“The Church exists to tell anyone and everyone who knocks on her door wondering what’s inside: Come and see” (pg. 58). Such reminders make The Church a worthwhile read.
The Church: A Guide to the People of God. By Brad East. Lexham Press. Hardcover. 200 pages. List Price: $18.99
What is the Church anyway?
Many of us have spent so many years participating in church activities, we have long ceased asking this question. We are so caught up in the business of church life, we do not think to analyze the institution as a whole: to consider the theoretical that lies behind the practical. But the most basic questions are often the most important—the ones we must return to in order to refocus and renew our common life together.
Brad East’s book The Church: A Guide to the People of God could serve as an introduction for the uninitiated, but it is more likely to be a reintroduction for those who have known and loved the Church for many years. That may be its most valuable contribution, for as much as East relies on the familiar, he has a way of presenting it that often caught me by surprise, helping me to examine things from a slightly different angle.
“The Church is the fullness of the One who fills all things,” East writes. “She is the body of the lord of Heaven and earth. She is the beloved of God, wooed and betrothed by God himself. She is the one for whom God became man” (pgs. 2-3). This vision of the Church as chosen, beloved, consecrated, and commissioned runs throughout the book, casting a positive vision for Christ’s Body on earth at a time when its authority has never been more questioned.
“In a favorite phrase of the Protestant Reformers, the Church is the creature of God’s word. Every term here is important. The Church is a creature: she is not the Creator. The Church is created by the word, which refers to the good news about Jesus. This word, though, is not human but divine: it is the speech of God Himself, who spoke the universe into existence and speaks again, through Christ, to redeem it” (pg. 11).
To be part of the people of God, East says, is, “To be loved into existence, to be loved into election, to be loved into salvation” (pg. 98). He emphasizes the Church’s role as the guardian of salvation: not that it adds anything to the finished work of Christ, but it preaches the good news of redemption and administers the sacraments which deliver God’s grace to sinners.
There is therefore no concept of a Christian apart from this community. “The Church is our mother because it is in her, by her, and through her that we receive Christ. If you want to know Christ, seek Him in the Church, which is at once His bride and His body” (pgs. 135-136). Or as East also writes, “You are a Christian among Christians or not at all. To be a Christian is to belong to the Church” (pg. 134).
East’s approach in this book relies more on biblical theology than systematic theology, which is to say that he follows the story of God’s people through Scripture, mostly in chronological order. He pinpoints the Church’s beginning to the calling of Abraham, which occurs based on the sovereign, creative work of God rather than anything inherent in Abraham. “This pattern is one that marks the Bible from start to finish: the gracious initiative of God promises an unexpected and extraordinary future, and all we have to do is accept it. The word for such acceptance is ‘faith’” (pgs. 24-25).
This strategy means that many aspects of church life go unaddressed, e.g. the best type of church polity, the specifics of corporate worship, and congregational discipline. Even the sacraments do not receive their own chapters, though discussion of them is woven in at key points. Rather, this is an examination of God’s unfolding work in history and how the Church today is connected to the ancient people of Israel.
Here it is useful to know a bit about East’s personal views: he is aligned with the Reformed theological tradition, which places a particular emphasis on the links between God’s people under the Old and New Covenants. While Christians have at times erred in dismissing the relevance of Israel’s story for the people of God—most notably the heretic Marcion—Reformed Christians are on the other side of the spectrum, seeing the Church as a continuation of the nation of Israel under a single Covenant of Grace. According to this view, the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and New Covenants all share the same substance: the redeeming work of Jesus Christ offered to sinners by grace through faith.
East is not writing for a solely Reformed audience, so he does not use Reformed-specific terminology or provide an in-depth breakdown of the biblical covenants. But at times, his Reformed perspective does come through. “For gentile believers,” he writes, “Israel’s history is family history. There is one people of God across time; to this people you and I belong by faith” (pg. 51). Christians of various denominations could agree with that, but perhaps not as he applies the principle elsewhere.
East concludes that “the Law of God is good news” and “divine commands are divine grace in the form of an imperative” (pg. 72). This is not the way that Martin Luther would have described it. For him, commands fall under “law” and grace falls under “gospel.” While I do not believe East meant to compromise the Reformation understanding of grace, which he provides elsewhere in the book, this type of language could cause confusion.
Even so, there is much to benefit the reader in this work. East even channels Martin Luther’s The Freedom of a Christian when he writes, “The freedom of God’s people is bidirectional. It is freedom from oppression, bondage, and every despot who would presume to possess what is God’s alone. But it is also freedom for: for life, for covenant, for righteousness, for worship, for God” (pg. 63).
I also appreciated how East affirmed the fullness of our union with Christ, to the point of bodily participation. “By the Spirit, Jesus Himself dwells in our bodies, just as He did in Mary. Indeed, just as His very own flesh and blood grew and developed in her womb, so in Holy Communion the Church venerates, consecrates, and partakes of what is truly the blood and the body of Christ” (pg. 12). He furthermore adds, “To be God’s people is to be intimate with this body, to know it, to remember it, to celebrate it, to receive it. Even to be it. Even to eat it” (pg. 111).
The chief purpose of the church is to testify to the good news of Christ’s atoning death and resurrection, both in Word and sacrament. “The Church exists to tell anyone and everyone who knocks on her door wondering what’s inside: Come and see” (pg. 58). Such reminders make The Church a worthwhile read.
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