Introduction to Ecclesiology:

Cherishing the Bride of Christ

Theme Verse: Eph. 5:28-30, “In the same way husbands ought to love their own wives as their own body, the one who loves his own wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh but nourished and cherished it, just as also Christ does the church, since we are members of his own body.”

Why Study the Church?

In comparison to the doctrine of God, the doctrine of Christ, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and the doctrine of salvation, the doctrine of the church can be overlooked. It can seem to many as a lesser doctrine that doesn’t appear to be very important. And while in comparison to the nature of God and salvation it may not be as critical, it still must be a vital and important topic for all members of the body of Christ. Even though a wrong ecclesiology is notessential to the destiny of a person’s soul, it does have critical effects for the mission of Christians while on earth.

By understanding the church, it will encourage you in your walk with Christ, challenge you in your relationships with other members of the church, create an increased love for God through understanding his character better, change your perspective of the church, and provide the tools for greater unity amongst the body of Christ.

Revelation of God in the Church

  • Revelation of God’s Wisdom (Eph. 3:10-11), “In order that now he might make known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places through the church the multi-sided wisdom of God according to the purpose of the ages which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
  • In this verse, the church is described as an instrument that displays God’s wisdom to the world. And God’s wisdom is described as multi-sided or other translations say “manifold.” Paul is not trying to describe the greatness or height of God’s wisdom, but the diversity and complexity of God’s wisdom. The word, “polupoikilos”[1] means multi faceted and was used in the OT referring to Joseph’s multicolored coat. It was impossible in ancient times for Jews and Gentiles to worship together as one people. God revealed to the spiritual realm, both good and bad, his limitless assortment of knowledge which brought two opposing people groups, Jews and Gentiles, to be one family worshipping the one true God. The church is not on the sideline, but is on the field so that everyone can be in awe at God’s intricate, multisided, and infinite multi-colored wisdom.
  • Revelation of God’s Grace (Eph. 2:4-7), “But God being rich in mercy through his great love, with which he loved us, and while being dead in our trespasses he made us alive with Christ, by grace you have been saved and he raised us together and seated us in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus, in order that he might show to the coming age the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness from us in Christ Jesus”
  • Through the church, God’s grace is also displayed. Specifically, His grace is showed by his rich mercy to bring spiritually dead people to life to sit with Christ under His reign and rule in glory so that He would show His limitless kindness and grace to everyone. Here, Paul is clear that salvation is dependent upon divine grace, the kind of grace that He accomplished for us and the church. The idea of “being dead” has the meaning of a person who lacks the capability to have any communication with God, just as someone who is physically dead cannot communicate or respond to someone with physical life.[2] Everyone who is apart of Christ’s bride and body is indebted to God and owes whatever desire they have of God to His merciful act of making us alive, because beforehand we lived our lives in complete rebellion against Him (2:1-3). The church exists because God who was rich in mercy brought dead people to life so that they would worship Him as a collective group. God’s mercy and love are at the foundation of our complete salvation experience.[3]
  • The Revelation of God’s Peace
  • Peace toward Man (Eph. 2:14-15), “For he is our peace, the one who made both into one and broke the dividing wall of separation, the hostility, by his flesh, and he destroyed the law of the commandments consisting of decrees, so that he might create in himself the two into one new man making peace […].”
  • At the cross, God revealed the answer to human conflict and an answer that provided everlasting peace, Christ Himself.[4] As mentioned before, the Jews and the gentiles could not live together peaceably because of their worldviews[5], but God provided the power so that within His church all people could have peace under the same head and authority, which is Christ. The answer to human conflict is not a manmade peace treaty, but the peace that comes from heaven where Christ fulfilled God’s law perfectly and died in the place of sinners so that the dividing wall caused by human hostility could be triumphed by supernatural divine love. Through this, all people groups can worship the true and living God within Christ’s church.
  • Peace toward God (Eph. 2:16-17), “And he reconciled both in one body to God through the cross, killing enmitythrough Himself. And after coming he preached peace to those far away and to those near.”
  • The conflict amongst humans is only a shadow of the ultimate conflict that resides between God and man. The human race is described as enemies in their relationship toward God, because of willful rebellion against Him (Eph. 2:1-3). Christ provided the healing antidote to that relationship through his willful death on the cross. The cross was the agent and the means by which peace between man and God could be accomplished. The evil act of death was the cure to man’s disease of rebellion. God transferred the guilt of our sin onto Christ while He was on the cross fulfilling the OT animal sacrifice in order to make peace.[6] Through His own sacrificial act, He destroyed the enmity that was between us. Through one obedient act and faith in that act enmity becomes friendship, hostility becomes peace, and estrangement becomes fellowship (Rom. 5:1, 10; Col. 1:21-22). And so this brought peace to Jews who were near and Gentiles who were far away, which then formed God’s bride, the church

Where did the Church come from?

