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The church stems from the evangel, not the evangel from the church.1 These words of
Robinson take us to the centre of the relationship between the gospel and the Church.
This essay will argue that the gospel creates the Church, but the Church does not create
the gospel. The ontological implications for this asymmetrical relationship will be
explored. These include fellowship with God and one another, the importance of the
gather to understanding the Church and that it exists as an end in itself, not simply a
means to an end. The priority of the gospel over the Church also has implications for
the existence of the Church. It is an eschatological reality that is made manifest on
earth as Christians gather as well as in heaven as they are now gathered in Christ
The relationship between the gospel and the Church
The gospel is Gods self-revelation through the redemptive work of his Son Jesus. As
Calvin writes this is the true knowledge of Christ, if we receive him as he is offered by
the Father: namely clothed with his gospel.2
As the gospels relationship to the Church
is considered, it is imperative to understand that the gospel is fundamentally
Trinitarian. Torrance notes,
In the Gospel God has revealed himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but in
such a way that we know that he is in himself what he is toward us in his saving
acts in history, eternally Father, Son and Holy Spirit in his one divine being,
and that what he is eternally in himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, he is in
his activity toward us through the Son and in the Spirit.3
1 D. W. B. Robinson, Selected Works (ed. Peter G. Bolt and Mark D. Thompson; 3 vols; Camperdown
N.S.W.: Australian Church Record, 2008), 2:109.2 J. Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (ed. John T. McNeill; trans.Ford Lewis Battles;2vols.;LCC
2021;Philadelphia:Westminster, 1960 [1559]), III.ii.6.3 T. F. Torrance, The Trinitarian Faith: The Evangelical Theology of the Ancient Church (Edinburgh: T &T Clark, 1993), 5.
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It is essential to see the relationship between the gospel and the Church as
asymmetrical.4 The self-revelation of the Triune God, through the Son in the Spirit, is
what gathers the elect to God and to each other in the fellowship of believers.5 It is this
gathering through the gospel that forms the Church. This achieves Gods redemptive
goal for humanity.
This can be seen in the prologue to Johns Gospel (1:1-18) where he presents a prcis
of Gods salvation history.6 The eternal Word takes on human frailty and flesh so that
He might gather to the Father those who are His, so that they might become children
of God.7 The eternal Word precedes the act of gathering. As the gospel is proclaimed
by Jesus and the apostolic witnesses the Holy Spirit creates the Church (1 Thess 1:5-6,
2:13; 1 Pet 1:12). This testimony is handed on through Holy Scripture and as it is
proclaimed and applied by the Holy Spirit to the hearts of men and women it
continues Christs work of gathering the elect people of God, forming the Church.
Christ, when he illumines us into faith by the power of his Spirit, at the same time so
engrafts us into his body that we become partakers of every good.8 Simply, the gospel
precedes the Church.
The gospels asymmetrical relationship with the Church reveals three key elements of
the Churchs being. Firstly, it is through the gospel that the Church is created to be in
4 John Webster, The Church and the Perfection of God, in The Community of the Word: Toward and
Evangelical Ecclesiology (ed. Mark Husbands and Daniel J. Treier; Leicester: Apollos, 2005), 77.5 Calvin, Inst. IV.i.2.6 Robert Doyle, The Evangelical Doctrine of the Church, Anglican Church League address delivered at
St. Pauls Cambridge Park in Sydney on Monday 16th June 1997. Cited 20 March 2009. Online:http://acl.asn.au/old/rcd_doctr_church.html.7
At this point I would like to affirm that doctrine of Penal Substitutionary Atonement, Jesus death as asubstitute for sinners, is essential to this gospel that gathers the Church.8 Calvin, Inst. III.i.35.
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fellowship with the divine Trinity and with one another. Secondly, it is by the gospel
that the Church is the gatheredpeople of God. Finally because the gospel creates the
Church, the Church is not an end in itself.
