What Is "The Church"? Discovering God’s People in God’s Plan (Part One)
Why The Church Still Matters
There is a growing desire in our culture to privatize faith, to sever the connection between the spiritual and the institutional. This sentiment, often summarized by the phrase “spiritual but not religious,” has found a uniquely Christian expression: “I love Jesus, but I don’t love the church.” It’s an understandable feeling; I’ve said this myself after leaving a really hard church situation, stepping away from church altogether for three years. We’ve all been wounded by fellow Christians, frustrated by institutional failings, or bored by lifeless traditions. The temptation is to initiate a great divorce—to keep Jesus and let the church go. But this impulse, however relatable, fundamentally misunderstands both Jesus and the life he calls us to. It attempts to separate a King from his kingdom, a Shepherd from his flock, a Head from his body.
The big idea of the Christian faith, woven from Genesis to Revelation, is this: You can’t understand Jesus without his people, and you can’t live the Christian life without his church. To attempt this separation is to embark on a spiritual journey that is profoundly unbiblical and ultimately unsustainable. It is to ignore one of the most foundational promises Jesus ever made.
Standing on the precipice of his journey to the cross, Jesus turned to his disciples and made a stunning declaration about the future. He wasn’t promising a best-selling book, a powerful political movement, or a philosophy that would change the world. He promised something far more personal and enduring. He looked at Peter and said, “upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).
Let the weight of those words sink in. The Church is not a human invention, an organizational afterthought, or a club for the pious. It is Christ’s own personal, unstoppable, and eternal building project. He is the architect and the master builder. The Church is His church. Its survival is not contingent on our clever programs or charismatic leaders, but on His divine promise. The powers of hell itself cannot overcome it. To give up on the church is, in a very real sense, to bet against Jesus.
So what is this institution that Christ is so committed to building? The New Testament offers a rich tapestry of metaphors, but one of the most powerful and practical is to see the local church as heaven’s embassy on earth. An embassy is an outpost of a kingdom in a foreign land. It is a visible, earthly expression of a king’s reign, representing his authority, serving as a community for his citizens, and acting as the operational hub from which the king’s mission is carried out in a foreign land. This is the church: a colony of heaven in a fallen world, a gathering of sojourners and strangers who represent their true King.
Therefore, before we can properly address our legitimate frustrations with the church, we must first re-anchor ourselves in the theological necessity of the church. We must see it not as we wish it were, or even as it often is, but as God declares it to be.
The Indispensable Connection: Why You Can’t Understand Jesus Without His Church
Before we can appreciate what the Church does, we must first understand what the Church is. Much of our modern disillusionment stems from a definition of “church” that is shallow, unbiblical, or shaped more by sociological analysis than by Scripture. We see it as a weekly event, a non-profit organization, or a collection of flawed individuals, and we rightly find it wanting. But God’s Word defines the Church not by its function but by its very being—its ontology. The church does what it does because the church is what it is. And what it is, is profoundly and inextricably linked to the person and work of the Triune God.
The Bible uses several key metaphors to define the nature of the church, each revealing a different facet of its divine identity.
The People of God
This is the foundational identity marker, stretching back into the Old Testament. The Church is the continuation and fulfillment of God’s covenant relationship with humanity, which began with Israel and has now, through Christ, expanded to include people from every nation (1 Peter 2:9-10). To be a Christian is to be chosen by God the Father before the foundation of the world and brought into His family (Ephesians 1:3-5). We are not a random collection of individuals who happen to believe the same things; we are a people constituted by God’s electing grace, “beloved of God, called to be saints” (Romans 1:7).
The Temple of the Holy Spirit
The Old Testament temple was the specific place where God’s glorious presence dwelled on earth. In the new covenant, that reality has been transformed. The Church itself is now the temple where God’s presence dwells. Paul asks the Corinthians, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). This dwelling is both individual and collective. We are “living stones” being built into a “spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:5), a dwelling place for God by the Spirit (Ephesians 2:21-22). To forsake the gathered church is to forsake the very place God has chosen to manifest His special presence on earth.
The Body of Christ
Perhaps the richest and most profound metaphor is that of the Church as the body of Christ. This is more than a sentimental illustration of unity; it is a statement of profound organic connection. In Ephesians, Paul explains that God the Father has put all things under Christ’s feet and “gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23). This relationship is twofold.
