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Christians have many inaccurate concepts concerning the church. Some consider the chapel as the church; in their thinking, to go to the chapel is to go to the church. Actually, neither is the physical building the church, nor are the different associations and organizations in Christianity the churches. Today in a large city many denominations, missions, and evangelistic organizations can be seen. All these organizations and associations must not be considered churches. The church is a mysterious organism (Eph. 1:22-23). This organism, according to the pure word of the Bible, has the following eight aspects:
The church (Matt. 16:18; 18:17) in Greek is ekklesia, composed of two words: ek, out, and kaleo-, called; the two words put together mean the called out congregation, or the assembly of the called ones. Hence, according to the literal sense of the word, the church is the assembly of those called out of the world by God.
Although there is no plain mentioning of the church in the Old Testament, there is a picture concerning the church. When the children of Israel went out of Egypt, they came to the foot of Mount Sinai. There they were formed together into one coordinated entity to assemble before God with the tabernacle as the center and the twelve tribes as the circumference encamping around the tabernacle (Num. 2). Thus, they became one corporate body, the ekklesia, the assembly of God’s called ones. Hence, the New Testament calls them the ekklesia (Acts 7:38, the word assembly is ekklesia). On the one hand, they were called out by God from Egypt (signifying the world); on the other hand, they were the congregation gathering before God. The children of Israel did not have the nature of the church; they were only a type, a picture, showing us that the church is the assembling together of those who are called out of the world by God through His redemption and His saving power.
First Corinthians 1:2 says, “To the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus.” This indicates that the church is a composition of the saints, and the saints are the constituents of the church. First Corinthians 14:33 calls the churches the churches of the saints. This indicates that the saints are the constituents of the church; the church is composed of the saints. Individually speaking, we are the saints; corporately speaking, we are the church.
Ephesians 1:22-23 says, “...the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.” The church is the Body of Christ. The Body is not an organization but an organism. The church is an organic Body constituted of all the believers, who have been regenerated and have God’s life, for the expression of the Head. The Body is the fullness of the Head, and the fullness is the expression of the Head. If a person only has a head but does not have a body, he has no fullness and he cannot be expressed. If he has a body, but the body is small and skinny, that is not full enough, and such a body can hardly express him. Christ, as the One who fills all in all, needs a great Body to be His fullness. This Body is His church to be His expression.
The church is the Body of Christ, and Christ is the Head of the church (Col. 1:18). Hence, the church and Christ are one Body, the mysterious, universal great man, having the same life and nature and sharing the same position and authority. Just as Christ is far above all and sits in the heavenlies (Eph. 1:20-21), so also the church sits together with Him in the heavenlies (Eph. 2:6). Just as Christ has received all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18), so also the church participates in His authority (Luke 10:19). Today the life of the church is hidden with Christ in God, and in the future the church will be manifested with Christ together in glory (Col. 3:3-4). What Christ is, what Christ has, where Christ is, and what Christ does are what the church is, what the church has, where the church is, and what the church does. Christ is the life and content of the church; the church is the organism and expression of Christ. The church receives everything from Christ; everything of Christ is expressed through the church. The two are mingled and joined as one, with Christ being the inward content and the church, the outward expression. Just as the body does everything, accomplishes everything, and is expressed in everything through the head, so the church does everything, accomplishes everything, and is expressed in everything through Christ. Hence, the church as the Body of Christ is also Christ (1 Cor. 12:12).
In the Bible, Christ sometimes refers to the personal Christ and sometimes to Christ and the church. The Bible considers Christ and the church as the one mysterious Christ. Christ is the Head of this mysterious Christ, and the church is the Body of this mysterious Christ. The two joining together become the one mysterious Christ, a universal great man. All the saved ones in all times and in all space added together become the Body of this mysterious Christ. Individually speaking, we, the saved ones, are members one of another (1 Cor. 12:27); corporately speaking, we are the mystical Body of Christ. Every saved one is a part of the Body of Christ.
In his exhortation in Ephesians 5:22-33, Paul presents the church as the counterpart of Christ. This reveals that the church comes out of Christ and is unto Christ, just as Eve came out of Adam and was unto Adam (Gen. 2:21-23). The first couple in the Bible, Adam and Eve, is a picture of Christ and the church. In His creation, God did not create a man and a woman at the same time. He first created a man, and then He created a counterpart to help him (Gen. 2:18). When the fowl, the beasts, and the cattle were brought before Adam, Adam named them one by one. But for Adam “there was not found a help meet for him” (Gen. 2:20). Adam desired to have a counterpart, to have someone to match him. However, among the fowl, the beasts, and the cattle, he could not find his counterpart. In order to produce such a counterpart, God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam (Gen. 2:21), and He took a rib out of Adam and built a woman with the rib (Gen. 2:22). The name of the woman was Eve. Eve was the same as Adam in life, nature, and form; therefore, she could be his counterpart. When God brought Eve to Adam, Adam exclaimed, “This time it is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh” (Gen. 2:23, Heb.). At last Adam had found one who could be his counterpart, his help meet.
