The Perfection of the Church

Something to keep in mind regarding the authenticity of the church within the context of her imperfections is that while the church exists she is also in a very real sense coming into existence. The church is complete and yet incomplete. The church in her present form is capable of fulfilling God’s purpose for her. However, the church also has a future purpose for which she strives to attain. In that sense, the church will never be complete or perfect until she becomes fully united with Christ. However, completeness or perfection need not be measured by a standard that is only applicable for the future. The church as she is now may be seen as perfect in the midst of her imperfections. While there are many throughout history and up to the present time who have misused the church and used her as a platform for their own agenda, this does not extinguish absolutely the fact that the church has also been made up of many people who have given themselves whole-heartedly to serving Christ and those made in the image of Christ.

To put this symbolically, the church is the body of Christ, and if a form of cancer or a tumor or some sort of disease infects the body, the imperfection must be removed. However, in the removal of the disease, the rest of the body is not done away with – at least of course, every effort must be made in order to save what remains good within the body. Similarly, when an imperfection arises within the church, the imperfection should be removed or made to be in alignment with the perfect rather than issuing the removal of the entire body. So while, imperfections do exist within the church, the church is indeed a valid institution that will never be destroyed. The church has an eschatological hope that says that all that is imperfect will one day be removed, leaving only the perfect. So in a very real sense, the church may actually be viewed correctly as being perfect. She is perfect because she serves her purpose. She may have not reached the pinnacle of her perfection, but she is perfect. The fullness of her perfection will be made complete through Christ in the event of the eschaton.

In the meantime, there are many problems that still exist within the ministry of the church. There are many examples of this, from priests who sexually abuse children, to a church in Kansas that wishes death upon soldiers and homosexuals; from the crusades, to Hitler’s use of the church to support his creation of the Aryan race and the extermination of the Jews among other people groups. While these unfortunate and sinful acts are a part of the church’s history, one must call to mind the parable spoken by Jesus in Matthew chapter thirteen in which he stated that there was a farmer who planted his seed, but an enemy came and scattered weeds among his crops. The servants were instructed to let the weeds grow up alongside the wheat for fear that if all of the weeds were uprooted while the wheat was still growing, then the entire crop would be pulled up and destroyed. At harvest time, both the wheat and the weeds will be taken up and sorted. This parable may be applied to the church in that one may recognize how the church with all its imperfections will one day be rid of its imperfections. It was not the will of God that the church should appear distorted to the world because of the influence of evil upon her, attempting to overtake her, but that is the way things are at present. God is still using the church to bring His presence into the world. The church is the manifestation of God Himself in the present time.

This brings us to another point. The church remains authentic in spite of her imperfections because the church was God’s idea. It is God who has established the authority of the church to be made into His image and to reflect His own nature to the world. The mission of the church remains the same: to reconcile humanity with God. While many like to point out the hypocrisy of people within the church and while it is a shame that hypocrisy exists within the church, one way of looking at the church’s imperfections is to point out that it was the will of God to display His own nature within humankind. This would include the very raw and very earthy aspects of humanity. God chose to reveal Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, and the church is now considered to be the body of Christ. So while people within the organization of the church do not always measure up to the standard of Christ, they still may maintain the image of Christ, who was the image of God in the flesh. I do not say this in order to excuse sin, but rather to show that it was God’s good will to make His dwelling within us, within people with physical bodies who have been tainted by sin. The best way to view “hypocrites” within the church is to realize how wonderful the grace of God is that He would desire to have people as bent and twisted as these to be a part of His church.

The church is the bride of Christ. Something that has resonated with me is, ironically enough, something that Dr. Quanstrom has occasionally spoken of in his time serving at College Church. He has said that the church is the bride of Christ, and that we ought to speak of the church as though she truly were the bride of Christ. We ought not to speak of someone’s bride in a negative and critical way. It is a nasty tendency and in poor taste for someone to go around uttering criticisms against someone else’s wife, and yet people speak many ill-words against the church, who is the bride of Christ. A groom ought to be angry if he overheard someone speaking poorly of his bride. In the same way, Christ, it would seem, would also be angry to hear someone slandering His bride. Dr. Quanstrom said that to the groom, the bride is never ugly. This is another example of how the church remains authentic regardless of her imperfections because it is God who makes her authentic.