Why do we do what we do as a church? 

I have had the privilege to serve as a representative of our church to our sister church in Pune, India. I travel to Pune on behalf of Omaha Bible Church’s gospel-partnership with Pastor Vineet. Part of my preparation for travel involves registering our trip with the United States Embassy in India.

Of course, one can understand the importance of doing this. The US Embassy will recognize my citizenship along with the benefits of my citizenship while I am in a foreign country. This will be very important as I value the rights and protections that are mine by virtue of my US citizenship.

As a US citizen, I desire to honor the US while I am in India as well as travel with a sense of confidence that I can depend upon my nation’s protection even while I am in a foreign country. My hope is that this illustration will serve as an analogy of the way the local church relates to our heavenly citizenship while we are living as strangers and aliens in the world.

We might say that while the local church is not the kingdom proper, it serves as a Post or Embassy that reflects our heavenly citizenship (based on the terms of the gospel) and extends the spiritual benefits of our heavenly citizenship to believers while we are aliens and strangers in a foreign country.

We gather together to be reminded of our heavenly citizenship along with the citizens of heaven who are also living with us in this foreign land. We gather to be reminded of our constitution so that we might grow in the skill of living in light of our heavenly constitution, serving our heavenly King all the while we live in subjection to the government in this foreign country. As strangers and aliens in a foreign country, believers love to gather with the Church of Jesus Christ, a foretaste of the joys that await every Christian who is a citizen in heaven under the Lord Jesus.

As a member of the local church and citizen of heaven, how should the believer understand the Church? How might the believer think of the Church to encourage him or her to have a meaningful perspective and weighty evaluation of God’s blessing in the church of Jesus? The Church is the body of Christ established as a new creation and spiritual entity that is vitally united to Him, belongs to Him, grows in Him, and proclaims Him.

The Church is a new creation wrought by the work of Christ

The Church is a new entity created in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:10; 15). Ephesians 2:14-16 explains that God’s purpose was to unite Jew and Gentile in union with Jesus Christ. It was the work of Christ “to create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross.”

The word “create” in the English Standard Version is an accurate translation. “Create” speaks of a new creation wrought through the cross and resurrection of Christ.

The Church is a spiritual entity established by God’s eternal purpose

We might say that the Church is supra-national. It is not an assembly of people that is to be identified with respect to God’s common administration of the kingdoms of the earth like Israel, Rome, Greece, and so on. The Church is a spiritual entity enrolled in heaven. The church is a spiritual house that offers spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:5).

The Church is spiritual; a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession” (1 Peter 2:9) While Scripture borrows from the character of a nation and race to describe the Church, yet we must maintain the spiritual character of the Church in our thinking.

It is spiritual because the Church is brought about by the resurrection of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and as such the church is said to be elect exiles (1 Peter 1:1) and sojourners and aliens (1 Peter 2:11) that lives in light of a “living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3-4).

The Church is a new creation, a new man, a household of God, a holy temple that is being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit (Ephesians 2:13-22). It is spiritual for the Spirit builds it, the Spirit poured out because of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. It is a new man raised up in the second Adam, Christ, for it is established upon Christ as the cornerstone and founded upon the apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2:20). It is eternal for it is anchored to God’s eternal purpose that “through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ephesians 3:10-11) and “to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:21).

Indeed, the Church has a glorious uniqueness in union with the resurrected Jesus Christ! A believer is in the church by virtue of his/her union with Christ.

The Church is a spiritual body fashioned for Christ-centered growth

The Church is a new creation, a spiritual entity, and finally a spiritual body. Paul would have the church understand that not only are we created to be His spiritual possession as a body to its head, but that the church is conformed to Christ through spiritual growth.

In Ephesians 2:20-22, Paul turns to the metaphor of a temple structure that is being built into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. The idea of growth is communicated through the picture of the parts of a structure “being joined together” and “being built together” (2:21-22). The cornerstone is Christ Himself, and the foundation of the Church is the apostles and prophets (2:20). Christ orients the growth of His body through the apostolic and prophetic teaching, which is Christ’s teaching through the apostolic and prophetic revelation in Scripture.

We observe this reality of growth through the apostolic and prophetic ministries in Ephesians 4:7-15. In this passage, Paul moves back to the metaphor of a body. He writes that Christ “ascended on high” (4:8) and “gave gifts,” namely “he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (4:11).

Again, we observe the Church in terms of a new creation inaugurated at the ascension of Christ and the dispensing of spiritual gifts to His body. Through the apostolic and prophetic teaching, the saints would grow to maturity in Christ. It is this reality of spiritual growth that draws the members of the body back to the teaching of Christ through His apostles and prophets in the Scriptures. Together we are rooted and grounded in the Word for continued growth in Christ.

Indeed, while the Church is a new creation obtained by Christ’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension for His possession unto conformity to Christ, the body also grows to proclaim the glory of Christ.

We come back to two astounding statements in Ephesians 3:10-11 and 3:21. Paul writes in 3:10-11, “so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.” And in Ephesians 3:21: “to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

Believer, we are the spiritual body of Christ our Lord, to be conformed to Christ through His Word, for the proclamation of Christ throughout all generations, forever and ever! Let us never think lightly of the Church when we gather to remember our King and Savior as a foretaste of the realization of our heavenly citizenship!