Genesis 2:24 indicates that a man and his wife are one flesh. The husband and the wife are two halves of a whole person. This is a marvelous picture of Christ and the church. Eve had the same life and nature that Adam had. This signifies that the church has the same life and nature that Christ has. Furthermore, Eve had virtually the same image and nearly the same stature as Adam. This indicates that the church bears the same image and has the same stature as Christ.
Ephesians 2:15 says, “Having abolished in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man.” The ordinances of the law are a cause of separation among men. On the cross, Christ not only took away our sin, caused our old man to be crucified, and destroyed the Devil, but He also abolished all the ordinances of the law that cause separations among men. When Christ abolished these ordinances of the law on the cross, He created the two—the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers—in Himself into one universal new man. This is God’s new creation in the universe. In the old creation, God did not work His nature into any of His creatures, not even into man. In the creation of the new man, however, God’s nature has been wrought into man (Col. 3:10) to make the divine nature one entity with the human nature. This new man is the Body spoken of in Ephesians 2:16. Hence, the new man is the Body of Christ, which is the church as God’s new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).
The emphasis of the church being the Body of Christ is on life; the stress of the church being the universal new man is on the person. The body without life is not a body but a corpse. However, when the body makes a move, it is not decided by life but by the person. Hence, in the new man we need to take Christ as our person. Thus, we can glorify God with one accord and with one mouth (Rom. 15:6), and we can all speak the same thing (1 Cor. 1:10). In the church as the new man we are members one of another; but if we desire to glorify God with one accord and with one mouth, we must deny our own person and let Christ be our person. Thus, we can live out the living of the new man.
First Timothy 3:15 says that the church is the house of God. In the Old Testament both the tabernacle and the holy temple were called the house of God (Judg. 18:31; 1 Kings 6:1), which was a type of the church. The word house both in the original language and in the English language has two meanings: on one hand it refers to the household, and on the other hand it refers to the dwelling place. Hence, the church as the house of God indicates that the church, on the one hand, is the household, the family, of God, and, on the other hand, it is the dwelling place of God.
The church is the composition of the believers; the believers are the children of God, who are born of God, having God’s life and nature. Hence, they become members of the household of God (Eph. 2:19), the family of God. The members of God’s family added together become the house of God, which is the dwelling place of God (Eph. 2:22).
The church is the house of God, the dwelling place of God on earth, the place in which God can have His rest and put His trust. Hence, the church is the dwelling place of God in spirit (Eph. 2:22). In this dwelling place God lives and moves to accomplish His will and satisfy His heart’s desire.
A house is also the best place for one to express himself. The kind of person you are can be best expressed by your house. Hence, look at a person’s house, and you can tell the kind of person he is, because man’s house is man’s expression. The church as the house of God is the place where God expresses Himself on earth. First Timothy 3:16 shows us that the church is God’s manifestation in the flesh. God not only desires to make home in the church and have a resting place, but He also wants to express Himself in the church. He wants to practice His New Testament economy, speak forth His desire, and manifest His glory in the church. All that He is, all that He is doing, and all that He wants to obtain are to be manifested in the church as His house.
Ephesians 2:19 tells us that all the believers, Jewish and Gentile, are fellow-citizens of the kingdom of God and members of the household of God. This shows us that the church is not only the house of God but also the kingdom of God. Both the Lord Jesus’ word in Matthew 16:18-19 and the Apostle Paul’s word in Ephesians 5:5 indicate clearly that the church is the kingdom of God.
When a person is regenerated and born into the house of God, he enters into the kingdom of God (John 3:5). When he lives a life of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit in the church, he is in the reality of the kingdom of God (Rom. 14:17). When he labors and works for the church according to God’s intention, he labors and works for the kingdom of God (Col. 4:11). Thus, the church is the kingdom of God.
The church as God’s house is a matter of life and enjoyment; the church as God’s kingdom is a matter of right and responsibility, that we may have the exercise in this age lest we lose the reward and suffer the punishment in the coming age (Matt. 24:45-51; 25:14-30; 1 Cor. 3:13-15).
The book of Revelation shows us that the testimony of Jesus (1:2, 9; 19:10) is particular and consummate. The golden lampstands, the churches, in chapter one, the great multitude which no one could number in chapter seven, the bright woman with her man-child in chapter twelve, the harvest with its firstfruit in chapter fourteen, the overcomers on the sea of glass in chapter fifteen, the Bride ready for marriage and the fighting army of Christ in chapter nineteen, and the New Jerusalem in chapters twenty-one and twenty-two are all the testimony of Jesus.
The golden lampstands in Revelation chapter one signify the local churches. Every local church is a golden lampstand (1:20), the testimony of Jesus Christ, having the sevenfold intensified Spirit of God as the lamps and shining forth the testimony of Jesus from its locality.
The lampstands are for shining in the night. The present age is a spiritual dark night. The seven lamps of the lampstand are the seven Spirits before the throne (Rev. 4:5); they are for the church to be the lamps of Christ shining out the light in the dark age today. Furthermore, the lampstands are made of pure gold. Gold signifies God’s divine nature. Thus, the golden lampstands indicate that the churches are shining out with God’s nature in this dark age.
