What is the Church?
Photo by Kenny Eliason By R.C. Sproul P
aul gives great attention to ecclesiology, the doctrine of the church, in his letter to the Ephesians. In fact, we could say Ephesians an- swers this question: What is the church? In Ephesians 2:19–22, the chief metaphor Paul uses is that of a building—the household of God. Christians are part of the household in the sense that they have been ad- opted into the family of God, which is another image that Scripture uses to describe the church. But here the accent is not so much on the family of the household as it is on the house of the household: “[We] are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets” (Eph. 2:19–20a). Paul says the foundation of this building called the church is made up of the prophets and the Apostles, that is, the Old Testament prophets and New Testament Apostles. Why? It’s because the prophets and Apostles are the agents of revelation by whom God speaks to His people. They delivered the Word of God. Another way of saying this is that the foun- dation of the church is the Word of God.
That’s why we must pay close attention to our doctrine of Scripture.
trustworthiness of Scripture are attacks not upon a side alcove of this building. They don’t put a dent in the roof of the church. They’re attacks on the church’s very foundation. To have a church without Apostolic au- thority, without the Word of God as its foundation, is to build a church on sand rather than on rock. The foundation of the prophets and the Paul continues the building metaphor in Ephesians 2:20b: “Christ
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Jesus Himself being the corner- stone.” Christ is the cornerstone, the point that holds the founda- tion together. Take out the corner- stone, and everything falls apart. “In [Christ] the whole structure, being joined together, grows into you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Eph. 2:21–22). The church is a new temple built in Christ, by Christ, and for Christ. Obviously, Paul isn’t saying the church is a building made out of mortar and brick, but that we are the stones, the living stones, as 1 Peter 2:5 tells us. Each believer is part of this church just as each stone is part of a building. The church, the new temple, is still under construction. Every day, new stones are added. This new Jesus returns to consummate His
The Associate Reformed Presbyterian
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