The Necessity of the Local Church
"A garden locked is my sister, my bride, a spring locked, a fountain sealed." (Song of Solomon 4:12)
Many years ago, Adam and Eve, our father and mother, were cast away from the precious and lush Garden that God had planted. A Garden that could satisfy their every need, from the choicest fruits to beautiful animals, to—most importantly—communion with God. Yet from this Garden they were cast out because of their sin, left to roam Earth, a chaotic, unordered world filled with pain and misery, death and longing, hunger and dissatisfaction; a world where beasts roamed looking to eat up the sons of man. Yet they did not leave without hope, and throughout the Biblical narrative, God sets up “little Edens,” hidden away from the world to nourish His people. From the Promised Land to the New Jerusalem, the day comes when Eden is fulfilled as the people of God see his face for eternity.
For the Christian, what is our little Eden? Where is our garden of refuge, nourishment, and hope? As the Great St. Benjamin Keach once wrote:
Some part of a wilderness hath been turned into a garden or fruitful vineyard: so God hath out of the people of this world, taken his churches and walled them about, that none of the evil beasts can hurt them: all mankind naturally were alike dry and barren, as a wilderness, and brought forth no good fruit. But God hath separated some of this barren ground, to make lovely gardens for himself to walk and delight in … the church of Christ is a garden enclosed, or a community of Christians distinct from the world: “A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse.” (Song of Solomon 4:12)1
The church is our garden. In a world run by chaos and demons, the church is the shining light that exposes the darkness, provides refuge to the Sheep, and is attacked day in and day out by the forces of darkness. Yet, as the Lord said, “the gates of Hell shall not prevail.”
For the Christian, being joined to a local church is not some mere suggestion, it is a duty for our good—set apart by God. The Christian life is not one walked alone; if we imagine Christians as a fire, an easy way to stamp out the fire so that it does not burn as brightly is to separate the kindling. The idea of a “lone wolf Christian” is completely foreign to the Scripture and God’s ideal. Communion with other believers is necessary for the Christian life, which I will set forward to establish.
First, it is helpful to distinguish what we mean by “church,” in this article. Within the Scriptures, we see multiple uses for the word "church," for instance, we have Christ speaking of the Church as all of God's Kingdom (Matthew 16:18) and we have Christ speaking of a local place (Matthew 18:17). We have St. Paul speaking of the church coming together as a local assembly (1 Cor 11:18) and then the Church as something much bigger (1 Cor 12:28). Christ and the Apostle are not being contradictory, so what’s going on? Here we introduce the distinction between the Catholic Church (or, Universal Church), and the local church.
The Catholic Church is both an invisible/visible communion2, the invisible Church is the means of looking at the Church through God's eyes, while the visible church is the means of looking at the Church through man's eyes. The invisible Church "consists of the whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ, the head thereof; and is the spouse, the body, the fulness of him that fills all in all" (1689 26.1). Since God does not err in his viewing of the Church, he truly knows the constitution of the Church, who are the sheep and who are the goats. Meanwhile, the visible Church is "All persons throughout the world, professing the faith of the gospel, and obedience unto God by Christ according unto it, not destroying their own profession by any errors everting the foundation, or unholiness of conversation, are and may be called visible saints" (1689 26.2). The only way that we, as fallible humans, can make determinations on who the regenerate are is through profession and fruit, and this is what comprises the visible Church: those who have made a profession of faith and are living their obedience unto God.
From this group of visible saints, "all particular congregations [ought] to be constituted" (1689 26.2). The local church is the actual physical gathering of local believers joined together by the Spirit through the Preaching of the Word and the due administration of the Sacraments. As St. Keach notes, “The Beauty and Glory of which Congregation doth consist in their being all Converted Persons, or Lively Stones; being by the Holy Spirit, united to Jesus Christ the Precious Corner-Stone, and only foundation of every Christian, as well as of every particular Congregation, and of the whole Catholick Church.”3
Most every Protestant would affirm that extra ecclesiam nulla salus (outside of the Church, there is no salvation) applies to the Universal Church, however, I believe that this is also true—normatively, not absolutely—of the local church as well. Of course, there are exceptions in mind and Grace to be had, Christians will not be damned because they are unable to attend church as a persecuted people, but for us who are not faced with such adversity, who can attend church freely, truly I say, outside of the church, there is no salvation.
