Not long ago I met a man who belonged to a civic club. The association had a certain rhythm. They had monthly meetings, quarterly spaghetti dinners, and yearly fundraisers for children; nothing fancy, but admirable and simple. During our time together this man would often extol the good deeds of the organization, but there was always a subtext. What makes the church different from my club? In this comparison, he was asking questions about nature or essence. Maybe that is a question on your mind.

One Church

If you are familiar with the Apostle’s Creed, you know that one point of belief is “the holy catholic church.” I will discuss the attribute of catholic or universal in the second article. Church is singular. There is one universal church. However, if you drive through the middle of any town or city, you will not have enough fingers to count the number of churches you pass by. But rather than begin with the creed or experience, let us instead turn to the Bible.

The Scriptures clearly indicate that the church (Greek ekklesia) in its mature state had its beginning in Jerusalem. But those early believers gathered in Jerusalem were not all from Jerusalem. Some were from Galilee, others from Asia, and still others from Egypt. In each place, the term ekklesia was applied to the circle of believers in a specific geographical location. This means that not only was each gathering of God’s people in Judea, Galilee, and Samaria called the church, but Luke could address all of them as “the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria” (Acts 9:31).

It would be one thing for Luke to speak of the churches in those three geographical areas, but to speak of many churches as one church takes some explanation. Let me again remind you of the Apostle’s Creed. The church, we are told, is a matter of faith. It is something we believe. We certainly appreciate the fact that belief in God is a matter of faith, but why belief in the church? We can see it with our own eyes; so why must we profess belief in it?

The reason is the church is not a human institution but a divinely created body. In fact, it is the body of Christ over which He is the head. Thus, the church in each geographical location is the same as the church in its entirety and, according to Herman Bavinck in Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 4: Holy Spirit, Church and New Creation, “Christ is for that local church what he is for the universal church.” That is the foundation of what makes the church different from a civic club.

Two Aspects: Visible and Invisible

It is important to remember that the Church is a divinely created body, the body of Christ. A single location of believers is the body of Christ, and yet the collective is also the body of Christ. This point, which is a matter of faith, helps us to remember that the church is not a human institution. It is of God. Knowing this prepares us to think of the church as both a physical and spiritual reality. Thus, there are two aspects of the one church: visible and invisible.

The Westminster Confession of Faith summarizes these two aspects in the first two sections of chapter 25, which is titled, “Of the Church.” There we read that the invisible aspect “consists in the whole number of the elect” of the past, present, and future. The visible aspect “consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion; and their children.”

These visible and invisible aspects of the church are distinctions we often take for granted and are therefore prone to distortion. For example, the visibility of the church can be underemphasized if not eclipsed altogether. Men and women can become disillusioned with what they describe as the institutional church so that they abandon all aspects of the visible church and retreat into their living rooms on Sunday morning.

However, one may also emphasize the visibility of the church to the extent that the empirical church becomes the sole mediator of grace via the church’s distribution of the sacraments. This is the position of Roman Catholicism to the present day. In fact, the visible/invisible distinction was raised to prominence during the Reformation, when the Reformers asserted the invisible aspect as a corrective to the one-sided view of Rome that the church’s essence was resident in the visible church.

Not surprisingly, this biblical distinction was used to target more than Rome. Only the spiritually blind could fail to notice that the visible church is made up of believers and unbelievers. In Matthew 7:21, on the last day, some will cry out, “Lord, Lord.” The double use of the name indicates intimacy. They will claim to have known the Lord. They will have spoken and done mighty works in His name. However, the Lord will say to them, “I never knew you, depart from me” (Matt. 7:23). God knows the heart. He knows His elect or those who make up the invisible church. However, in this life the church admits members on the basis of a profession of faith rather than an infallible reading of the heart.

One aspect of the church cannot be leveraged against another. We may, but without biblical warrant, decide that the visible church is corrupt and so decide not to attend. And once I spoke to a woman in a mainline church about regeneration only to have her respond, “I don’t know what that means. We don’t talk that way.”

Both are perils to avoid. We must be like Paul who said, when he wrote to the visible church in Ephesus, “[Even] as he chose us in him…in love he predestined us…in him we have redemption through his blood…” Paul understood that there is one church and the two aspects should be in harmony with one another, not at war.

One Church, Another Distinction: Organism and Organization

The harmony enjoyed between the church’s visible and invisible aspects is put on display in another distinction, the church as organism and organization. This feature is not a restatement of the church’s visible/invisible distinction. Rather, organism and organization both have to do with the visible aspect of the church. Yet, these features, which are manifest in the visible realm, are also firmly rooted in the invisible feature of the church.

Let’s begin with the church as organism. Anyone who has been through high school biology will know that an organism is a living thing. A living animal or plant is an organism. This is also true of the church. The church is an organism in that it is a living body. But what makes the body of Christ a living body?

The twenty-sixth chapter of the Westminster Confession gives a partial answer to this question. The communion of the saints makes the body alive. Believers enjoy communion, fellowship, and service that “tend to their mutual edification.” Something else that contributes to the church’s living nature is the spiritual gifts employed by believers for the good of the body. (Good places to explore this topic are 1 Corinthians 12: 1-31 and Romans 12: 1-21.) The Westminster Confession writes that this life is “extended unto all those who, in every place, call upon the name of the Lord Jesus.”

However, as we said before, this visible body life is rooted in the invisible. How so? According to the same chapter of the Westminster Confession, the believer has “fellowship with him [Christ] in his graces” and, “being united to one another in love, they [believers] have communion in each other’s gifts and graces.” Thus, the communion believers enjoy with one another is fed directly by their union with Christ.

Finally, we come to the church’s organization or ecclesiastical form. In contrast to the organism, an organization is not living. Instead, the biblical ecclesiastical organization provides the organism a proper order in which to function. It gives life form.

What is more, when Paul left Titus behind to appoint elders in Crete, he did so believing the organization would be a help and not a hindrance to God’s work on the isle.

Well, what is the difference between the church and a civic club? The church, unlike any other organization, is of God. It is an organization where the organism gets its life from being united to Christ. It is the family of God.