Before Christians can discuss what the church should do, we have to settle a more fundamental question: What is the church? Our understanding of the church determines what we believe about church government, membership, leadership, the ordinances, and the relationship between Christianity and the state. If our definition of the church is wrong, much of what follows will be wrong as well.
The word “church” is used in the New Testament in more than one sense. There is a heavenly or universal aspect of the church, the complete body of Christ, while there are also particular local churches assembled in identifiable places. Paul speaks of Christ as the Head of the church in Ephesians 1:22–23: “And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.” It is important to note, no man or earthly entity can claim the headship of the church.
That universal church, however, does not presently assemble in one geographical location. It has no earthly address. You cannot call all of its members together, appoint officers over the whole body, administer the ordinances to it as a whole, or exercise church discipline upon it. These things take place in local assemblies. The local church is the visible, earthly manifestation of that greater heavenly reality.
This is what we find throughout the New Testament. Paul writes “unto the church of God which is at Corinth” in 1 Corinthians 1:2 and speaks of “the churches of Galatia” in Galatians 1:2. Revelation addresses particular churches at Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. These were actual congregations in particular places, each responsible before Jesus Christ for its doctrine and practice.
The most important fact about any church is that Jesus Christ is its Head. Colossians 1:18 declares, “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.” The church does not ultimately belong to its pastor, congregation, denomination, government, or nation. It belongs to Jesus Christ.
That headship must mean something in practice. Christ is presently seated in heaven, while His churches assemble on earth. A congregation demonstrates its submission to Christ by submitting itself to His word. It makes little sense for a church to proclaim Christ as its Head while refusing to obey what He has commanded. Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 3:15, “But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” There is a biblical order for the church, and we are not at liberty to replace it with whatever arrangement happens to suit our circumstances.
The local church is first an assembly. It is a people assembled together under the authority of Jesus Christ. Acts 2:41 records, “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.” Verse 42 continues, “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” They received the word, were baptized, were added to an identifiable body, and continued together in doctrine and fellowship.
An assembly also requires particular membership. Paul asks in 1 Corinthians 5:12, “For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?” There were those who were “within” and those who were “without.” The congregation had a recognizable boundary.
The New Testament pattern is one of regenerate church membership. People do not become members of a church simply because they were born within a particular territory or belong to a particular nation. Acts 2:41 says those who “gladly received his word were baptized” and “added unto them.” This is why the Baptist conviction concerning regenerate church membership is so important. The church is an assembly of professing believers, not a religious form of civil society containing everyone born within its geographical boundaries.
The local church is also autonomous. This does not mean that churches should have no fellowship or cooperation with one another. New Testament churches communicated, supported missionary work, collected money for suffering saints, and assisted one another. What we do not find is an earthly ecclesiastical government exercising universal authority over the congregations.
Acts 14:23 speaks of elders being ordained “in every church.” Throughout the New Testament, individual churches are treated as responsible bodies before God. A congregation may voluntarily cooperate with other churches, missions, or institutions without surrendering its autonomy to them. Cooperation between churches does not require government over churches.
Within the congregation, Scripture establishes biblical leadership. Philippians 1:1 addresses “all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.” First Timothy 3 gives qualifications for bishops and deacons. The terms pastor, bishop, and elder describe the pastoral office from different aspects, while deacons serve the congregation in their appointed capacity.
This leadership never replaces the headship of Christ. Peter tells the elders in 1 Peter 5:2, “Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly.” The congregation is “the flock of God.” Elders have real responsibility and oversight, but the flock belongs to Christ, and their authority must be exercised according to His Word.
Christ also gave His churches two ordinances: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Matthew 28:19 commands, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Baptism follows faith and publicly identifies the believer with Jesus Christ. The Lord’s Supper calls the assembled church back to the sacrifice of Christ which we remember until His return. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11:26, “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.” The church observes what Christ instituted rather than inventing additional sacraments through which an ecclesiastical institution claims to dispense saving grace.
This understanding of the church has important consequences for its relationship with civil government. If Jesus Christ is the Head of the church, the state cannot be its head. Christ said in John 18:36, “My kingdom is not of this world.” This does not remove Christians from civil society or relieve them of their civil responsibilities. Romans 13 recognizes legitimate governmental authority, and 1 Timothy 2 commands prayer “for kings, and for all that are in authority.” Christians live under civil governments and should recognize their lawful authority.
Civil authority and church authority, however, are not the same thing. Jesus said in Matthew 22:21, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” Caesar has a legitimate sphere of authority, but it is not unlimited. There are things that properly belong to civil government, and there are things that belong to God.
Civil government has no biblical authority to determine the faith or practice of a local church. Likewise, the church was never commissioned to use civil power to produce Christians. The apostles did not set out to capture Caesar’s throne. They preached the Gospel, baptized believers, established churches, taught sound doctrine, and expected those churches to remain faithful to Christ.
When civil authority required what God forbade or forbade what God required, the apostles answered plainly in Acts 5:29: “We ought to obey God rather than men.” This was not a rejection of civil government. The same New Testament that contains Acts 5 also contains Romans 13. Rather, it establishes that civil government has limits. Caesar may be Caesar, but Caesar (Pontifex Maximus) can never be the Head of the church.
Regenerate church membership makes this distinction even clearer. The state governs a population that necessarily includes believers and unbelievers. The church consists of those who profess faith in Christ. The state deals with civil order and possesses the authority to punish wrongdoing. The church operates through preaching, teaching, spiritual discipline, prayer, persuasion, and the Bible. Government may restrain evil behavior, but it cannot produce the new birth. It may punish a criminal, but it cannot make him a Christian.
When church and state are merged, these distinctions begin to disappear. The problem is not simply that such arrangements have sometimes produced bad results. The more fundamental problem is that they confuse two institutions with different purposes, jurisdictions, and means.
A useful definition, then, is that the local church is the visible, earthly manifestation of Christ’s heavenly church: an assembly of regenerate believers gathered under the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to the Scripture, governing its own affairs under biblical leadership, observing baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and remaining institutionally separate from civil government.
This understanding keeps several things distinct that have too often been confused. The universal church is not identical to the local church, though the local assembly manifests that heavenly reality on earth. Civil government is not ecclesiastical government. Christians can cooperate with other Christians without creating an ecclesiastical hierarchy, and they can participate in civil society without turning the state into an instrument of the church.
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Excellent
Thank you