The church, being this garden which God planted, is the place of refuge, where the forgiveness of sins is found. The local church, having the power of the keys, is given the authority by Christ to bind and loose in Heaven (Matthew 18:15-20). The great Congregationalist Divines, such as St. John Cotton4, thoroughly defend the understanding of “binding and loosing” as referring to entering into and removing from the church membership. When a fellow living stone is joined into the Congregation, what is declared but their forgiveness of sins by the power of the keys (John 20:23)? When a goat whom we thought was a sheep is found out and excommunicated, what is declared but that they are given up to the chaos and Satan (1 Cor 5:4-5)? The church is given the real authority to bind and loose, to declare and proclaim the objective forgiveness that Christ won as well as God’s judgment against the wicked. Thus, normatively, to seek the forgiveness of sins, one must seek the church. Now none of this is in an absolute sense, of course, the local church can and does err, but it is here that the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed and sealed.
More than that, it is the local church where the Preaching of the Word is to be found. Many Divines have understood that for a true church to be constituted the Word must be preached and the Sacraments must be duly administered. Where the Word is preached, the Spirit works to save (Romans 10:17), the ordinary means of His saving Grace is that upon the Preaching of the Word, the effectual call is given to the sinner. Through the Word being Preached, our faiths are formed, nourished, and sealed above by the Spirit. The Word is milk for us who have been made like infants, born again, nourishing our souls with the blessed drink of the Word Himself.
In the local church, the Sacraments are dispensed, Baptism is celebrated (1 Cor 12:13)—which is the outward means of conversion, the first fruits of Christian faith—and the Lord’s Supper is consumed (1 Cor 11:17-26), where believers truly do receive the Graces promised by Christ in John 6, His True Body—which is True Food—and His True Blood—which is True Drink. The administration of the sacraments are a church act, Godly ministers are called to administer these mysteries (1 Cor 4:1, Matthew 28:19), as the 1689 says, “These holy appointments are to be administered by those only who are qualified and thereunto called, according to the commission of Christ” (1689 28.2). As St. Vermigli discusses throughout his Oxford Treatise and Disputation on the Eucharist, the body and blood of Christ are joined to the elements only upon the Words of Institution. The Word works in the Water in Baptism upon the Baptismal Formula and the dipping by a minister. The Sacraments are not acts that can be celebrated on our own, these are church acts and Works of God. Neither are they empty, meaningless signs, they are efficacious signs of salvation, serving as signs and seals of our faith which nourish the faithful and grow their faith. Where can we go to find Christ if not in the ordinances he established? St. Owen says:
The way whereby, and the means wherein, Christ communicates himself is and are, ordinarily, his ordinances. He that expects any thing from him must attend upon him therein.5
The Early Church devoted themselves to each other for a reason (Acts 2:42-46). Where else but in these gardens that God has planted are we to find encouragement (Hebrews 3:13), to find others to bear our burdens with us (Galatians 6:2), to serve other Christians (Galatians 5:13)? Where else are we to see Christ, He promised to be there when two or three gathered (Matthew 18:20). He is “presiding over them, ruling in their hearts, directing their counsels, assisting them in all they are concerned, confirming what they do, and giving a blessing and success to all they are engaged in.”6 Is it no wonder that St. Paul exhorts us to not neglect meeting together and immediately ties refusing to do so with sinning deliberately for which there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 10:23-27)7? Of course, the principal exhortation in this passage is to “hold fast to the confession” (v. 23), but as St. Owen discusses in his Hebrews commentary, the means of continuing in this confession is through the church and service to other believers. By cutting off the means, you fail to hold fast to the confession, placing yourself outside of the Church. What a misery it is to be put off of the Blessed Ark of the Church and in the waters to drown!
Thus, I say, it is necessary for Christians to meet together, to devote themselves to each other, to hear the preaching of the Word, and to receive the Sacraments. It is necessary for Christians to be joined to the local church, to have their sins remitted, and to be welcomed into God’s blessed and lush garden. As we await the New Creation with an eager longing, rest in the little Edens that God has set up in the meantime.
All Glory be to God.
St. Benjamin Keach, Gospel Mysteries Unveil’d, Volume 2
The 1689 only refers to the Invisible Church as Catholic in Chapter 26, however, I do not think that means that the Confession rejects the view that the Visible Church as Catholic as well since it follows from the invisible/visible Church distinction and is affirmed by signers such as St. Keach in The Glory of a True Church. I find that the General Baptist Orthodox Creed by St. Thomas Monck most explicitly gets this right.
St. Benjamin Keach, The Glory of a True Church
See St. Cotton’s, The Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven
St. John Owen, The Mortification of Sin, p. 152
St. John Gill, Commentary on Matthew 18:20
St. Paul wrote Hebrews, cope!