Clearing the ontological air
It is important to recognise that the discussion of the being of the Church is a
discussion of the ontology of the Church. Until recently discussions about the
ontology of the Church have been dominated by two rival ontologies that have lead to
an understanding of the Church as a graded hierarchy or a political empire.9
According to Gunton, an ontology that is informed by the being of God, who is what
he is as the communion of the Father, Son and Spirit will give the proper ontological
basis for the Church.10 Webster concludes that the ontology of the Church must begin
with the doctrine of God, but is firmer in asserting that the relationship between the
Church and God is most properly conceived as a relation-in-distinction, the
communion between the church and its Lord is best articulated asfellowship rather than
participation.11 Webster frames his discussion of ontology in this way because he
observes that communion ecclesiology is heavily invested in a theology of the
ontological union between Christ and the body of the church, and it is
characteristically insecure (even casual) about identifying Christological boundaries.
This makes it impossible to determine the point at which Jesus stops and the church
begins.12
9 Colin E. Gunton, The Church on Earth: The Roots of Community, in On Being the Church: Essays onthe Christian Community (ed. Colin E. Gunton and Daniel W. Hardy; Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1989), 53;Robert Doyle, The Church of the Holy Trinity, The Briefing, 121 (1993): 2; Gunton, The Church onEarth, 51-53.10
Gunton, The Church on Earth, 66.11 Webster, The Church and the Perfection of God, 92.12 Webster, The Church and the Perfection of God, 85.
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An example of this is the ecclesiology of Jenson. He pursues the idea of communion in
ecclesiology to the extent that the when he poses the question Where am I to aim my
intention, to intend the risen Christ?13 He answers, to the assembled church, and if I
am in the assembly, to the gathering that surrounds me.14 This elevates the Church to
a status above that of a creature and this damages our understanding of Christology
and of Ecclesiology.15 It can result in an over-literalising of the metaphor of the body
of Christ to the point where the bodily resurrection of Jesus is the Church.16 As OBrien
notes in his study of metaphors for the Church, To speak of the church as the body of
Christ which is the extension of his incarnation in the world today [] certainly
exceeds the limits of Pauls teaching.17 Torrance also addresses this, When St. Paul
speaks of the Church as the Body of Christ, He is expresslydistinguishingthe Church
from Christ, although the Church is grounded in the oneness of the love between the
Father and the Son (John 17:26).18
The Church is a creature in fellowship with God and one another
This ontological clarification comes by understanding the asymmetrical relationship
between the gospel and the Church. It helps elucidate that the being of the Church is a
creature in fellowship with the Triune God through the gospel. In the gospel and by
the Spirit, God show his grace and gathers the elect to himself, the Church remains a
13 Robert W. Jenson, Systematic Theology (2 vols.; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 2:213.14 Jenson, Systematic Theology, 2:213.15 Susan K. Wood, Robert Jensons Ecclesiology from a Roman Catholic Perspective, in Trinity, Timeand Church: A Response to the Theology of Robert W. Jenson (ed. Colin E. Gunton; Grand Rapids,Michigan: Eerdmans, 2000). 178-87.16 J. A. T. Robinson The Body: A Study in Pauline Theology (London: SCM Press, 1952).17 P. T. OBrien. The Church as a Heavenly and Eschatological Entity, in The Church In the Bible and the
World: An International Study (ed. D. A. Carson. Exeter U.K.: Paternoster Press, 1987), 114.18 T. F. Torrance. Royal Priesthood: A Theology of Ordained Ministry. (Edinburgh: T & T Clarke, 1955;repr., Edinburgh: T & T Clarke, 1993), 31.
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creature upon which God acts and wills.19 The priority of the gospel shows that
although the Church is a creature, it is not simply a human act but a work of God
through the Spirit. As Gunton notices in the ecclesiology of John Owen, The Church
is the work of the eschatological Spirit [] the Son who institutes and the Spirit who
constitutes. 20 Although the Church enjoys the privileged status of being the gathering
of the elect people of God and enjoying fellowship with God through Jesus, it will
always remain ontologically as part of the creation.
