thers that it might
be "known BY THE CHURCH" (verse 10), "the church, which is his body"
(Eph. 1: 22, 23). The ministry, then, should have held the ground
already attained, the actual union of all the saved in one body, and
have labored earnestly "to make all men see" that that body only is
the church.

CHAPTER III

THE LOCAL CHURCH

The words of Christ, "I will build my church; and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16: 18), convey a deeper meaning
than the simple preaching of the kingdom. As we have already shown,
the one specific personal act by virtue of which Christ became the
founder of the church was his atonement on Calvary, where the church
was "purchased with his own blood" (Acts 20: 28). The church, then,
as an institution, resulted from the atonement. Paul, describing the
union of Jews and Gentiles in one body, the church, declares that it
was effected "by the cross" (Eph. 2: 16).

There was power in redemption. It brought into the lives of believers
forces that could not but unite them in social compact. It threw them
together in living sympathy and united their hearts firmly in the
strong bonds of brotherly love. Their outward organic union as a
church was the natural and inevitable result of this inward life and
love.

[Sidenote: Local church defined]

By the impartation of spiritual life to believers and by the agency of
the Holy Spirit operating in the apostles as special agents appointed
to do his work, Christ built his church on earth. There was a building
of the church, then, which pertained specifically to its _local_
and _visible_ development among men. The expression "_I_ will build"
indicates the transcendent element, the divine element, in church
organization. This being true, it follows that the local church was
not merely an aggregate of individuals accidently gathered together,
but was the local, concrete embodiment of the spiritual body of
Christ; the unified company of regenerated persons who, as a body,
were dedicated to Christ, acknowledged of Christ, and used by Christ
through the Holy Spirit for the accomplishment of his work. Jerusalem
furnishes the first example, dating from Pentecost (Acts 2).

[Sidenote: Particular example: Corinth]

That this is, generally speaking, the Scriptural definition of a local
church of God, is further shown by another particular example. Paul
addressed two of his epistles "to the church of God which is at
Corinth" (