The Cross and the Person of Christ # 21

What the Church Is (continued)

Of course, one of the governing things in deciding what the Church is is our standpoint. While the building with a spire or tower is so often called a church - and no one with any spiritual intelligence believes that it is - it will serve as an illustration of a major point. Supposing you saw such a building called a church standing on its spire with its main building right up where the top of the spire usually is, what would you say about it? You would say two things. One: "It is upside down." The other: "It is top heavy." Perhaps you would say: "It is absurd!" But that would entirely depend upon your standpoint. Supposing you were up 10,000 feet in a plane and viewed it as though the cloud-ceiling was your earth? There it would be right, and it would be upside down if in its usual position here. It depends upon whether our standpoint is earthly or heavenly. From the standpoint of the New Testament - which is "in the heavenlies" - the Church as it is now on the earth is upside down. Its main bulk is earthly, and its smallest point is heavenly. I have no doubt that whoever invented the church steeple intended it to indicate that the Church points  to heaven, which, of course, is true. Really from God's standpoint the Church has no connection with this world in this dispensation beyond testimony. It is not mainly pointing upward, but, being a heavenly thing, is testifying downward! To link the Church with this world at present in any other way is to forfeit all that is really vital to its impact upon the world. The Church therefore cannot be a national thing, nor can it be international. There is no such thing with God as the Chinese Church, the Indian Church, the American Church, or the English Church. The Church belongs to no country! It can only be the Church in any country or countries. Nor is the Church composed of all nations or nationalities. There cannot be Greek and Jew" in the Church. To think and speak and act as though there were is to have failed lamentably to see God's thought as to the Church, and it does matter very much whether we are right or wrong in this.

In the same way, and belonging to a true apprehension of the Church, we must see that it can never be denominational, interdenominational, nor nondenominational as such. A world federation of "churches" would altogether miss the Divine idea, and as lamentably break down in its spiritual value as did the League of Nations; it would be just another spiritual fiasco.

The Church may or may not be found somewhere inside all of the above, but it is other than they are.

It will be seen that, so far, we are on a negative line, and this has to be pursued a little further yet. There are sincere people of God who need to be reminded that the Church is not constituted upon some special line or measure of Divine revelation. Light as to the Church or the Body of Christ does not make those who have it the Church. The Church is not made by seeing a fuller meaning of the Cross or the Body. Important as this is in relation to expressions it is not basic to the fact.

There are many other negative factors which affect this issue, but they will be covered as we proceed to the positive side. If we are actuated or influenced by the things as above mentioned, it is because we have not yet, after all, seen Christ.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 22 - "The Church is for the Expression of Christ")