Ecclesiology Through Imagery
By Jerry Batson, Th.D.
Special to The Alabama Baptist
We have previously considered insights from two biblical images for the Church — a body and a bride. This week Theology 101 turns attention to the image of a building as a way of thinking about the Church. Ephesians 2:19–22 uses this imagery, saying, “Now, therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole 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.”
Several truths about the Church stand out in this passage. A basic truth is that the Church is God’s building. The Church is much more than another human institution; it belongs to God. We who help comprise the Church are not our own but have been bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:20). Consequently, the Church is not a building but a people — people who have been redeemed through Christ. Although we commonly refer to the structures where God’s people gather for worship as a church, we do well to keep in mind that the essential building material for churches does not consist of wood, brick and mortar, but individuals who belong individually to God.
‘Holy temple’
The church as a building suggests further that this is not an ordinary kind of building but a temple kind of building, described as “a holy temple in the Lord.” It is the indwelling of a holy God that makes redeemed individuals a holy temple. As the temple building in Old Testament times was God’s dwelling place, so now God’s people comprise His dwelling place by His Spirit.
This truth serves as a reminder that when we think of God’s Spirit being present when His people gather for worship, we are not to think of the Holy Spirit as floating invisibly around, above or under the pews. His presence is found in His indwelling of the gathered people who belong to God because of the purchased redemption made possible through the coming of Christ. Spiritual sacrifices are offered to God from within the lives of believers. The Spirit seeks to flow through us and touch others with the sense of God’s presence. Open-hearted praise and worship allows the Spirit access to the whole gathered congregation.
The truth about the Church expressed through the imagery of a building is much larger than the analogy itself. This spiritual building is capable of growing but not by adding on another wing or extending a couple of walls. This building is capable of growing in holiness, as well as growing in size through the conversion of sinners.
Chief cornerstone
The building imagery about the Church also captures the truth that this spiritual building was initially built on the foundation of apostles and prophets. Among those foundation stones, Christ Himself became the chief cornerstone. The physical building of a church grows as masons lay brick upon brick. The Church as the spiritual building of God has grown through the ages as person after person has responded to the gospel. All of those redeemed by the blood of Christ have been “fitted together” to comprise God’s building.
We do well to remember always that what God has fitted together we are not to devalue, discount or disassemble.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Jerry Batson is a retired Alabama Baptist pastor who also has served as associate dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University and professor of several schools of religion during his career.
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