Christ's Church

A friend sent me an email asking me what i thought about the following question. "What is your perception of "Christ's Church?" Do you define it as an institution? A spiritual experience? Is membership in an institution a prerequisite to worshiping God?" The following is my response to that question. I'm not sure if i have completely answered the question. if any one reading this ave additional comments please respond.

Answer Many people today understand the church as a building. This is not a biblical understanding of the church. The word “church” comes from the Greek word ekklesia which is defined as “an assembly” or “called-out ones.” The root meaning of “church” is not that of a building, but of people. It is ironic that when you ask people what church they attend, they usually identify a building.some where in romans it says “… greet the church that is in their house.” Paul refers to the church in their house—not a church building, but a body of believers.

The church is the body of Christ, of which He is the head. ephesians says, “And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” The body of Christ is made up of all believers in Jesus Christ from the day of Pentecost (Acts chapter 2) until Christ’s return. The body of Christ is comprised of two aspects:

1) The universal church consists of all those who have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. “For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink" This verse says that anyone who believes is part of the body of Christ and has received the Spirit of Christ as evidence. The universal church of God is all those who have received salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

2) The local church is described in galatians “Paul, an apostle … and all the brothers with me, to the churches in Galatia.” Here we see that in the province of Galatia there were many churches—what we call local churches. A Baptist church, Lutheran church, Catholic church, etc., is not the church, as in the universal church—but rather is a local church, a local body of believers. The universal church is comprised of those who belong to Christ and who have trusted Him for salvation. These members of the universal church should seek fellowship and edification in a local church.

Christ endowed his covenant family with three marks that would light the way to the very church that he founded. The three marks of the Church of Christ that distinguish it from other communities are that it is One, Holy, and Apostolic.

The church is holy because her source is holy. This does not mean that every member of the church will be holy. This simply means that Christ designed the church to be the source of holiness and the protector of the means of grace that he established.

The church is universal. The church is a gift to all peoples for all times. It consists of people from all nations and races of the world. It is in not a national church or a denomination. The Church has spread to every corner of the globe and consists of people from every tribe tongue and race. All the inhabitants of the earth have found blessings in the Church.

The church is apostolic. Jesus appointed the apostles to be the first leaders of the church and their successors to be the future leaders. Within the church there is an unbroken link faithfully handing on the teachings of Christ from the apostles to the present church. The Church can show that its doctrinal pedigree extends all the way back to the apostles that were hand picked by Jesus Christ himself.

The church is a gift to all peoples for all times. It consists of people from all nations and races of the world. It is in not a national church or a denomination. The Church has spread to every corner of the globe and consists of people from every tribe tongue and race.