The fellowship the Church enjoys also exists horizontally between those who have been
gathered by the Spirit. Through the gospel the dividing wall of hostility (Eph 2:14)
has been removed and Gods elect can now relate in fellowship and community as
experienced in the Trinity. Gunton sees the communion the Church as an echo or a
bodying forth of the eternal community that God is.21 This gets to the heart of the
true being of the Church. True being is not impersonal, but is personal in perichoretic
communion because God's being is.22 The gospel gives rise to the Church as it unites
Christians together, allowing fellowship and communion with each other and with the
triune God.
The Church is the gathered people of God
A second key aspect of the gospels relationship to the Church is that it clarifies that
the being of the Church is the gatheredpeople of God. The centrality of the act of
gathering in the works of God makes it the controlling definition of the being of the
Church. It is simply not enough to say the being of the Church is the people of God.
19 Calvin, Inst. IV.i.5.20
Gunton, The Church on Earth, 72-73.21 Gunton, The Church on Earth, 75.22 Doyle, The Evangelical Doctrine of the Church.
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Scattering in judgement contrasted with gathering in redemption, can be seen as a
pattern of Gods dealing with his creation and his people throughout salvation history.
Gods scattering in judgement can be seen when Adam and Eve are cast out of the
garden and Gods presence (Gen 3:23-24), Cain is driven out for fratricide (Gen 4:14-
16), and the people are scattered at the Tower of Babel (Gen 11:8-9). Doyle notes The
archetypal description of the meaning of destruction of covenantal nationhood is
found in Leviticus 25:33, You will I scatter among the nations.23 Scattering in
judgement also becomes a significant theme in exilic theology, particularly in Ezekiel
and Hosea.24
On the other hand God graciously gathers his people and dwells with them as a sign of
his mercy and blessing. God begins the process of gathering a people for himself with
his promises to Abraham (Gen 12: 1-3). As Exodus 19:4 states You yourselves have
seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles wings and brought you to
myself.25 Gods calling of people to himself and to one another overcomes the
consequences of sin. This continues with his election of a people for himself (Deut
32:9), a people in whom he will make his children (Ex 4:23), and in whom he will
delight (Is 62:4).26 They are simply to be his and are gathered to be in fellowship with
him. As Torrance notes, in the historical experience of Israel before the Incarnation
the lineaments of the Church began to become manifest as the worshipping people of
God calledinto being by His Word.27 This is finally fulfilled and completed in Christ.
23 Robert Doyle, A Response to Graham Coles Paper, in Church, Worship and the Local Congregation:
Explorations 2 (ed. B. G. Webb; Homebush West, N.S.W.: Lancer, 1987), 21.24 Doyle, The Evangelical Doctrine of the Church.25 Doyle, A Response to Graham Coles Paper, 20.26
Doyle, The Evangelical Doctrine of the Church.27 T. F. Torrance, The Foundation of the Church, The Scottish Journal of Theology. 16.2 (1963): 113-131.Emphasis mine.
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In Christ, God reconciles sinful and rebellious humanity to himself and hegathers up
his elect (Eph 2:13), removing hostility through the cross (Eph 2:16) and at Pentecost
the Spirit gathers people anew and reverses the judgement of Babel. For these reasons,
it is not enough to describe the Church as the people of God. This is not a full
description of what God is doing through the gospel of his Son. The church is not
just another word for Christians, or for the people of God. It is, quite specifically, the
assembly of the people of God.28
This understanding of the being of the Church stems from the perspective that the
is the controlling description of the Church. This is opposed to other
metaphors such as the people of God, the Body of Christ or the Bride of Christ.
