The Beauty of the Church

Photo: Jeremy Wong – Pexels

What words might you and others use to describe the Church? By which of course we don’t mean a building or a particular institution; rather we mean the Church as the people of God. Sadly, many people would come up with negative words. We don’t need to rehearse the words here – I’m sure they come quickly to mind. But this shouldn’t be the case. As we’ll see, whilst the church is imperfect in many ways, it is also beautiful: In fact in the period before Christ returns the Church, in all its weakness, reveals God’s beauty to the world.

This is the sixth in a series on Beauty – the previous post can be found here. Following the thinking of theologian Jonathan Edwards, we’ve seen that there is a

Cycle of beauty that begins with the Lord, extends to creation, takes personal bodily form in Christ, is displayed corporately by the Church, and culminates in heaven.

Strachan and Sweeney, Jonathan Edwards on Beauty

So far in the series we’ve asked “What is beauty and why does it matter?” before considering the beauty of creation, and seeing how the beauty of creation points beyond itself to the beauty of relationship – and in particular the relationship of love in the life of the Trinity. We’ve seen that the supreme place to see that love revealed is in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

But in the period between the first and second coming of Christ, there is another way of seeing beauty – and that is through the Church, the people of God. And in this post we’re asking a very specific question: “How is the beauty of Christ revealed through the Church, in the period before Christ returns?”

By way of a taster, Strachan and Sweeney put it like this:

The Church has a holy identity as the people of God, and a profound role in the cycle of beauty… It represents the lasting physical manifestation of Christ on earth – an outpost exhibiting the beauty of God in a darkened world.

Strachan and Sweeney, Jonathan Edwards on Beauty

We’re going to consider three ways in which Christ’s beauty is revealed through the Church: The first relates to the nature and value of the Church; the second relates to the life of the Church; and the third relates to the shortcomings of the Church.

The Church united to Christ – a revealing of Christ’s beauty

As we consider the nature and value of the Church, in my view the best place to look in the Bible is the book of Ephesians. Let’s consider a few images we find there:

God’s inheritance, Christ’s body and fullness

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, ¹⁹ and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength ²⁰ he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, ²¹ far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. ²² And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, ²³ which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Ephesians 1:18-23

In these verses the apostle Paul prays that God’s people in Ephesus – and indirectly, we – would know 3 things: First, the hope to which he has called us – that is, the Christian hope, the hope of heaven with God.

Second, he prays we would know the riches of God’s glorious inheritance in his holy people. It’s easy to miss the significance of these words. God has a glorious inheritance, and as the creator of the universe and the Lord of heaven and earth he could choose anything as his inheritance. What does he choose? His holy people! He values his people as his inheritance above anything else. Doesn’t that make us feel incredibly precious as his people?

Third, he prays that we would know God’s power to bring about his purposes. But in verses 22-23 he describes the end result: Christ is head over everything – Lord over the heavens and the earth. And for what purpose? For the benefit of the Church! And what is the Church? It is his body – the body of which Christ is the head. And not just his body – his fulness. In some remarkable way the Church gives Christ greater fulness, even though God is not lacking in any way. As Strachan and Sweeney write of Jonathan Edwards on this subject,

Edwards did not believe that Christ needed the Church in order to be happy, but instead thought that the church magnified Christ’s existing happiness and self-satisfaction.

Strachan and Sweeney

God’s household, temple

We next read about the Church in Ephesians 2:

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. ²¹ In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. ²² And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Ephesians 2:19-22

In the previous verses Paul has shown how Christ’s death has brought Jewish and Gentile believers together. This is important – spiritually, Jews and Gentiles were as far apart as you could imagine; and yet through Christ’s death they have been brought together. In the same way we can say today that through Christ every people group, every nation, every class, male and female, young and old – all have been brought together through Christ’s cross (see also Revelation 7:9-10).

In these verses Paul explains the result of this: there is one new household, the family of God – the Church. And this is a new temple in the Lord – the place where God dwells by his Spirit.

Christ’s bride

²² Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. ²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansingher by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷ and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

Ephesians 5:22-27

These instructions may be controversial, but let us focus on the main point Paul is making: Human marriages are little pictures, pointing towards another, greater marriage: the marriage of Christ to his Church (see also Revelation 21:2; Isaiah 62:5). Think of the look on a husband’s face as his bride walks down the aisle towards him – love, delight, joy, expectation; that is also how Christ looks at his bride, the Church.

Again this shows how valuable the Church is, and how the church is united to Christ, revealing something of his beauty. The Church is the bride of Christ, united to him, one flesh with him. Jonathan Edwards writes:

God’s Church, that in Scripture is represented as Christ’s house or temple, and as his raiment or ornament, and as a golden candlestick, is wholly constituted of those saints that are his jewels, that are the spoils of his enemies, that were once his enemies’ possession, but that he has redeemed out of his hands.

Jonathan Edwards, Notes on Scripture

Universal, invisible Church

It’s worth clarifying that in Ephesians Paul is referring to the universal, invisible Church – that is, the body of people through time and space who are united to Christ through faith and repentance. He’s not referring to a particular denomination; or to all the people who gather together in every church building on a Sunday – because not every person who gathers is necessarily repenting and believing. We can’t see into people’s hearts, and so only God knows the full membership of the invisible Church.

How can we know that we are part of this universal invisible Church? The key question is – “Am I repenting and believing? Am I seeking to follow the Christ of the Bible?” If so – I’m part of this Church.

