The Church question continues to be one of the most critical in all of Christian thought. To gain a proper understanding of what it is that the Church is, we must turn to the text of Scripture. Ephesians 4:3-6 gives a concise summary of the Church. Paul writes:
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
This definition of the unity of the Church is directly tied to the fellowship of the Trinity, as the “unity of the Spirit” refers to the person of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is paired with the body, the Lord, that is Jesus, is paired with faith and baptism, and the Father is over all. Hence we have the Church, the spiritual Body of Christ, held together by one of the Trinitarian persons. Appropriately enough, Augustinian theology has held that the Holy Spirit is Himself the bond of unity between the Father and the Son, and thus the same principle of unity in the Godhead is the principle of unity in the Church.
A similar description of this relationship is seen in Jesus’ great high prayer, “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:20-21). Here again, the principle of unity between believers is the same as between divine persons. The Church is held together as one body through the Holy Spirit.
Thus if the Church is reflective of the divine fellowship, we must understand its visible manifestation as a visible manifestation of the life of God. As Christ’s body, it is Jesus on earth, though it is also an incarnation of the Holy Spirit as seen at Pentecost. The invisibility of the Church is derived from the divine essence of the Spirit, and the visibility of the Church is derived from the human people. As long as there are believers on earth, there is a Church on earth, and as long as the Holy Spirit holds the Father and Son together in divine love (which is to say, for all eternity), the Church will be one. The Church’s existence and unity is as objectively true as God’s own existence and unity.
Steven,
What is the difference between what I take to be your position regarding the “visibility of the Church”, and the position that “the Church is invisible but some of her members [i.e. the presently embodied ones] are visible”? If there is no difference, then how does your position differ (other than semantically) from that of those who explicitly affirm that the Church per se is not visible, since they too acknowledge that her embodied members are visible?
In the peace of Christ,
- Bryan
I’d need more explanation about those positions. I’d say that the Church is both visible and invisible, analogous to its divine and human relations.
Every living member is visible. The dead members are in heaven (and so they are sort of invisible) until they will once again be made visible to us at the resurrection.
Steven,
I discussed this in more detail here.
Blessed Pentecost to you,
- Bryan