The New Testament Church
The church was thought of as a single worldwide fellowship of believers, of which each local congregation was an outcrop and a sample. Early Christian writers often referred to the church as the “body of Christ” and the “new Israel.” These two concepts reveal much of the early Christians’ understanding of their mission in the world.
A. The Body of Christ. Paul describes the church as “one body in Christ” (Rom. 12:5) and “His body” (Eph. 1:23). In other words, the church encompasses in a single communion of divine life all those who are united to Christ by the Holy Spirit through faith. They share His resurrection (Rom. 6:8), and are both called and enabled to continue His ministry of serving and suffering to bless others (1 Cor. 12:14–26). They are bound together in a community to embody the kingdom of God in the world.
Because they were bound to other Christians, these people understood that what they did with their own bodies and abilities was very important (Rom. 12:14; 1 Cor. 6:13–19; 2 Cor. 5:10). They understood that the various races and classes become one in Christ (1 Cor. 12:3; Eph. 2:14–22), and must accept and love each other in a way that shows this to be so.
By describing the church as the body of Christ, the early Christians emphasized that Christ was head of the church (Eph. 5:25). He directed its actions and deserved any praise it received. All its power to worship and serve was His gift.
Common Characteristics. Some common qualities emerge from the many images of the church that we find in the New Testament. They all show that the church exists because God called it into being. Christ has commissioned His followers to carry on His work, and that is the church’s reason for existence.
The various New Testament images of the church stress that the Holy Spirit empowers the church and determines its direction. Members of the church share a common task and common destiny under the Spirit’s leading.
The church is an active, living entity. It participates in the affairs of this world, it exhibits the way of life that God intends for all people, and it proclaims God’s Word for the present age. The spiritual unity and purity of the church stand in bold contrast to the enmity and corruption of the world. It is the church’s responsibility in all the particular congregations in which it becomes visible to practice unity, love, and care in a way that shows that Christ truly lives in those who are members of His body, so that their life is His life in them.
VI. New Testament Doctrines. The Bible sets forth the fundamental teachings of the Christian faith. The early church lived according to these doctrines and preserved them for us today. Let us focus our attention on how the New Testament presents Christianity.
A. Living in Christ. First of all, we are told that God the Father brings Christians into fellowship with Himself, as children in His family, through the death and risen life of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God. As Paul wrote, “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself” (2 Cor. 5:19). So the eternal Son took on human flesh. Jesus of Nazareth, fully God and fully man, revealed the Father to the world. The early Christians saw themselves as people “who through him are believers in God” (1 Pet. 1:21, NASB). They found new life in Jesus Christ, and came into union with the living God through Him (Rom. 5:1).
Jesus promised that, by being “born again,” men and women would find their proper relationship with God and savingly enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5–16; 14:6). The early Christians proclaimed this simple but startling message about Jesus.
Every major religion of the world has claimed that its “founder” had unique insight into the eternal truths of life. But Christians claim far more, for Jesus Himself told us that He is the Truth, not just a teacher of the Truth (John 14:6). First-century Christians rejected the pagan religions and philosophies of their day to accept God’s Word in the flesh.
B. Teaching Right Doctrine. The pagan religion of Rome was a rite rather than a doctrine. In effect, the emperor declared: “This you must do, but you can think as you please.” Roman worshipers believed they needed only to perform the proper ceremonies of religion, whether they understood them or not. As far as they were concerned, a hypocritical skeptic could be just as “religious” as a true believer, so long as he offered sacrifice in the temple of the gods.
On the other hand, the early Christians insisted that both belief and behavior are vital, that the two go hand in hand. They took seriously Jesus’ words that “true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23). What a Christian believed with his mind and felt in his heart, he would do with his hands. So the early Christians obeyed God (1 John 3:22–24), and they contradicted and opposed so-called Christians who tried to spread false teachings (cf. 1 Tim. 6:3–5).
This is essentially what we mean when we speak of Christianity. It is a new life in Jesus Christ, which brings genuine obedience to His teachings.
The article on “Jesus Christ” describes His teachings in detail. Here we will point out the basic differences between what Jesus and His followers taught, and what their pagan neighbors taught.
. The Doctrine of Redemption. Jesus taught that God redeems individuals as well as nations. This was a radically new thought in the Jewish world. Yet the doctrine of personal salvation was the heart of Christian teaching.
a. The Creator God. The Christian doctrine of salvation stood upon the fact that God created the human race. Even this was an unpopular idea in Jesus’ day.
