The Church: The Gospel Made Visible

by Mark Dever

the church is the new creation.

A third major

image cluster used for the church is centered around the idea of fellowship.

Ultimately, fellowship among Christians in the church is based on the Christian's covenantal union with Christ.

The final, and perhaps best known, image used to characterize the church is the

body of Christ.

One other image in the New Testament worth considering briefly is

the kingdom of God,

Scripture makes a distinction between the reign of God (present and coming) and the church. The church in fact comprises the people of the kingdom,

The church is the community of the Kingdom but never the Kingdom itself.

The Kingdom is the rule of God; the church is a society of man.

a matter of recognizing God's authority and living under it.

the church is the koinonia or "fellowship" of people who have accepted and entered into the reign of God.

The relationship between the kingdom and the church can therefore be defined: the kingdom of God creates the church.

True Christians "constitute a Kingdom in their relation to God in Christ as their Ruler, and a Church in their separateness from the world in devotion to God, and in their organic union with one another."

notae ecclesiae

The church is one, holy, universal, and apostolic

The church is one and is to be one because God is one.

The church is one, though divided.

It becomes visible when believers share the same baptism, partake of the same supper, and look forward to sharing one heavenly city.

The church is holy and is to be holy because God is holy.

So the church's holiness is fundamentally Christ's holiness. It possesses it by the declaration of God.

At the same time, Christ's holiness will be reflected in the church's holiness.

The church is holy, then, in the sense that it is daily advancing and is not yet perfect."

The church is universal and is to be universal because God is the "Lord of all the earth"7 and "King of the ages."

Universality alone among these four attributes is not actually found in the New Testament.

The continuity of the church across space and time prevents the church from being held captive to any one segment of it.

The church is apostolic and is to be apostolic because it is founded on and is faithful to the Word of God given through the apostles.

There has been a succession of apostolic teaching based on the Word of God.

Yet the apostles' teaching rather than their persons are the focus of this attribute.

The physical continuity of a line of pastor-elders back to Christ's apostles is insignificant compared to the continuity between the teaching in churches today and the teaching of the apostles.

The church is already one, but it must become more visibly one . . . in faith and practice. The church is already holy in its source and foundation, but it must strive to produce fruits of holiness in its sojourn in the world. The church is already catholic, but it must seek a fuller measure of catholicity by assimilating the valid protests against church abuse . . . into its own life. The church is already apostolic, but it must become more consciously apostolic by allowing the gospel to reform and sometimes even overturn its time-honored rites and interpretations.

the right preaching of the Word of God and the right administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper.

The first mark is the fountain of God's truth that gives life to his people, and the second is the lovely vessel to contain and display this glorious work.

The church is generated by the right preaching of the Word. The church is distinguished and contained by the right administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper.

It should also be noted that this latter mark presumes and implies the practi...

The consistent message of Scripture is that God created his people and brings them to life through his word.

The God of the Bible is recognized as the great Initiator.

The God of the Bible is also the holy God.

The God of the Bible is a faithful God.

The God of the Bible is a loving God.

And the God of the Bible is a sovereign God.

This is the God his people are commanded to love. All other gods are a creation of the human mind and will share in the vanishing fate of every other illusion. The God of the Bible must be the foundation and framework of all teaching and preaching in the church.

The right teaching of the true church, therefore, centers itself upon a right understanding of the gospel.

If congregants are regarded as consumers rightly expectant of a spiritual upgrade, not as rebels before a holy judge, then the gospel has probably been forgotten.

Such churches build community around something other than the gospel. Any unity they experience is a unity based on a false message.

The true church is cruciform, not necessarily in its architecture but in its teaching.

what sets Christian teaching apart from every other major religion is that its head acts as both example and Redeemer.

when the church gathers, it gathers not simply as an instructed or edified people but as a ransomed and saved people.

Churches must not err by neglecting either repentance or faith.