The Church

The Gospel Made Visible

Mark Dever

• Publisher: B&H Academic
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781433678905
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Teología sistemática y ética

Christians face lots of practical questions when it comes to life in the local church: How is the gospel displayed in our lives together? What are we supposed to do and believe? Different followers answer differently—even as they preach the same gospel! What should we think about such differences?A church's life, doctrine, worship, and even polity are important issues. Yet they are so rarely addressed. The Church is Mark Dever's primer on the doctrine of the church for all who see Scripture alone as a sufficient authority for the doctrine and life of the local church. He explains to the reader what the Bible says about the nature and purpose of the church— what it is, what it's for, what it does.Indeed, Scripture teaches us about all of life and doctrine, including how we should assemble for corporate worship and how we're to organize our corporate life together. God has revealed himself by his Word. He is speak- ing to us, preparing us to represent him today, and to see him tomorrow! A congregation of regenerate members, fulfilling the responsibilities given to us by Christ himself in his Word, regularly meeting together, led by a body of godly elders, is the picture God has given us in his Word of his church.

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The Nature of the Church

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The church is the body of people called by God's grace through faith in Christ to glorify him together by serving him in his world.1

The People of God in the Old Testament: Israel

In order to understand the church in the full richness of God's revealed truth, we must examine both the Old and New Testaments. Christians may sometimes use the phrase "a New Testament church," but the shape of the visible church today bears a clear continuity—though not identity—with the visible people of God in the Old Testament.

God's eternal plan has always been to display his glory not just through individuals but through a corporate body. In creation God created not one person but two, and two who have the ability to reproduce more. In the flood God saved not one person but several families. In Genesis 12 God called Abram and promised that Abram's descendents would be as numerous as the stars in the sky or the sand on the seashore. In Exodus God dealt not only with Moses but with the nation of Israel—12 tribes comprised of hundreds of thousands of people yet bearing one corporate identity (see Exod 15:13–16). He gave laws and ceremonies that should be worked out not only in the lives of individuals but also in the life of the whole people.

In the Old Testament, Israel is called God's son (Exod 4:22), his spouse (Ezek 16:6–14), the apple of his eye (Deut 32:10), his vine (Isa 5:1–7; Nah 2:2), and his flock (Ezek 34:4). Through these names God foreshadowed the work he would eventually do through Christ and his church.

Etymologically, a connection exists between the Old Testament word for "assembly," qahal (קַהֶל) and the New Testament word translated "church," ekklesia (ἐκκλησία). The Greek version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, translates qahal in Deut 4:10 and elsewhere with ekklesia.2 And this word for assembly, qahal, is closely bound up in the Old Testament with the Lord's distinct people Israel. The rich association between the assembly of God and the distinct people of God in the Old Testament qahal then carries over to the New Testament ekklesia, the church. The church is literally an assembly (see Heb 10:25). It is God's assembly because God dwells with the church. And the church is comprised of people who are beginning to know the reversal of the effects of the fall. So members of both Israel and the church receive a glimpse of the glory which awaits God's people.

Isaiah saw and heard seraphim calling to one another, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory" (Isa 6:3). John then encountered what appears to be the same heavenly assembly when he heard the angels, living creatures, and elders singing, "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!" (Rev 5:12). Though Isaiah and John's visions are unique, Paul told the Corinthians that unbelievers would perceive this same God at work among them: "God is really among you" (1 Cor 14:25). Heaven appears on earth in God's assembly, the church.

Christians divide over how closely Israel should be identified with the church.3 The New Testament identities Israel and the church with each other in one place only, where Paul refers to "all who follow this rule" in the Galatian church with the title "the Israel of God" (Gal 6:16). While some suggest that "Israel of God" refers specifically to the Jews who belong to the predominantly Gentile churches in Galatia, others are convinced that in the same letter Paul refers to all Christians, Jew and Gentile, as "Abraham's seed" (Gal 3:29), indicating the link between Israel and church is deliberate.

Distinctions between the Old and New Testament people of God are obvious. God's people in the Old Testament are ethnically distinct; in the New Testament they are ethnically mixed. In the Old they live under their own government with God-given laws; in the New they live among the rulers of the nations. In the Old they are required to circumcise their male offspring; in the New they are required to baptize all believers. What accounts for the change in the move from the Old Testament to the New? Jesus fulfilled the explicit promises of God in the Old Testament and even of patterns found there. He is the fulfillment of the temple and its priesthood, of the land and its rulers, even of the nation of Israel as a son of God.

