The church is not an afterthought in the purposes of God. The glory of God in the formation of a missionary people who show and share the love of God is the goal of the gospel.
In The Community of Jesus, Kendell Easley and Christopher Morgan have brought together a number of scholars whose essays make up a biblical theology of the church. I asked Ken and Chris to join me here for a conversation about the importance of rightly understanding our role as God’s people.
Trevin: Something that has long concerned me about evangelicalism is the tendency to downplay the importance and necessity of the church, to the point the church becomes something of “an afterthought” in the purposes of God. Why do we neglect the church and why is it harmful to do so?
Ken: A good part of the reason may be lingering suspicion about the overreaching development in early medieval (and later) times that “there is no salvation outside the church.” The free church movement (to which evangelicals are largely part) has rightly rejected this notion but may have de-emphasized the church in the process.
Another reason is the evangelical emphasis on a personal experience of salvation—an ongoing impact of the pietistic emphasis on individualism in Christianity.
A third factor is that all of our experiences of local church have been tainted. There is no perfect church, and there are far too few healthy churches. We all know too many examples of pride, greed, racism, etc., in church life. So we neglect the church.
Chris: We have also tended to read the Bible individualistically, rather than collectively as God’s people. We rarely see the Bible as telling our story—the story of God at work in our people, and by extension in us. We rarely consider that the Bible was originally read to the community of faith, not by individuals in their recliner.
Further, we may have downplayed the doctrines related to the church because we were seeking to promote our unity. Let’s face it: evangelicals can agree on many, many truths, but we find different voices on many subjects in ecclesiology: Israel and the church, denominational distinctions, baptism, Lord’s supper, elders, women in ministry, how church relates to culture, and so on.
Trevin: Chris, you contributed a chapter on the church and the glory of God. How do you define the “glory of God” and how does the church accomplish this purpose?
Chris: God’s glory is his ultimate end (for details on glory, see also Morgan and Peterson, The Glory of God, Crossway, 2010). But what does this mean? Ephesians discloses two aspects of this.
- God acts unto the praise of his glory, or to the praise of the glory of his grace (1:6,12,14). Thus, God’s glory as his ultimate end means that God acts unto the reception of worship and praise of his creation, especially his people.
- God acts to display himself throughout creation. He displays his love, mercy, grace, kindness, creative work, and wisdom (2:4-10; 3:8-10). Thus, God’s glory as his ultimate end also means that God acts to display himself and as he displays himself he communicates his greatness and fullness. That, in and of itself, glorifies him.
So, according to Ephesians, God’s glory as his ultimate end means that he acts to display himself and communicate his greatness, and that he acts unto the reception of worship. This understanding of God’s glory enables us to grasp the nature of the church. The church is has its origin in the eternal purposes of God, its basis in the saving work of Christ, its life from union with Christ, and its end as the glory of God.
The church is God’s showcase for his eternal plan of bringing forth cosmic reconciliation and highlighting Christ as the focal point of all history.
The church is also God’s “display people,” showcasing not only God’s purposes but even God himself. In and through the church, God shows his grace, wisdom, love, unity, and holiness. And as God displays himself, he glorifies himself.
It is no wonder Paul proclaims:
“Now to Him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us—to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
Trevin: Ken, your chapter is on the church in Acts and Revelation as “New Testament bookends.” Do you see the description of the church in these two books as primarily descriptive or prescriptive? What value is there in being familiar with the portrait of the church in these (very different) books of the Bible?
Ken: I like to think of Luke’s portrait of the church in Acts as “the church’s baby book,” especially chapters 1-7. Many of us had mothers who kept a baby book, recording such items as when our first tooth came in, what our first word was, and so on. Luke does that in Acts: first miracle, first organization, first persecution, first martyr, and so on. So in Acts, Luke is describing more than prescribing.
But just as knowing about an infant’s first years provides important clues to later developmental stages, so knowing about the church’s early years helps us be aware of issues we will continually face, even though we may deal with these issues differently. Thus, the scattering of the Jerusalem church after Stephen’s death illustrates the spread of the gospel involuntarily, but the mission of the church in Antioch, sending out Barnabas and Saul, provides insight into issues related to voluntary cross-cultural mission.
In Revelation, we have a prophetic description of the church’s future—both the church under persecution and the church ultimately victorious as “the wife of the Lamb.” Again, it will help us today as we “do church” and “are the church” if we maintain a clear sense of what our final destination will be like. However one lands on the major eschatology questions, Revelation teaches absolutely that Jesus is lord of history (both of the church and the world) and that faithfulness to him will be rewarded in due season. We all need ongoing confidence in these truths.
Further, there are warnings to saints in Revelation that certainly have direct application to today’s believers. For example, the risen Christ admonished five of the seven churches of Asia to repent of certain sins. Later in the book, saints were warned to “come out” of Babylon, the harlot city. In these ways, Revelation is like an Old Testament prophetic book: there is “forthtelling” to God’s people of their need to change their ways as well as “foretelling” of future events.
Tomorrow, we will talk about the current trend of “loving Jesus” but not the church.