The church is not just some random group of people that decided to one day gather and worship some guy named Jesus Christ. There is no way millions of people could gather for the last 2000 years and worship the same person in the same way from totally different customs and backgrounds if God did not do something to start the process and sustain its growth. The church, as Ephesians says, is an organism that was developed in the mind of God before the foundations of the world were laid (Eph. 1:4). Gal. 3:8 claims that God preached the gospel to Abraham when he promised that all the nations of the earth would be blessed by him. This was a foreshadow to the coming message that would officially put the church on the earth. The church was in God’s plan before creation and after creation all the way up until the time it was birthed on the Day of Pentecost.

Why be concerned about the church?

Acts 20:28, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has placed you as overseers to shepherd the church of God, which He (God) obtained through His own blood.”

Paul, while giving his farewell address, takes time to tell the elders of the church to have a careful attention and concern for the church. The additional comment about God purchasing His church through his own blood heightens the priority of the Church in the mind of Paul. The middle voice of the word, “obtain” brings out the idea of Christ’s special attention and loving care He has for his bride. Christ purchased the church as an acquisition for Himself to enjoy for all eternity through the church worshipping and praising Him. He loves the church to the extent that he gave his own blood for her greater good. Until we understand the price that was paid in order for the church to come into existence, we will never have a true and passionate divine love for her. This verse is also a witness to the great price that was sacrificed, that the full divine nature of God in the second member of trinity was sacrificed and killed so that the divine God could possess a people for all eternity and extend unlimited grace towards undeserving sinners forever.[7] If Christ went to such great lengths to sacrifice for the good of His bride, shouldn’t we have the same heart felt desire to serve the church?

Application

  1. How has your love for the church been exemplifying itself? Does your sacrifice for the church reveal a heart that loves the church as much as Christ does? Often times as members of Christ’s body, we think it is enough to attend church once a week and a small group bible study. Christ wants the priority of our lives, outside of our families, to be His Church.
  2. How have you been creatively serving God’s people? In what ways have you been showing love to them? A simple visit to someone’s house, visit over breakfast, or hike with them could make all the difference. Teaching a class or meeting every so often with a group of believers to pray for one another is an act of service also. It could also be serving your wife and family in ways you have never done in the past. I would encourage you to be apart of at least one ministry within the church. If there is not a ministry you see yourself currently serving in, then create one. There are all kinds of ways that we can serve one another, lets start being innovative.
  3. How have you been seeing God’s revelation through the church? Have you been seeing the church as a place where God has lavishly revealed Himself? Have you been seeing the church as a place where God has revealed His grace, wisdom, and peace? By viewing the church this way, our desire to serve and love the church grows, because we begin to see it through God’s eyes.

[1] This word first appeared in Attic Greek referring to many-colored cloaks (Bruce, F.F. NICNT, Pg. 320).

[2] The word “dead” or “nekros” in greek was used in ancient greek literature often to refer to wicked people who had an estranged relationship with God as the truest of all deaths in comparison to physical death (Hoehner, Harold, Commentary on Ephesians. Pg. 308).

[3] Calvin, John. Baker Books Publishing, Pg. 224

[4] The arrangement of the words “He is our peace” is a way of providing emphasis upon Christ as the source, agent, and realm by which we have peace with each other (Bruce, F.F. NICNT, Pg. 295).

[5] God chose the Israelites in the OT as a special chosen people who were supposed to reflect the glory of God through His decreed laws. Those laws separated them from all the other nations as a distinct people group. Christ broke down that barrier when he died as the perfect sacrifice, because he fulfilled the law in perfect obedience to the Father, which Israel was unable to do. The law was officially fulfilled by Jesus so that we are recognized with perfect obedience by belief in Christ.

[6] Just as Israelites placed their hands on the animal about to be sacrificed transferring all the guilt of sin, so God placed His hands on Christ so that Christ would receive our punishment that we deserved on the cross (Lloyd Jones, Martyn God’s Way of Reconciliation, Pg. 231).

[7] This passage has brought confusion to some. How can God, who is spirit, give His own blood? Some of the other greek manuscripts replace “God” with “Lord,” because it seemed blasphemous to say that God had a body of blood. Other manuscripts have replaced “through his own blood” with “through the blood of His own Son.” This passage is not difficult if understood that Jesus was both fully God sharing the same nature as the Father and fully human made of blood and water.