Continuities between Israel and the church are more debated. Acts 15 is a particularly significant passage on this question. At the Jerusalem Council, James quoted a prophesy from Amos 9:11–12 which promises that David's fallen tent would be restored and that Israel would come to possess the nations that bear the Lord's name. James affirmed that this prophecy points toward the church's present circumstances and the recent influx of Gentile believers. The "apostles and elders" (Acts 15:6), meeting to consider precisely the question of the Gentile believers, seem to accept the recent influx of Gentile believers into the church as a fulfillment of the prophecy about Gentiles coming to Israel.4

Though Israel and the church are not identical, they are closely related, and they are related through Jesus Christ (see Eph 2:12–13). Israel was called to be the Lord's servant but was unfaithful to him. Jesus, on the other hand, is a faithful servant (see Matt 4:1–11). The temples of Solomon and Ezra, as well as in Ezekiel's vision, all point toward Jesus Christ, whose body constitutes the supreme earthly tabernacle for God's Spirit. The land of Israel, especially the city of Jerusalem, points toward the redemption of the whole earth. Heaven itself is referred to as the new Jerusalem. The multinational church fulfills the promises given to the 12 tribes (see Revelation 7). And the law of the Old Testament finds its fulfillment in Christ (see Matt 5:17). Christ is the fulfillment of all that Israel points toward (see 2 Cor 1:20), and the church is Christ's body.

At the very least, it must be said that God has consistently had a plan to glorify his name through groups of people he chose and took as his own.5 Hence, one writer observed, "The story of the church begins with Israel, the Old Testament people of God."6

The People of God in the New Testament: The Church

Explicit Teaching

At one particularly low point in the moral degeneration of Israel, the writer of Judges described the nation as "the people of God" (עַם הָאֱלֹהִים Judg 20:2; see 2 Sam 14:13). The Greek equivalent of this phrase (τῷ λαῷ τοῦ θεοῦ) is used by the writer of Hebrews to describe the people of Israel with whom Moses identified himself instead of identifying himself with Pharaoh's household (Heb 11:25), and he had used this same phrase earlier to refer to Christians (4:9). Peter also employed this phrase, telling his readers, "Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God [λαὸς θεοῦ]" (1 Pet 2:10). And John the Baptist came "to make ready a people prepared for the Lord" (Luke 1:17).

Meanings of Ekklesia

In the New Testament, the English word church can be used to describe both a local congregation or all Christians everywhere. In contemporary use the word is also used to describe buildings and denominations. In these latter ways the English word church does not exactly parallel the Greek word in the New Testament.7

The word translated "church" is ekklesia, which occurs 114 times in the New Testament.8 No other Greek word is translated "church" in English versions. But ekklesia was used in the New Testament period to describe more than the gatherings of Christians. The word was often used in Greek cities to refer to assemblies called to perform specific tasks. In Acts 7:38 and Heb 2:12, ekklesia is used to describe Old Testament assemblies. Luke uses ekklesia three times to describe the riot that gathers in an amphitheater in Ephesus to deal with Paul (Acts 19:32,39,41). The remaining 109 uses of the word in the New Testament refer to a Christian assembly.

Uses of Ekklesia

Jesus Christ founded his own assembly, his own church.9 According to Matthew's Gospel, Jesus first names his New Testament people as "my church" (16:18). As Adam named his bride, so Christ names the church. Yet Jesus only refers to the church twice in his recorded teaching (Matt 16:18; 18:17). Since Jesus understood that he was the Messiah, his references to his church almost certainly contain the Hebrew idea of qahal or "assembly."10 The Messiah was expected to establish his Messianic assembly, and so throughout the Gospels Christ marks out those who are faithful to recognize and follow him.

The book of Acts usually refers to specific local gatherings with the word ekklesia,11 such as the assemblies in Jerusalem, Antioch, Derbe, Lystra, and Ephesus. These churches met and sent missionaries (see 15:3). Luke also quoted Paul as saying that the church was bought with God's "own blood" (Acts 20:28).

Paul often referred to the church (or churches) of God12 or the church (or churches) of Christ.13 He identified himself as being a former persecutor of the church (Phil 3:6; see 1 Cor 15:9). And his apostolic ministry centered on planting churches and building up churches. Paul's letters (particularly to the Corinthians) are filled with instructions to the early Christians about their behavior in their assemblies. One scholar therefore observed, "When he speaks of ἐκκλησία, [Paul] normally thinks first of the concrete assembly of those who have been baptized at a specific place. . . . Ecclesiological statements that lead beyond the level of the local assembly are rare in Paul's letters."14 In Ephesians and Colossians, Paul intimately related and identified Christ with the churches (e.g., Eph 2:20; 3:10–12; 4:15; Col 1:17–18,24; 2:10), particularly by using the language of husband/wife and head/body to describe Christ's relationship to the church (Col 3:18–19; Eph 5:22–33).

General Epistles

The book of Hebrews mentions the church once (12:23), referring to an earthly assembly with a heavenly destiny.15 James 5:14 refers to a loca...