And hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the Head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. Ephesians 1:22-23
Throughout the world you will find leaders of a vast array of religious organizations who will point to today’s text and declare, ‘He’s talking about us!’ And every one of them is wrong. We know that some of them obviously have to be wrong, because they are functioning entirely outside the description and authority of the Word of God. And not all of them can possibly be right, because they disagree and contradict each other. The problem with all of these so-called churches is that they are the product of human organization. Granted some of them were organized by godly men with a sincere desire to worship and serve Christ. But our text describes the church (or Assembly – the Greek word ‘ecclesia’ means assembly) as the body of Christ. So our text is referring to something that God – not man – has assembled. And as the body of Christ, it cannot refer to any organization on earth, although local representations of it can be found. The body of Christ, the church (or Assembly) is that which God has made the Lord Jesus Christ the Head. And His headship is its most prominent feature.
Every organization, godly or otherwise, had some form of leadership. And every organization acknowledges some form of headship. Every organization whose leadership is not in subjection to the headship of Christ is in error, and cannot be rightly called a church (or Assembly). That rules out most if not all the cults, many of which don’t recognize Jesus Christ as God, let alone the head of the church. It also rules out the Roman Catholics, whose earthly head is the pope, who makes pronouncements that are contrary to the Word of God. But what it doesn’t rule out is the organization, or better yet, the organism, that God has created of all those who have acknowledged Jesus Christ as Lord.
On the evening when I was baptized in the River John, a service was held at the little Independent Baptist Church where my family was attending at the time. During that service, the pastor made an announcement that the three of us who had just been baptized were now members of the church. I was upset about that, because my plan was to decide for myself which church to join. But somebody had made that choice for me. Many times, we are automatically made members of, or are enrolled in, something without our knowledge or desire. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes not. But when it came to our admission into the church of which our text speaks, that was definitely a good thing, even though we had not asked for it. You may have heard the term the ‘church universal’. This glorious organization has enrolled every true child of God, every person who ever has and ever will place their trust in Jesus Christ for salvation.
We are the body of Christ. What does that mean? Get into your Bible and find out. It’s a wonderful study, and it will take you the rest of your life. – Jim MacIntosh