Previously, Theology 101 has looked at the biblical imagery of the Church as the body of Christ and the bride of Christ. This week, we begin consideration of the Church as God’s building.
When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers he reminded them, “You are God’s field, you are God’s building” (1 Cor. 3:9). Previously, Jesus had declared in Matthew 16:18, “I will build My Church.”
When He began to build the Church, Jesus chose 12 disciples He later termed apostles. Ephesians 2:20 refers to the Church as “having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets” before adding, “Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.”
Strong foundation
While the Church is revealed in the New Testament, we cannot forget the preparatory revelation God sent through His prophets. For example, Isaiah wrote, “Thus says the Lord God: ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation’” (28:16). As God’s building, the Church has Christ as its cornerstone and the Old Covenant prophets and the New Covenant apostles as its foundation.
With modern building methods, typically the cornerstone is a ceremonial stone placed at the conclusion of the building process. In ancient times, the cornerstone was the first stone put in place. Rather than ceremonial, it served to square up the other foundation stones that were laid in relation to its perfect angle. The imagery of the Church as a building leads us to understand that Christ, as the cornerstone, was the first and only totally perfect stone in its foundation. God’s truth, as revealed through His Son and illumined by His Spirit, furnished the essential guidelines for the foundation-laying work of His disciples.
‘Living stones’
Across the centuries since the foundation was set in place, the superstructure has been going up. Believers are said in 1 Peter 2:5 to be “living stones.” God has continued to build His church using people who have been made spiritually alive through their saving faith and the Spirit’s regenerating work. When we look around at the members of our local church’s weekly gathering, we are looking at the very building material out of which God is continuing to build His Church.
Ephesians 2:21–22 declares that the building “being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”
Church membership at its best is described as “togetherness.” When members are argumentative or divided, church growth is stymied.
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