A People for Himself
This is part 1 of a 7-part series on the doctrine of the church
This article was adapted from a sermon by Levi Bakerink, originally preached on June 25, 2023 at Christ the King Presbyterian Church. You can listen to that recording below.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession… (1 Peter 2:9)
Introduction
Why a series on the church? To put the question another way, Is the church important? To many in our country, that answer increasingly appears to be “no.” Many are leaving the church. And the impact of lockdowns during COVID accelerated what was already a trend in declining church attendance.
In 2022, Ligonier Ministries completed their most recent The State of Theology survey, finding that only 36% of US Adults agree with the statement, “Every Christian has an obligation to join a local church.” Though the percentage is better when considering only professing evangelicals, it is still concerning. Among US Evangelicals, 68% agree that church membership is important, but that leaves 26% stating they disagree that joining a church is relevant to the Christian (with 6% unsure).1 One out of every four professing evangelicals in our nation are not only unsure about church membership, but do not think it is important at all!
No matter how one might dice up the statistics or question the methodology used, it certainly passes the eye-test that church attendance, and especially church membership, have fallen on hard times. Such an attitude is usually accompanied with the belief that “I love Jesus and I have my Bible; that is enough for me.” Maybe that summarizes your feelings as well. Maybe you have reasons for hesitancy regarding the church from past hurts or challenges, or God-forbid, from horrific abuses that have occurred.
Regardless of the trends in our country—and especially in light of them—it is worthwhile for us to consider the church, its nature, its mission, and its importance. A lack of church attendance and membership, especially by those who profess to be Christians, is virtually unheard of in all of church history. Rather, it has always been understood that the church is vitally important. So much so that our Confession states that the church is “the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation.”2
That is a strong statement. Is it right to think of the church in this way? Is it warranted from Scripture to claim that outside of the church “there is no ordinary possibility of salvation?” Answering this, and related questions about the church, is the primary aim of this series of articles.
Put simply, the church is indispensable. The church is not an optional add-on to pick and choose as we begin our Christian life; it is inseparable to our Christian walk. To be a Christian is to be a part of the church.
Put even more firmly: You cannot love Jesus without loving the church.
How can that be true? Because the church is the body of Christ and his Bride. And we cannot at the same time say we love Christ without also loving his Bride for whom he shed his precious blood. God, through Christ, has reconciled a people for himself.
Therefore, we must agree with James Bannerman, who wrote, “A solitary Christian is worse than a contradiction, he is an anomaly.”3
There is no such thing as a solitary Christian, because God has saved a people for himself. Salvation in Christ is at the same time both a union with Christ, and a union with his body, the church. Peter will make this exact point in the second chapter of his first letter, saying that we, God’s people, are like “living stones…being built up as a spiritual house” unto God (1 Pet. 2:5). When God saves us, he intends to use us as his materials for building his church, joining us side by side with other Christians to construct the household of God.
The church, therefore, is indispensable. In the articles to follow, we will explore many of the doctrines of the church and questions that arise from such discussions. In this article, however, I want to consider three arguments for the importance of the church found in Scripture, specifically from 1 Peter 2:4-10.
The Church Is Unlike Any Other Institution on Earth
The church is the only institution that is divinely instituted and divinely ruled by Christ as mediator. It is not a human institution, therefore, but is established by Christ himself. That is the first reason why the church is so important.
The only institution on earth that Jesus promises that he will build—and that nothing, not even the gates of hell, will prevail against—is the church.
Christ built his church, he continues to build his church, and he continues to rule over his church as her Head. Christ alone, no other mere man on earth, is head of the church. And he alone is the cornerstone, rejected by the world, but used by God as the foundation upon which he builds his church. “As you come to him,” who is “a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious” (1 Pet. 2:4). Jesus is precious; he is the chosen One of God.
And he is the cornerstone, or sometimes called the head stone or the chief stone. In any construction, the cornerstone is set first. All other stones and bricks are laid in reference to it. The entire structure is dependent upon the setting of this first stone. That is the relationship between Christ and his church.4
In this series we will consider questions of how Jesus, as Head, rules and governs his church. We will especially consider why we embrace a Presbyterian form of church government, as the biblical means by which Jesus governs his church. Those questions will be considered in later articles.
