Matthew 16:18
What is the Church? It is people who believe in Jesus, who is God the Son of our triune God.
Jesus calls it “my church” in this verse. Paul states the church is the body of Christ, and that Christ is the head (Ephesians 5:23). The church is sustained by Christ.
So, if you believe in Jesus, you are a member of Jesus’s Church!
Sadly, there is much disagreement and confusion regarding this simple term church, since it has amassed a number of definitions. Thus I offer a biblical clarification.
First, Jesus’s Church is not a building.
There is a “church” in Virginia which I started attending the summer after I graduated from college. That church had an influence on me for Christ, and less than nine months after I started sporadically worshiping there, I gave my heart to Jesus.
That church had been in existence since the 1760’s, and the city was even named after that church. Years later, that church lost their building. What did they do? They started worshiping on Sundays in a high school auditorium. They remained a “church” even though their building was taken. However….
Second, Jesus’s Church is not an incorporated organization in this world. That “church” in Virginia will always be special to me. It was my first church. Yet that “incorporated” church will not be in heaven, rather the believers of that church will be in heaven. Earth is full of countless “churches,” yet heaven has one Church, a body of people under Christ, with no other divisions.
Once I taught at a small Christian school deep in Appalachia. It was one of the hardest jobs I have ever had, and I was only making $350 a month since I was considered a “missionary.” Yet I loved the students, and I enjoy teaching about the Bible.
Now the school had students from many denominations, and even students who did not attend church, yet the school was supported by Brethren “churches.” There was a super cool teacher there who was the favorite of many students. He was a member in that denomination. Once when a few teachers went out to dinner on a Sunday night, we were asking him the specifics about his denomination, since that denomination has several sects. He stated, “I am Brethren. I don’t do subtitles.”
Jesus’s Church ultimately does not have “subtitles,” since all believers have one Savior! And all believers have one heavenly Father!
When a person believes in Jesus, he or she is forgiven of sins. He or she is justified before God. He or she is baptized with the Holy Spirit. And she or he is adopted into the family of God. And she or he is on a path of sanctification as a child of God.
Thus a believer is saved by Jesus, the head of the Church, and she or he becomes part of Jesus’s Church.
And being adopted into the family of God, believers in Jesus are brothers and sisters-in-Christ who have been adopted by the heavenly Father.
Both Jesus’s Church and the family of our triune God are the same body!
Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6 NIV).
You can trust Jesus that He stated the truth!
In conclusion: If you believe in Jesus, you are a part of Jesus’s Church! The Church is us!
Hunter Irvine
