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Belleville, Ontario, Canada
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The Body of Christ and the Local Church
What is the difference ?
Definitions
1. What is the body of Christ?
A. The body of Christ is all the saved of all the world of all ages. Abraham & Joseph are just as much a part of Christ's body as any of us.
There are not 21 churches, one for each century. We sometimes refer to "the 21st century church," but we need to be careful.
B. Eph. 1:22-23 - Christ's body is the church (universal):
"And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body."
C. The body of Christ is all those found in the Book of Life. Phil. 4:3 - "And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life." Heb 12:22-23 - The body of Christ is registered in Heaven: "But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven." Rev 20:12 - "And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books." :15 - "And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire." Rev 21:27 - Speaking of Heaven, John says, "But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life."
2. What is a local church?
A local church is a group of Christians who happen to live at the same time in the same area who have agreed to work and worship together to accomplish what the Lord has given the local church to accomplish. examples - the church at Corinth, at Ephesus, Thessalonica, Central, Antioch, etc.
Differences
The Lord determines the makeup of His body, while men (to a large degree) determine the makeup of the local church.
1. The Lord adds to and takes away from His body.
A. Acts 2:47 -The Lord adds to His body: "Praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." When someone is baptized for the remission of their sins, if they are sincere God will add them to the body of Christ. But what if they are not sincere? Will God add them? No!
B. Rev 3:5 - Christ also can take away from His body: "He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels." This verse implies that we can be blotted out of the Book of Life, and Christ will do the blotting. Only Christ decides who should be cut out of His body. Rev 2:5 - Christ is speaking to a whole local church when he says, "Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place; unless you repent." A local church can be fallible, but the body of Christ cannot.
2. Men add to and take away from the local church.
Could we ignorantly be wrong in this?
A. Acts 9:26 - The church at Jerusalem was not willing to accept Saul: "And when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, and did not believe that he was a disciple." :27-28 - Barnabas persuades the church to accept Saul: "But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. So he was with them at Jerusalem, coming in and going out." They had every right not to accept him as long as they thought he was a sinner. Acts 18:24-27 - Aquila & Priscilla teach Apollos: " ." The church in Ephesus encouraged those in Achaia to receive Apollos. The church at Achaia had to decide for themselves whether or not to accept him.
B. 3 Jn. 9-10 - The church may refuse who God has accepted:
"I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the pre-eminence among them, does not receive us. Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words. And not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren, and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church." John & those with him are faithful men, accepted by God, but Diotrephes will not allow the local church to receive them.
Diotrephes even put out of the church those who wish to receive them. He is putting some out of the local church who are still in the body of Christ.
C. Gal. 2:4 - The church may accept who God has rejected: "And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage)." The local church had accepted some not accepted into the body of Christ. We can be a member of a local church and not be a member of Christ's body. The earlier example of one being baptized for the remission of sins but not being sincere. Do we agree that Christ would not add them to His body?
Would we accept them? Yes, because we cannot know their heart.
Based on the actions, or lack of, some of the members, I would be pleasantly surprised if we did not have members of local churches who are not members of the Lord's body! In our fallible understanding, we may do something that God does not do.
We may not do something that God does. The actions of men do not always reflect the actions of God. 2 Tim. 2:19 - "Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: "The Lord knows those who are His."
3. Hypocrites.
"I'm not going to worship there. Some of them are hypocrites." There are no hypocrites in the body of Christ! There will sometimes be hypocrites in a local church. However someone is not a hypocrite just because they sin.
4. Social factors.
A. We can socialize people into a local church. We can make them feel like we need their singing ability, teaching ability, etc. It is as if they are doing us a favour by joining us.
B. We cannot socialize our way into the Lord's body.
5. Baptism.
Baptism is related to the body of Christ, but not necessarily a local church. Gal 3:27 - Baptism places us in the body of Christ: "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ."
Our primary concern should not be, "What must I do to be accepted by the church?", but instead, "What must I do to be accepted by the Lord?" Don't worry about being faithful to the church, because it may go astray. Be faithful to the Lord, and you will never go astray. Local churches may die or close their doors, but the Lord's body will never die or close its doors. There is one sense in which the Lord's body will close its doors: on the Judgment Day. Mt. 25:10-13 - parable of the wise & foolish virgins: " ." Is your name in the Book of Life? Are you in the body of Christ?
Henk Frijters
www.folsom.sk.ca/gohere.html
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