For now, we simply need to recognize that Christ is Head of his church. There stands, then, a special relationship between Jesus and the Church which is not replicated or found in any other institution, any other group, any other program or club in the world. It is found only within the Church.
The Church is God’s Special People
A second argument for the importance of the church, closely related to the first, is that the Church, and no other group, is the household of God. The church is God’s people. The church is the people for himself, for his own possession. As Jesus is the precious, living cornerstone chosen by God, likewise we are living stones, being built upon the cornerstone, built up as a spiritual house unto God through Christ.
Believers are the household of God. We are built upon Christ, together with his apostles and prophets, who make up the foundation (Ephesians 2:20). Now we, members of the church of God, are built up to be a household, a temple for his own dwelling place.
That is why Peter quotes from the prophet Isaiah, that Christ is the chosen and precious cornerstone, and “whoever believes in him will not be put to shame” (Isa. 28:16). In other words, salvation and eternal life are found in embracing and joining oneself to the cornerstone. But for those who do not believe, this stone has been rejected, and has become a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense (1 Pet. 2:8; Isa. 8:14).
The world is destined to reject Christ, Peter says (2:8b). But that is not who we are. Rather, notice how Peter describes the church: We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation (2:9). We are a people for his own possession. A people that Christ himself possesses. A people whom he has chosen, whom he has made regal and holy. Christ says of the Church: “She is mine, and I love her. I love her in such a way that I have given myself completely up for her and so protect and watch over her that I will never let anything bad happen to her.”
If this is true of the church, then have we any right to dismiss the church so easily? Can we truly say both “I follow Christ,” and, “I have no need for the Church” at the same time? Just as a head cannot be separated from the body without resulting in death, so too is it impossible to have Jesus apart from the church. It is only unto the church, the body of believers alone, that God declares “You are my chosen race, my royal priesthood, my holy nation, my people that I alone possess.”
Nowhere else in the world is there an institution like the church. And nowhere else is there a society on earth whose membership is made up of Christ’s own treasured possession. Peter, then, gives a third reason why the Church is important.
The Church Has a Spiritual Mission
It is the church, and the church alone, who has been put on spiritual mission. The church is is the place in which we live out our royal duty of offering spiritual sacrifices to God (1 Pet. 2:5), and proclaiming the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9).
We are to offer spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ. This is our worship. And it is in the context of the church through which we do this. The uniqueness of the church does not prevent us from worshiping God in every area of our lives. Truly, we are called in all places and all times to offer up ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to him (Rom. 12:1).
But it is within the context of the church, in the corporate, Lord’s Day worship service(s), where we offer up our prayers and hymns, hear from God’s Word both read and preached, and partake of the sacraments together. It is only together that we worship him in these ways. These things have been given to the church and for the church. We will discuss these different means of grace in more detail as we go through this series.
Additionally, it is in the context of the church where we see the mission of the Church advanced. The church has been put on mission by Jesus, her Head and King. We have been chosen as a people for himself, Peter says, so that “you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (2:9). In other words, it is within the context of the church, and not apart from her, that the Great Commission is fulfilled.
At one point in time, we were not God’s people, and we had as yet not received his mercy. But now, through the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, we receive his mercy and are made to be his people (2:10). Therefore, as the church, we proclaim the good news of the gospel to the lost and broken world, and shine the light of Jesus into the darkness.
The church is a unique institution called to a unique mission. In such a broken and hurting world, we do not need the church to take up any other mission than the one her Savior has given. Instead, what the world needs the most right now is the church to be the church. A church that stays on mission and proclaims the great message: Christ has come to save sinners; he called us out of this dark world and brought us into his marvelous kingdom of light, and he can do the same for you.
If that is the mission of the church, then it is well worth our time to consider such an institution and such a calling. We will continue this series next week with a discussion of the distinction between the church visible and invisible.
1 The State of Theology, Statement 24, accessed https://thestateoftheology.com/
2 Westminster Confession of Faith, 25.2, emphasis mine.
3 James Bannerman, The Church of Christ, New and revised edition. (Edinburgh, Scotland: Banner of Truth Trust, 2015), 22.
4 See also Col. 1:18, Eph. 5:23, and Acts 9:4
