life. Any person who has not believed into Christ and has not been saved cannot become a constituent of the church. Without being saved, even our closest relatives are not constituents of the church. Only after they are saved and have the Lord’s life to become saints are they constituents of the church.
1) “On this rock I [Christ] will build My church” (Matt. 16:18).
The church mentioned by the Lord in this verse is in the universal aspect. It is unique, including all who have believed into Him in the universe through all the ages and in every place.
1) “If he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church” (Matt. 18:17).
The church mentioned by the Lord in this verse is in the local aspect. It is numerous and its local believers can speak to it. According to the local aspect, the church appears in every locality. Each local church includes only those who have believed into Christ in that place.
The church is unique and has no need of special names. The church is the church; there should not be kinds of churches that are denominated according to their kind, such as the Presbyterian church, the Lutheran church, and the Baptist church. To denominate the church in this way is needless and not according to the biblical revelation.
Although the church is unique in the universe, it is numerous in its local manifestation. The many local churches do not differ in nature; their difference is only in the different places where they are. Therefore, we may use the name of the locality in which a local church is to designate that church, such as the church in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1), the church in Antioch (Acts 13:1), and the seven local churches in the province of Asia (Rev. 1:4, 11).
