Since the church is expressed in a locality, it is on the earth and exists today. Hence, as far as space is concerned, the church’s expression is on the earth; as far as time is concerned, this expression exists today. Some say that the church will be expressed in the future and in heaven. This kind of speaking is too far off. We do not need to wait until the future for the church to be expressed, because the church is expressed today. Neither do we need to wait for the church to be expressed in heaven, because the church is expressed on earth today. Yes, the nature of the church is heavenly, but the expression of the church is on the earth. Moreover, this expression is on the earth today. Yes, the nature of the church is eternal, but the expression of the church is in time.
As we have seen earlier, the Bible clearly says that the church in Jerusalem was in Jerusalem and that the church in Antioch was in Antioch. These churches were in localities and in time. Moreover, the Lord Jesus Himself confirmed that the church is something on the earth. Acts 9 records that on the road to Damascus the Lord appeared to Saul, who was persecuting the church, saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (v. 4). In this verse Me is a very great “Me.” Saul could have said to the Lord, “I am on the earth. How can I go up to heaven to persecute You? I have only persecuted Peter, James, Stephen, and others who were with them, but I have never persecuted You.” Yet the Lord said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” The Lord said this because the church is the Lord’s Body, that is, the Lord Himself. Persecuting the people of the Lord, His church, is persecuting the Lord. The Lord and His church are one. Therefore, the Me in verse 4 does not simply refer to the Lord in heaven but also to His church on the earth. It refers not only to the Lord in eternity but also to His church in time.
The Lord’s word here strongly refutes the general assertion that the expression of the church will be in heaven in the future. These people say that the church on the earth today is a mere formality, and since the genuine church is heavenly, it must be in heaven, eternal, and in the future. The Lord’s word, however, completely refutes this kind of speaking. The Lord fully acknowledged the church in Jerusalem as His Body, Himself. This is the reason the Lord said to Saul, “Why are you persecuting Me?” This clearly shows that although the church is heavenly, the church is expressed on the earth, and although the church is eternal, the church is expressed today.
The local expression of the church is for the universal expression. The church must be expressed locally in order to be expressed universally. It is through the expression in localities that the church is expressed in the universe. Therefore, it is not possible for the church to abandon the boundary of locality. Once the local expression is abandoned, there cannot be a universal expression of the church. Once the local expression of the church is abandoned, the church is but an empty theory. If there were no churches in localities, there would be no church in the universe. We fully agree that the nature of the church is universal and that the church is expressed universally, yet this universal expression is realized through local expressions. Hence, without localities, it is simply impossible to have the church.
Although the expression universal church cannot be found in the Bible, it is not unreasonable to refer to the church as being universal. The church referred to in Ephesians 1:22-23 can be called the universal church. However, we must remember that the expression of the universal church is local. Since this expression is local, the church is a local church. Thus, to say that the church is only universal is merely theoretical, and to say that the church is local is practical.
Let me repeat, it is not wrong to call the church in the universe the universal church, but over the past two thousand years no one has ever seen the universal church. If we asked Paul, he would say that the churches were in definite places, such as Ephesus and Antioch. Therefore, to speak of the church as being only universal is to engage in vain talk. In reality, the expression of the church is in localities. The churches spoken of in Acts 15:41; 1 Corinthians 11:16; 16:19; 2 Corinthians 8:1; and Galatians 1:2 and 22 point to the fact that in reality the expression of the church is in localities. Although the church is universal, the church is expressed locally. Since the church is expressed in many localities, the local expressions are called churches.
The church in a locality is the expression of the universal church in that locality. Hence, every local expression of the church is a local church. We must remember, however, that a local church is the expression of the universal church in a locality. The local church represents the universal church and is part of the universal church. Hence, not acknowledging the local churches is the same as not acknowledging the universal church, and not contacting the local churches is the same as not contacting the universal church. This is because a local church is the expression of the universal church in that locality.