is often translated as Church although its original meaning is more that of
assembly, gathering or congregation.29 Both Cole and Giles question the prominence
of. Cole argues that it is to be considered as a subset of the more inclusive
concept of people of God and is a logically prior notion to that of Church.30 Both Cole
and Giles contend that this is an individualistic way of thinking and that it may lead
to a lack of a Christian face towards the world, and with it, social introversion.31
Doyle responds by asserting that best fits the same redeemed corporation in
the New Testament because it has become universalised, heavenly, and more
immediate by the earthly person and work of he who was par excellence the inheritor
28 Robinson, SelectedWorks, 109.29 BDAG, 303.30 Graham Cole, 'The Doctrine of the Church: Towards Conceptual Clarification', in Church, Worshipand the Local Congregation: Explorations 2 (ed. B. G. Webb; Homebush West, N.S.W.: Lancer, 1987), 3-
17. 3.31 Kevin Giles, What on Earth is the Church? A Biblical and Theological Inquiry. (North Blackburn,Victoria: Dove, 1995), 14; Cole, The Doctrine of the Church, 3.
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together by the gospel it will continue to participate in the gospel mission of God.
Webster observes The church is by virtue of the being and acts of another; and its acts
are enabled by and witness to the one whom the church owes itself and toward whom
it is an unceasing turning.34 But Webster also notes The Word is not in the church
but announced to the church through Holy Scripture. The church is therefore not first
and foremost a speaking but a hearing community.35 Therefore, because the Church is
created by the gospel, it is not a means to an end but is an end in itself.
This is challenged by Pope Benedict XVIs understanding of the relationship between
the gospel and the Church. According to Volf, Benedict sees that When the Church
acts, Christ is acting; where Christ acts, the Church is acting.36 Volf also notices that
for Benedict the Church plays a key role in mediating the gift of faith as it receives it
from the Lord.37 This understanding stems from Benedicts hierarchical understanding
of the Church in its relation to the triune God with the Pope and bishops possessing
power as vicars.38 This follows from understanding that Christ established the Church
through Peter and it was the apostles who fashioned the evangel that grew the Church.
This has been a constant point of conflict between Catholic and Protestant
ecclesiologies. Calvin responds by indicating that all scripture cries out against it.39
On the issue of keys Calvin writes, Since heaven is opened to us by the doctrine of the
gospel, the word keys affords an appropriate metaphor. Now man are bound and
34 Webster, The Visible Attests the Invisible, in The Community of the Word: Toward and EvangelicalEcclesiology (ed. Mark Husbands and Daniel J. Treier; Leicester: Apollos, 2005),107.35 Webster, The Visible Attests the Invisible, 110-11.36 Volf, 36.37 Volf, 36-39.38
Joseph Ratzinger, Church, Ecumenism, and Politics: New Essays in Ecclesiology (New York: Corssroads,1998), 44.39 Calvin, Inst. IV.vi.6.
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loosed in no other way than when faith reconciles some to God, while their own
unbelief constrains others the more.40 For Calvin the gospel precedes the Church.
Another challenge to this position of the being of the Church comes from more recent
missional ecclesiologies. Chester and Timmis assert Church is not a meeting you
attend or a place you enter. It is an identity that is ours in Christ.41 For Chester and
Timmis, like many missional ecclesiologies, they conclude that The church exists both
through the gospel and for the gospel.42 Although there is much to commend about
such an outward orientation for Christian people, their ecclesiology suffers from an
over realised eschatology and a conflation of the life of the Christian person and the
life and being of the Church. This is not to say that the Church will have no
involvement in Gods mission to the world. It will be caught up in the works of God
both by its existence in the world and through its continuing proclamation of the
works of God in his Son. This, however, does not define its being because the Church
is an end in itself.