First, Christ is the Head, exercising sovereign power, giving life and grace, and directing the body’s movements. The church is not a democracy with Jesus as a figurehead; it is a body that receives its life, purpose, and power from its Head. As theologian Gregg Allison puts it, Christ is the source who “pervades all things with his sovereign rule” and gives “grace and strength to his people.”
Second, the church is His Body, the physical manifestation of His presence and the continuation of His ministry in the world. This vital link between Head and body is not just about receiving life, but about distributing it. Because Christ the Head gives life, the members of the body are then empowered and obligated to minister that life to each other. This theological identity is the very foundation for the practical “one another” commands that fill the New Testament. We are called to “bear one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2) because our Head first bore the ultimate burden for us all.
This deep connection reveals that the church’s very essence is Logocentric—centered on the Word. This refers not only to the written Word, Scripture, but more foundationally to Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word (John 1:14). As Allison notes, our understanding of the church (ecclesiology) can only be developed from our understanding of Christ (Christology). The church’s identity is wholly referred to the being and action of God in Christ.
To separate Jesus from the church, therefore, is a theological impossibility. It is to attempt to separate a head from its body, a king from his people, a cornerstone from his temple. It misunderstands the very identity of both. If Christ is the Head and the church is His body, then you simply cannot have one without the other. This theological reality has massive practical implications for how we live out our faith.
The Indispensable Community: Why You Can’t Live the Christian Life Without His Church
If the Church is theologically inseparable from Christ, it follows that it must be practically inseparable from the Christian life. God has not only saved us from sin but into a people. He has designed our spiritual growth—our discipleship—to happen within the specific context of this community, through means that He Himself has ordained. The Christian life is not a solo journey; it is a corporate pilgrimage.
This corporate reality begins at the moment of conversion. When we are saved, we are not only reconciled to God vertically but also, inseparably, reconciled to God’s people horizontally. One of the Bible’s most precious metaphors for salvation is adoption (Ephesians 1:5). When God adopts us into His family, we don’t just gain a Father; we simultaneously gain a new set of brothers and sisters. As the 9Marks ministry puts it, “Being reconciled to God’s people is distinct from but inseparable from being reconciled to God.” A private, individualistic faith is simply not the one presented in the New Testament.
Once we are part of this family, God provides a “greenhouse” for our growth: the local church. The book of Acts gives us a snapshot of the foundational practices of the early church, which serve as God’s ordained instruments for building up believers: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42).
The Apostle’s Teaching
The primary means of grace by which God saves and sanctifies His people is the faithful preaching of His Word. This is not simply about transferring information or hearing an inspiring talk. The preaching of Scripture is the divinely appointed method to convict sinners, convert hearts, build up the faithful, and sanctify believers (Hebrews 4:12; 1 Peter 1:23). As Joel Beeke and Paul Smalley explain, when the Word of God is faithfully proclaimed, the voice of God is heard. It is the central act of the gathered church because it is God’s chosen way to create and sustain the faith of His people.
Fellowship (Koinōnia)
This is far more than coffee and donuts after the service. Biblical fellowship is the hard work of living out the dozens of “one another” commands in Scripture: love one another, encourage one another, bear one another’s burdens, admonish one another, serve one another. As Kevin DeYoung notes, “Real fellowship is hard work, because most people are a lot like us—selfish, petty, and proud.” Yet it is in this messy, difficult context of real relationships that God refines our character, exposes our sin, and teaches us to love as Christ loved us.
The Breaking of Bread & The Prayers
God has also instituted tangible, visible rhythms for the church’s life. The ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are not mere symbols; they are visible sermons that preach the gospel. In the words of the Reformers, they are outward signs by which the Lord seals on our consciences the promises of his good will toward us, sustaining the weakness of our faith. Baptism pictures our union with Christ in his death and resurrection, and the Lord’s Supper proclaims his death until he comes, nourishing our souls and sealing God’s promises to us. Likewise, corporate prayer is not just a collection of individual prayers. It is the family of God coming before their Father together, demonstrating their utter dependence on Him and promoting unity. The Puritan David Clarkson captured this distinction beautifully: “the presence of God, which, enjoyed in private, is but a stream, in public becomes a river that makes glad the city of God.” We can sip from the stream of God’s presence alone, but it is only in the gathered church that we can swim in the river.
