This article is the twenty-eighth installment in our series "Christian, What Do You Believe: The Belgic Confession of Faith." Find the whole series here.
Professing Christians sometimes view the church as an option to accept or decline. Some people see it as unnecessary for spiritual growth, so long as they believe in Jesus. They might cite church divisions and the hypocrisy of members—and especially of leaders—as reasons for shunning organized religion.
But the Spirit insists that the church is the “household of God” and “a pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15). As a testimony to Scripture’s emphasis on the church, the Belgic Confession devotes six articles to this theme, around twenty percent of its total content. The confession introduces the church with three sets of paradoxical assertions: the church is visible and invisible, weak and strong, and diverse yet united. These attributes of the church can keep us from leaning in one unbiblical direction or the other.
The Church Is Visible and Invisible
The visible church “consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion, and of their children.” The visible church is known by vital and observable activities such as membership commitments, corporate worship centered around the word and sacraments, loving fellowship, and service. This church is in view when researchers estimate that Christianity has more than two billion adherents today.
The invisible church “is a holy congregation and gathering of true Christian believers, awaiting their entire salvation in Jesus Christ, being washed by his blood, sanctified and sealed by the Holy Spirit.” No research team—no one but God—can count the members of this church, those who are united by faith to Jesus Christ.
Louis Berkhof summarizes the distinction like this: “The church as the spiritual body of Jesus…is essentially invisible at present, though it has a relative and imperfect embodiment in the visible Church and is destined to have a perfect visible embodiment at the end of the ages.”
The visible/invisible distinction guards against several errors. First, it prevents us from equating salvation with church membership. Not all those in the institutional church are of the true body of Christ, being savingly united to Jesus by true faith (1 John 2:19; cf. Rom. 9:6). Second, it warns against counting only born-again people as church members. Young children of believers, as beneficiaries of covenant promises, should be counted as church members and expected, in time, to publicly profess their faith in Christ and personally unite with the visible church. Third, it should keep us from supposing that the visible church is irrelevant and that only membership in the invisible church matters. In the Bible, adherence to the Christian faith is linked to meaningful membership in a local church. If you are united to Christ the head, you will be part of his body (Eph. 5:23, 32).
The Church Is Weak and Strong
The church can seem very frail. It “may appear very small in the eyes of men—as though it were snuffed out.” We may feel like Elijah who cried out “I, even I only, am left” (1 Kings 19:14). The church always has great enemies. The powers of hell try hard, though in vain, to prevail against the church (Matt. 16:18). Apart from God’s upholding providence, the church would be totally consumed (Is. 1:9; cf. Rom. 9:29). But Elijah was wrong. The church is a powerful kingdom that God preserves and supports. He promises, “I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you” (Lev. 26:8). The church is always stronger than we realize.
This truth can also help us avoid errors. First, we must not be pessimistic about the state of the church. Elijah grossly underestimated the health of the church in his day. There remained seven thousand faithful Israelites, a symbolic number perhaps suggestive of a far larger group. But Elijah could see only weakness—so few people are faithful like I am! This attitude offends the head of the church who loves her and is working to make her great.
Second, we must not become so self-confident that we forget from where the church’s strength comes. The church’s only hope is the healing presence of God, which Elijah experienced in “a low whisper” (1 Kings 19:12). “God is in the midst” of the church. For this reason only “she shall not be moved; God will help her” (Ps. 46:5).
The fault for the church’s weakness is ours. Her genuine strength and certain victory are due to God’s faithfulness.
The Church Is Diverse and United
The church’s diversity is evident partly in its age. “This church has existed from the beginning of the world and will last until the end.” The Christian church didn’t start in the Middle Ages, in the days of the Apostles, or in the time of the Jewish patriarchs. The church is as old as the first people who called on God and were saved by his grace (Gen. 4:26). Nor is the church limited to one place or tribe (Rev. 5:9). Churches often are linked to “a certain place or certain persons.” But a national or ethnic identity does not define the church. “The life of the church is always richer, deeper and fuller than that of the segment to which we belong.”
Still, this diverse community is unbreakably unified. There is only one church because Jesus is our only head. There is only one faith that responds to the offer of grace and rests in Christ. The early believers “Were of one heart and soul” (Acts. 4:32) because they belonged to that one church which God purchased with the blood of Christ (Acts 20:28).
The church’s unity in diversity reveals that unity does not require uniformity. In the ancient churches, “there were manifold diversities of ceremonies, but [they] were always free; neither did any man think that the unity of the Church was thereby broken or dissolved.” What unifies the church is our common union to the triune God. Within this generous framework, we “keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3), notwithstanding minor differences in belief and practice. If we allow Scripture to be our final rule, the church’s diversity can help us better know and serve our great God.
Church life is not quite what it seems. The eye sees hypocrisy, weakness, and division. But Scripture reveals a church thriving in Christ’s righteousness, secretly encouraged by the Holy Spirit, and protected by the Father who will one day perfect for himself a holy people against which the gates of hell shall not prevail. These are beautiful truths. Be sure they are so of you, personally. John Stott said that “an unchurched Christian” is a “grotesque anomaly.” “The New Testament knows nothing of such a person. For the church lies at the very center of the eternal purpose of God. It is not a divine afterthought.” Make sure the church is not an afterthought for you.
Footnotes
The Belgic Confession doesn’t use those words. But the later Westminster Confession of faith does (25:2).
Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 566.
Peter Y. De Jong, The Church’s Witness to the World, 235.
The Second Helvetic Confession, 17.15.
John Stott, The Living Church: Convictions of a Lifelong Pastor (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007), 19.