The eschatological existence of the Church
With regards to the existence of the Church, because the gospel creates the Church in
Christ and united to Christ, the Church is an eschatological reality. Because the church
is primarily a Christological entity, it is also an eschatological entity.43 The current
place of the Christian is described as presently seated in the heavenly realms with
Christ (Eph 2:6) and Hebrews reveals that the promises made to Abraham were
40 Calvin, Inst. IV.vi.4.41 Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping Around Gospel and Community
(Nottingham: Inter-Varsity Press, 2007), 1842 Total Church, 32.43 Doyle, The Evangelical Doctrine of the Church.
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heavenly promises (11:8-10).44 As Knox comments on the Thirty-Nine Articles he
notes Since Christ is now in heaven, it is there that the NT [sic] thinks of him as
building his church, because the church of Christ is the assembly which he calls into
being around himself.45 The gospel is gathering the Church around the throne of God
in heaven. This is the future eternal hope and current location of the Churchs
existence. This encapsulates the now and not yet eschatological tension experienced
by the Church.
The gospel creates not only a heavenly reality but also the earthly existence of the
Church.46 Calvin observes Where we see the Word of God purely preached and heard,
and the sacraments administered according to Christs institution, there, it is not to be
doubted, a church of God exists.47 This is a fundamental assertion of Article Nineteen
of the Thirty-Nine Articles: The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful
men, in the which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly
ministered according to Christs ordinance in all those things that of necessity are
requisite to the same The Church, as an eschatological entity created by the gospel,
manifests itself in time and space when Christian people gather together around the
Word of God. Knox sees this as not only an outworking of the gospel but a duty.48
The connection between the two existences of the Church is important to articulate.
As OBrien reviews key New Testament images for the Church he observes that:
44 Doyle, The Evangelical Doctrine of the Church.45 D. Broughton Knox, SelectedWork (ed. Kirsten Birkett; 2 vols.; Kingsford , N.S.W.: Matthias Media,2003), 2:141. Emphasis mine.46 The concept of ageneralChurch of all the Christians on earth at any one time has been a fundamental
tenant of ecumenical movements of the twentieth century. This idea of a generalchurch has not beenincluded in the discussion of the existence of the Church because it does not fit within the definition of the
Church as thegatheredpeople of God.47 Calvin, Inst. IV.i.8.48 Knox, Selected Works, 141.
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the earthly entity is best regarded as a manifestation of the heavenly reality, for
example a heavenly gathering around Christ, a heavenly temple, or the body of
Christ in heaven. The New Testament, however, does not precisely designate the
relationship between the two as a manifestation, although it certainly rules out
the possibility of the earthly entity as a part of some universal or heavenly
reality.49
The Thirty-Nine Articles make it clear that the local gathering is a full expression of
the Church even though it does not constitute the full number of those elect in Christ.
Calvin also asserts The church universal is a multitude gathered from all nations []
Under it are this included individual churches, disposed in towns and villages
according to human need, so that each rightly has the same name and authority of the
church.50 The claim to authenticity and authority of the Church was essential for the
Reformation Churches assertion of their own apostolicity and legitimacy but was also a
helpful movement toward an understanding of the local gathering as an authentic
Church. It removed notions of a graded hierarchy or that the earthly Church was
merely a platonic form of the eternal idea of the true heavenly Church. Knox also
helps to articulate the relationship between the heavenly gathering and the earthly
gathering insisting that they are not two fellowships or two gatherings [] but they
are the same fellowship.51 The words of Jesus also assure us of the validity of the earthly
gathering as the Church, as he affirms that he is present with them (Matt 18:20).
49
P. T. OBrien. The Church as a Heavenly and Eschatological Entity, 116.50 Calvin, Inst.IV.i.9.51 Knox, SelectedWork, 2:21.
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In conclusion, because the gospel precedes and creates the Church, the Church is able
to enjoy fellowship with God in Christ and with one another. It does this as a creature
that is essentially gathered to God through Jesus as an end in itself. This gathering is
eschatological, the Church is now constituted in Christ in heaven as well as wherever
Gods people are gathered together by his gospel. This displays of the glory and
faithfulness of God as he gathers his Church to be his treasured possession.