These God-ordained functions are administered within the local church, making it the irreplaceable context for discipleship. Furthermore, this community is the base of operations for God’s mission in the world. This is where the “embassy” illustration becomes so powerful. An embassy is both the community that sends its ambassadors out with the king’s message and the community that gathers new citizens into the kingdom. The Great Commission to “go and make disciples” was not given to isolated individuals but to the church (Matthew 28:19-20). We are sent out from our local embassy to proclaim the good news, and when people believe, we gather them into that same embassy, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all that Christ has commanded. Individual mission is always rooted in and accountable to this corporate body.
The Christian life, from conversion to sanctification to mission, is designed to be lived in community. To neglect the local church is to cut oneself off from the very means of grace God has provided for our spiritual health and flourishing.
Answering the Question, “But Isn’t the Church Optional?”
“I love Jesus, but I can’t stand organized religion.” This sentiment often arises from a modern, individualistic view of faith that the Bible simply doesn’t support. Christ did not die to save a collection of isolated individuals who would have a private relationship with him. He died to create a people, a body, a bride. To reject the “organized” aspect of the church is to fall into what theologian Gregg Allison calls a “contractual ecclesiology,” where our involvement is based on personal preference and perceived benefit. But the New Testament presents a covenantal reality: Christ saves individuals a people, reconciling us not only to God but to one another.
“The church is full of hypocrites and broken people.” Yes, it is. And thank God for that. The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. Kevin DeYoung candidly observes that real fellowship is hard because church people are often “selfish, petty, and proud.” But as Jonathan Leeman reminds us, “that’s the body God calls us to.” To expect perfection in the church is to misunderstand its very purpose. The Reformer John Calvin issued a timeless warning: “If we are not willing to admit a church unless it be perfect in every respect, we leave no church at all.” The presence of broken people is not a sign of the church’s failure, but a testament to the grace of the God who is healing it.
“The institutional church has caused so much harm.” This pain is real, and the church must own its failures. The history of the visible church is tragically stained with sin, abuse, and hypocrisy. But this is not a new problem. In the book of Revelation, Jesus addresses seven real, historical churches, and five of them receive sharp rebukes for being compromised, lukewarm, dead, or doctrinally corrupt (Revelation 2-3). Churches have been flawed from the very beginning. It is crucial to distinguish between the failures of the church (the flawed, earthly institution) and the promise of Christ to build and preserve his and universal church—the complete number of the elect throughout all ages—which will ultimately prevail against the gates of hell.
“I can worship God perfectly well in nature or on my own.” Private devotion is a vital part of the Christian life, but it is not a substitute for corporate worship. God has promised a special manifestation of his presence when His people gather together. As Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). While God’s presence can feel like a refreshing stream in our private devotions, the Bible teaches that in the public gathering of his people, that stream becomes a mighty river.
Conclusion: Re-engaging with the Flawed but Beautiful Bride of Christ
We have seen that the Church is not an optional accessory to the Christian faith. It is theologically essential for understanding who Jesus is—He is the Head, and the Church is His body; He is the cornerstone, and the Church is His temple; He is the King, and the Church is His people. And it is practically essential for living the Christian life—it is the God-ordained context for conversion, growth, fellowship, discipleship, and mission.
Still, the objection remains: the church is messy, broken, and imperfect. This is undeniably true. But the church’s imperfections do not nullify its divine institution any more than a child’s misbehavior nullifies their status as a son or daughter. The New Testament’s most intimate metaphor for the church is that of Christ’s Bride (Ephesians 5:25-27). This image is breathtaking in its implications.
Christ loves his Bride. He “gave himself up for her.” And right now, he is actively at work “to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” This language describes a process, not a current state of perfection. He is sanctifying her. He knows she has stains and wrinkles, and He is patiently, lovingly washing and ironing them out. To abandon the Church because she is imperfect is to abandon Christ’s beloved, the very project to which He has dedicated Himself until the day He returns.
Committing to a local church, then, is not primarily a duty to be fulfilled, but a vital pathway to a richer relationship with Jesus himself. It is an act of loving the One whom Christ loves. Our call is not to find a perfect church, but to invest ourselves in a local, flawed, beautiful expression of Christ’s body. It is to joyfully contribute our gifts, our prayers, and our presence to the health and mission of the very Bride whom Christ is perfecting for himself. In loving and serving his church, we draw nearer to the heart of the Jesus we claim to love.