Many Greek philosophers and cultists insisted that God could not have made this evil world, and that it “emanated” from God by some natural process, as ripples “emanate” from a pebble dropped in a pond. But the Old Testament showed that God created the world on His own initiative. He chose to do it. And because God chose to create the world, He could deal with it in any way He wished (Is. 40:28; cf. Rom. 1:20). Cultists taught that evil forces had distorted the “emanations” from God, making the world corrupt. The Bible teaches that God created the world perfectly and made man in His own image, but man chose to rebel against God (Gen. 3). The Greeks believed that the forces of good and evil held the world in a stalemate; they thought evil had corrupted the good, and good kept evil from gaining absolute control of the world. The Christians rejected that idea; they taught that the world still belongs to its Creator, and that evil forces cannot finally prevail. Evil has only as much influence as God permits (Rom. 2:3–10; 12:17–21).
b. Fallen Man. Jesus gave the world a new understanding of man. His followers came to realize that each person is a lost child of God that the Father is trying to restore to the family through Christ (John 1:10–13; Eph. 2:19).
Greek myths said that man is a strange mixture of spirit and flesh, swept about by the unpredictable forces of the world. Orphic myths (stories involving the Greek god Orpheus) insisted that man had an inner nature like the gods. Plato had picked up this idea in his philosophy of the World-Soul; he felt that human beings had a spark of divine intelligence, and that a man becomes more god-like as he develops his intellect and his ability to reason.
The Scriptures contradicted this Greek idea of man. They knew that the most important test of a man’s character was his moral fiber, not his intellect; and in those terms, man certainly could not claim to be like God! “As it is written,” Paul told the Roman Christians, “there is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10). The early Christians believed that, even though man is totally unworthy of God’s love, God keeps on reaching out to man and trying to bring him back into holy fellowship with Him (Rom. 5:6–8).
The early Christian preachers spoke clearly of man’s fall from God’s favor in the Garden of Eden. “Death reigned from Adam,” Paul wrote, “… even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression …” (Rom. 5:14). “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22; cf. 15:45). The Christians believed that Adam’s sin in Eden was the first key event of human history. It meant that man was a fallen creature who needed to come back to God.
c. The Nature of Sin. Greek and Roman writers criticized the immorality of the ancient world, but they had no definite concept of sin. They feared that reckless living would destroy the harmony of their society, but in no way did they think immorality offended the gods. Why should they? According to their myths, the gods were more lustful and greedy than man would ever imagine.
Jesus taught that sin (defined in 1 John 3:4 as lawlessness) is rebellion against God; it is man’s decision to abuse God’s love and reject His way, and it brings judgment. “… For if ye believe not that I am he [i.e., the Redeemer], ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24). Jesus predicted that the Holy Spirit would convict the world of sin “because they believe not on me” (John 16:9). Man chooses to sin, and he is fully responsible for his position in God’s sight.
d. Jesus’ Sacrificial Death. The Old Testament priests sacrificed animals and sprinkled their blood upon the altar for the people’s sins. Jesus told His disciples that He would shed His blood “for the remission of sins” (Matt. 26:28). God Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, was willing to give Himself to die for man’s sins. In this way, He bridged the gap that sin had opened between Him and man. The incarnation of the eternal Son of God enabled Him to be the final sacrifice for sin.
Jesus surrendered Himself to Jewish authorities who resented the message He brought to the world. They charged that He was “perverting the nation” by teaching His followers that He was the long-promised Messiah (Luke 23:2). Jesus had not broken any Roman law, but the Roman governor Pontius Pilate allowed his soldiers to execute Jesus to appease the Jewish leaders. So Jesus was not guilty of breaking God’s law or man’s; even His betrayer Judas Iscariot confessed, “I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood” (Matt 27:4). Yet Roman centurions nailed Jesus to a cross as if He were a common criminal. In fact, He became God’s pure sacrifice for the sin of man, and the early Christians emphasized this in their preaching and teaching (cf. Heb. 10).
e. Jesus’ Resurrection. The Christians declared that Jesus’ ministry did not end with the cross, because God raised Jesus from the tomb. He ministered among His disciples for several weeks until God took Him up to sit at His right hand in heaven (Acts 7:56).
The early Christians told the world how they had witnessed Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension. This electrified the Roman Empire, and caused many people to regard the Christians as a group of fanatics (Acts 17:6). But Paul told his Christian friends, “If Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain: ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished” (1 Cor. 15:17–18).
3. The Kingdom of God. We have noted that Jesus focused upon God’s salvation of the individual; but He also taught that God brings His people into a great community of the redeemed—the realm of God’s saving sovereignty, which Jesus called “the Kingdom of God.” In this Kingdom (presently expressed in the church), God required His people to live a life of brotherly love. They were to practice the ethics of Christ and work for the redemption of all mankind. Jesus did not limit the Kingdom to the Jews; He explained that everyone who was “bringing forth the fruits thereof” belonged to the Kingdom of God (Matt. 21:43). The Gospel of Matthew in particular records many parables (true-to-life illustrations) about the Kingdom; see especially Matthew 20:1–16; 22:2–14; 25:1–30.
Notice that many of these parables point to the end of time, when God will gather all the people of His eternal Kingdom to reign with Him forever. The early Christian evangelists stressed Jesus’ message about the end of time, because they believed they lived in the last days. This spurred the Christians to take the gospel to the far corners of the Roman Empire. They had a burning desire to win lost souls for Jesus Christ before the end came.
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