Even as the New Testament mentions 188 ways of speaking of the Church (some of the more common ones being salt, light, temple, bride and building), the chief analogy is body. Christians are the body of Christ.

Obviously we can have a relationship with Jesus Christ only as we are related to His body. No one can glory in the head of the body while disdaining the body itself. No one can cherish Jesus Christ while disdaining His people, love Him while despising His “hands and feet” in the world.

Just as we can have a relationship with Jesus only as we are members of His body, in the same way we can have a public identity as Christians only as we are publicly identified with the Church. The only suitable answer to the question “Are you a Christian?” is this: “Yes, I embrace Jesus Christ in faith and I embrace His people in love.”

We should always be aware that individually we can be useful in the service of our Lord only as we are members of His body. Rather crudely, the apostle asks us to think of a normal human body and then to imagine a leg detached from it “over there,” an arm somewhere else—the sort of ghastly dismemberment we might see at the site of an accident.

“Now,” he asks, “of what use is a detached leg?” Plainly, no use at all. Not only is a detached leg useless, can it even be said to be a leg? If a leg is defined as that which supports and propels a torso, then a detached “leg” isn’t a leg at all.

The purpose of an eyeball is to see. Then is a detached eyeball, unable to see because detached from nerve and brain, an eye at all?

Once any body member becomes detached it’s no more than  a piece of decomposing flesh—unsightly, malodorous and above all, useless.

The Church is no collection of independent parts. Rather, it is the family or society into which believers are unavoidably born again. As one of the chief foreparents of Protestant evangelicalism put it: “There is no other way to enter into [Christian] life unless this mother conceive us in her womb, give us birth, nourish us at her breast, and lastly, unless she keeps us under her care and guidance until, putting off mortal flesh, we become like the angels. Our weakness does not allow us to be dismissed from her school until we have been pupils all our lives” (that’s John Calvin, in his Institutes 4.1.4).

This truth is one Christians have characteristically agreed on: faith in Jesus Christ isn’t quickened and cannot thrive apart from the Church. The Church’s nurture and protection, instruction and edification will be needed until the day when faith gives way to sight and Christ’s people are beyond the reach of seduction, distraction and sloth. The Church is essential to God’s economy of salvation.

“But surely,” someone objects, “when you speak of Christ’s body you don’t mean the local congregation; you don’t mean St. Matthew’s-by-the-Shopping-Mall. Why, in that congregation there are all kinds of problems and more than a few power plays.” (It has been said—truly—that the church is like Noah’s Ark: if it weren’t for the storm outside no one could stand the stink inside.) “Surely that congregation isn’t the body of Christ.”

Yes, it is. Our Lord’s body may be scarred, marred, pock-marked, even deformed or crippled in some respect. Nevertheless, it’s the only body He has.

When Christians in Corinth were ripping apart their fellowship through their bickering, party spirit and out-and-out wickedness, Paul asked them sharply, “Do you despise the Church?” (1 Corinthians 11:22). That stopped them in their tracks. They knew what he was going to say next: “If you do, then you visit contempt upon your Saviour, and you can’t be Christians at all.” Yet the apostle never doubted the authenticity of their faith—they clung to and exulted in their risen Lord—even as he knew that God alone searches the heart and therefore God alone must be allowed to distinguish ultimately between true believers and mere formalists.

The passage from Calvin also makes another useful point. Since Father and mother together “parent” believers, Christ’s people must “believe the Church” without ever believing in the Church. To believe in it would be to confuse the fellowship of Christ’s people with the Lord of that fellowship—a confusion amounting to idolatry. While the Church alone is entrusted with the gospel, the Church never mutates into the gospel.

In short, the twin pitfalls that have haunted Church history—confusing the Church with its Lord or else severing the Church from its Lord—have to be avoided at all times.

In everyday life the function of our body is to do what our head tells it to do. What the head wills the body to do is transmitted through our nervous system, since nerves connect mind and muscle. Jesus Christ has a body on earth (His muscles, as it were) in order that His will for humankind be done. Christ’s purpose for His human (and non-human) creation will be accomplished only as there’s a body that receives the directives from the head, recognizes them and implements them. In turn the body’s proper functioning pleases Christ its head, and the delight head and body find in each other advances Christ’s mission and encourages His people.

There’s at least one thing more we should be reminded of when reflecting on the Church as the body of Christ: the body will last as long as the head lasts. This truth can be a great comfort when people suggest the Church is at risk. To be sure, any one congregation or denomination may be at risk (all we need do is recall how many have disappeared), but Christ’s body is no more at risk than Christ Himself is, and He is never at risk. He has been raised victor over death. He has been enthroned at the right hand of the Father. The powers of destruction cannot prevail against Him; that is, cannot prevail against head and body alike.

The body of Christ existed long before we were added to it. It will thrive long after we have moved from the Church militant to the Church triumphant. The community of Christ’s people will never disappear. The Church is weak? God will strengthen it. Confused? God will enlighten it. Corrupt? God will purify it. “I shall build my church,” says Jesus, “and the powers of destruction shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).