Rainbow: Beauty of individual members

Commenting on Genesis 9 and the image of the rainbow, Jonathan Edwards encourages us that each member of this universal church is infinitely beautiful and valuable. He considers the multitude of individual drops of moisture in a rainbow, and writes:

They are all God’s jewels; and as they are all in heaven, each one by its reflection is a little star, and so do more fitly represent the saints than the drops of dew… These drops are all from heaven, as the saints are born from above.

Jonathan Edwards, Notes on Scripture

Strachan and Sweeney explain what Edwards is saying:

Christ is the sun in Edwards’ mind, the light which beams over all creation. The saints (individual believers) are the tiny drops of moisture. Just as the sun’s rays catch each drop, however small or insignificant, so does the love of Christ extend to each of his children. This light beautifies each person, each ‘drop’, allowing each the opportunity to participate in the reflection of the Lord’s loveliness. The combined beauty of the raindrops is greater still, for the whole as united is together much more beautiful.

Strachan and Sweeney, Jonathan Edwards on Beauty

Each individual member of the church – including you and me – is like a drop of moisture adding to the beauty of the whole rainbow. Each part is unique, each part is important, each part adds to the beauty. I wonder if you have grasped that about yourself?

So the church is beautiful because it is united to Christ. It is his body, it is the temple of the Holy Spirit, it is the bride of Christ. And like the drops of moisture in a rainbow – or the parts of a body – each part adds to the beauty of the whole, and is itself beautiful.

The Church revealing Christ’s beauty by living out Christ’s love

The local church

Our second observation is related to the life of the church – so our focus shifts from the universal invisible Church, to the local church. This is the definition of the church according to the 39 articles of the Church of England:

The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful people, in which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ’s ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same…

Article 19

Imperfect on earth

We know that the local church on earth is imperfect. Commenting on the Old Testament temple built by King Solomon, Jonathan Edwards writes this:

By Solomon’s temple is meant the church triumphant (in heaven), as by the tabernacle the church militant (on earth). By the exact fitting … of these stones … represents the perfection of the saints in glory. Heaven is not a place to prepare them: they are all prepared before they come there… The world is the place where God hews them, and squares them by his prophets and ministers…

Jonathan Edwards, Notes on Scripture

In other words, God is perfecting his Church on earth. Just as the stones of Solomon’s temple were hewed and squared before they were added into the temple, so God is transforming his people into the likeness of Christ in preparation for heaven.

Perfected through the Word and Spirit, in love

How does he do this? In Ephesians 4 Paul writes:

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, ¹² to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Ephesians 4:11-13

Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers: These are all people who teach and proclaim God’s word the Bible. In other words, it’s through the Word of God, the Bible in the power of the Holy Spirit that God builds his church up to maturity. In particular, it’s as we gaze on Christ and so become more like him in the Spirit’s power, as explained in 2 Corinthians 3:18:

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:18

And supremely it’s as we learn to love one another and those around us. You can find much about love elsewhere on this blog, but take these words of Jesus as just one example:

Jesus said “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

John 13:34-35

Result

What will be the result of this?

Do everything without grumbling or arguing, ¹⁵ so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky ¹⁶ as you hold firmly to the word of life.

Philippians 2:14-15

What does this verse and others like it tell us? That as God’s people live out our faith in love for one another and those around us – we will shine like stars across the dark backdrop of a lost and helpless culture; those around us will see our lives, our good deeds, and will give praise to God (1 Peter 2:11-12). And even the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realm – including the spiritual forces of evil – will be forced to recognise the wisdom of God in knitting this group of people together (Ephesians 3:10).

So as the local church let us love one another. For as we do, Christ’s beauty is revealed. Quoting Jonathan Edwards again,

‘Tis a thing infinitely good in itself that God’s glory should be known by a glorious society of created beings.

Jonathan Edwards, The End for which God created the world

The Church revealing Christ’s beauty by being dependent on Christ

Finally, some brief reflections on the shortcomings of the church. It may seem like an admission of failure to highlight this. But the reality is that the Church is flawed and the Church is weak.

Flawed

Constant mistakes, errors and sins have been committed over the years by those claiming to be Christians, and by those who are Christians. There’s no need to catalogue them here, simply to acknowledge them.

Weak

Many times over history the Church has appeared to be declining, dying out – just as to some it seems to be doing so at this moment in our culture. Its resources can seem pathetic compared to those of the world.

But the flaws and weakness of the Church are reminders that the Church is utterly dependent on Christ. When forgiveness is asked; when the church repents of a wrong course of action and moves back to what is right and good and beautiful (1 Timothy 3:15); when prayers for deliverance are offered up to God in times of weakness and frailty – Christ’s beauty is revealed.

Jonathan Edwards writes this concerning the apparent weakness of the Church:

This is still the more exceeding wonderful if we consider how often the church has been approaching to the brink of ruin, and the case seemed to be lost, and all hope gone; they seemed to be swallowed up. In the time of the old world when wickedness so prevailed, as that but one family was left, and yet God wonderfully appeared and overthrew the wicked world with a flood and preserved his church. And so at the Red Sea, when Pharaoh and his host thought they were quite sure of their prey, yet God appeared and destroyed them, and delivered his church. And so it was from time to time in the church of Israel, as has been shown. So under the heathen persecution… the Christian church all of a sudden rises out of the dust and prevails… After the darkest times of the church God has made his church most gloriously to flourish.

Jonathan Edwards, History of the work of Redemption

And it is helpful to be reminded of the words of Jesus:

I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

Matthew 16:18

Conclusion

In spite of how it sometimes appears, the Church is beautiful. Let’s take time to reflect on these glorious truths so we might see the Church as Christ sees her, and that increasingly she might reflect his beauty in this period before Christ returns.

Taking it further

‘Jonathan Edwards on Beauty’ – Owen Strachan and Doug Sweeney