The Churches, the Saints, New Jerusalem
The prior post emphasized that God’s New Testament building, culminating in New Jerusalem, is composed of Himself and His people. It is not a physical building.
After writing that post I began to consider the opening words of the epistles. Romans to 2 Thessalonians are to corporate recipients. Five (1 Cor., 2 Cor., Gal., 1 Thes., 2 Thes.) are “to the church” or “to the churches.” Clearly these are addressed to the believers, not to a physical building.
The two epistles to the Corinthians specifically are to the church, to the saints. Those who are sanctified by believing into Christ Jesus are the church in their place. Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians are “to the saints” although the word church is not mentioned.
The greetings continue with “grace to you and peace.” Surely, this is not a greeting to a physical building; grace and peace are the Lord’s supply to His believers!
This church is universal, around the whole earth, and local in each city. The local aspect is shown in the epistles being written to all the believers in each city cared for by the apostles. And also in Revelation 1:11 there are 7 churches, 7 cities.
The universal church, including all born again Christians, is growing and being perfected to be manifested as New Jerusalem!
Bible verses quoted in these posts are from The Holy Bible, Recovery Version, published and © by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim CA, 2003. The text of this Bible is at text.recoveryversion.bible; this too is © by LSM. A New Testament of this Bible, with outlines for each book, 9000 footnotes, and 13,000 cross references, is available in multiple languages for free from Bibles for America, Bibles for Canada, Bibles for Europe.