The golden substance of the lampstand signifies God the Father; the specific shape of the lampstand signifies Christ, since Christ is the embodiment of God; and the seven lamps of the lampstand signify the seven Spirits of God (4:5) as the expression of God. Hence, the golden lampstands signify the churches as the embodiment and expression of the Triune God shining forth, with the sevenfold intensified Spirit of God as the lamps, the testimony of Jesus in the dark age of today.
The church has two aspects: the universal aspect and the local aspect.
In the universal aspect the church is uniquely one. At the end of Ephesians chapter one, it says that the church is the Body of Christ. Christ has only one Body which is unique in the universe. Ephesians 2:15 says that Christ created the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers in Himself into one new man, which is the church. Hence, the church as the new man is universal and one. In Matthew 16:18 in the Lord’s first mentioning of the church, what is revealed is the universal church for the unique testimony of the Lord in the universe.
In the local aspect the church is expressed in many localities as many local churches. The one universal church expressed in many places on earth becomes the many local churches. Revelation 1:11 says, “What you see write in a book and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.” The seven cities here each have one church; hence, there were a total of seven churches. The expression of the church in a locality is the local church in that particular locality. The first expression of the church on the earth was the church in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1). Later, there were churches also in Judea and many Gentile places, such as the church in Antioch (Acts 13:1), the church in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:2), and the churches of Galatia (Gal. 1:2). Galatia was a province of the ancient Roman Empire, and there were a number of cities in that province; hence, the churches of Galatia. In every place there can only be one expression of the church. The expression of the church cannot be greater than a locality, nor can it be smaller than a locality. The churches in a number of places cannot be combined to form an alliance of churches, and the church in one place cannot be divided into a number of churches on certain streets, roads, or lanes, or in certain neighborhoods. There can only be one church in one locality. What the Lord revealed in His second mentioning of the church in Matthew 18:17 is the local church for the administration of the church.
The church as described above according to the revelation of the Scriptures is truly divine, glorious, bright, and pure. Unfortunately, before the passing away of the apostles, the church began to deteriorate and become desolate at the end of the first century. The degradation and desolation can be seen clearly in the second Epistle to Timothy by Paul, the second Epistle by Peter, the first, second, and third Epistles by John, and the Lord’s seven epistles to the seven churches. Hence, the recovery of the church is an urgent need. Soon after the passing away of the apostles, throughout the generations there have always been some lovers and seekers of the Lord who longed to recover the church to her original condition. At the time of the Reformation, the recovery apparently was enlarged. Since then, in the past five centuries the recovery of the church has been continually advancing until it is now in its present state.
During the degradation and desolation of the church, in order to maintain and continue the church’s testimony concerning Christ, that the church may be recovered to her original state, the need to have the overcomers is a pressing matter and it is something of the Lord’s desire. Hence, at the end of each of the seven epistles which the Lord wrote to the seven churches, He consistently sounded out a serious call to the overcomers. Throughout the generations there were many lovers of the Lord who answered His call and were strong to rise up to spread the Lord’s testimony and the church’s recovery.
The church is not a chapel, nor any physical building, nor any organization or association in Christianity. The church is a mysterious organism in eight aspects. First, the church is the assembly of those called out of the world by God. Second, the church is the composition of the saints. Third, the church is the Body of Christ, an organism composed of all those who have been regenerated and who have God’s life to be the fullness of Christ for Christ to be expressed. Fourth, the church is the counterpart of Christ and is out of Him, unto Him, and one with Him, having the same life and nature as He and resembling Him in likeness and stature. Fifth, the church is a universal new man, created by Christ in Himself through the cross to be God’s new creation. The emphasis of the church being the Body of Christ is on life; the stress of the church being the universal new man is on the person. The Body moves by life; the new man acts according to the person. Sixth, the church is the house of God and the dwelling place of God. The believers, who are the constituents of the church, are the children born of God, the household of God, which becomes the house of God; this house is also God’s dwelling place for God to have His rest, and for God to live and move, fulfill His desire, and express Himself. Seventh, the church is the kingdom of God. The church as God’s house is a matter of life and enjoyment; the church as God’s kingdom is a matter of right and responsibility for us to have the exercise in this age lest we lose the reward and suffer the punishment in the coming age. Eighth, the church is the testimony of Jesus Christ, the golden lampstand of God, the definite expression of the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—in the dark age of today. The church has two aspects: the universal aspect and the local aspect. The universal church is uniquely one, and it is for the Lord’s testimony; the local churches are the many expressions of the one universal church on the earth in many localities, and they are for the church’s administration. The church according to the revelation of the Scriptures is divine and glorious. However, before the passing away of the apostles, the church had become degraded and desolate. Hence, there was the need for the recovery and the overcomers. According to His desire, the Lord has sounded the call to the overcomers. Throughout the generations, the recovery of the church has been going on, and there have been overcomers answering the Lord’s call.
