Why is the Church part of God's plan?

Yesterday we began to address some interesting questions concerning the Church.  Today we will pick up on these questions by addressing the scriptural teachings concerning the people of God and how it relates to the Church.  As a reminder, I will begin with the questions I was posed in an e-mail.

I am reading the letter of Paul. He refers to the church. When is this term first used? Why? How did he understand its meaning? Why didn't he call the followers of The Way the synagogue? What's the difference between "church" and "synagogue"? Did he coin the word "Church"? I don't remember seeing it in the Old Testament. Did the "church" exist before Pentecost and the Spirit's filling? Which leads to another question dealing with the Holy Spirit that I won't ask at this time. 

In the NT, the term ekklesia is most often translated church.  Ekklesia is a term borrowed from the secular Greek context where it referred to the town meeting in Athens.  Its range of meanings within the scriptures include assembly, meeting, or congregation.  Why do we not see this term used in the OT?  Most likely because we do not look for it in the right places.

Since ekklesia is a Greek term, it would not be used directly in the Hebrew.  Yet, the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, uses the term ekklesia 100 times.  This early translation helps us see that the Hebrew had a similar idea as ekklesia even though they did not use the term.

Jesus also uses the term in several important places.  For example, in Matthew 16:18, Jesus announces to Peter, "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it."  Again in Matthew 18:17, Jesus uses the term to express the process of how to win over a brother or sister who has sinned against you.  The final step before treating a brother like a pagan or tax collector is to bring the charges to the church.  If the individual refuses to listen, then they are to be treated like an unbeliever.  What I find most striking about both of these passages is that they are found in the gospel of Matthew.  I find this book to be the most Jewish of the gospels, and Jesus' use of the term illustrates a continuity with the OT and the gospel of Matthew.

Overall, the term ekklesia is used 114 times in the NT with 46 of those time by the Apostle Paul.

All of these statistics and usages illustrate that the term and idea of church was not invented by the Apostle Paul.  This idea is found in the OT, used on important occasions by Jesus, and it is used by Paul to describe the character of the Christian community.

So now it is time for the million dollar question: so what does all this mean?  In all of these 214 usages, what does "church/assembly/meeting" mean?  Well, there is no clear cut answer!  Paul uses the term church, but also gives us some other images of the church.  He calls it the people of God (Romans 9), God's temple (1 Cor 3), Abraham's seed (Gal 3), Israel of God (Gal 6), Body of Christ (1 Cor 12), Family of God (Eph 3), the Bride of Christ (Eph 5) and the Pillar and foundation of the truth (1 Tim 3).  Furthermore, the apostle Peter calls the church a Holy Priesthood (1 Pet 2), and the Apostle John describes the church as the Bride of Christ (Rev 21).

What I find so interesting about these images is how many of them are direct OT allusions.  In other words, for the NT writers the Church was an extension of the OT idea of the people of Israel.  I know this is tough for some to understand.  Many have been taught that the NT Church was God's plan B after the people of Israel rejected the Messiah.  I find such teaching hard to square with the NT images concerning the Church.  I also find it difficult to square with the biblical teaching of an omniscient and omnipotent God who knows the exact number of hairs on my head (unfortunately decreasing daily!).  

I offer another understanding of the Church.  The Church is the community of all true believers throughout all of time.  Such a community was God's purpose in calling Abraham to be the patriarch for all believers (to be a blessing for the entire world) in Genesis 12 (so says Paul in Romans 4 and Galatians 3).  Thus true Israel in the OT is the same as true Israel in the NT- those who believe the promise.  This is why Paul can write, "It is not as though God's word has failed.  For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel." (Romans 9:6)

What does Paul mean?  Physical descent has some value because of the covenant and the promises.  Yet, those who follow Abraham's example of believing are his true descendants.  I am going to quote one of many passages that illustrate this point because I know that some still will not believe this is the clear NT teaching.  

We have been saying that Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness.  Under what circumstances was it credited?  Was it after he was circumcised or before?  It was not after but before!  And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.  So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them.  And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
Romans 4: 9-12

Even as I write, I can clearly see the consequences for how the Church should understand the sacraments, the covenant community, and the promises.  I will pick up on these ideas at a later time.  I will end with a repeat of what I take to be Paul's definition of the Church.

The Church is the community of all true believers throughout all of time.