Characteristics of a New Testament Church

[John Henry]

Ten Characteristics of A New Testament Church

Ten Exemplary Scriptural Truths Of many that have historically been held to by New Testament Churches through the years

1. Salvation solely in the person, life, and work of Christ by grace through faith. (John 14:6; Acts 4:12; 1 Timothy 2:5-6; Ephesians 2:8-9)

By "person" is meant the two natures of Christ as God-man.  By "life" is meant His perfect 33½-year life of active law-fulfilling.  By "work" is meant His sacrificial death, subsequent burial, and activating resurrection.

The significance of such is that because of His unique person, life, and work, no one else is qualified to be a Saviour.  He only is incarnate God.  He only is Creator God-man.  The God we sinned against is the One who provides salvation from His own wrath for sin.

Jesus Christ, as God, had the infinite capacity to take all the wrath of God.  As God, He had the eternal continuity of existence to be the lamb slain before the foundation of the world.  As deity, He had the commonality of nature with God as God to appease God, with man, as man, to represent man.  As a man, He could be accountable for man before God.  As man, Christ had to have a body in order to pay for the sins we committed in a body.  (Isaiah 7:14; Micah 5:2; John 1:1-3; 2 Corinthians 5:19,21; Colossians 2:9; 1 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 1:8;2:16;9:12-14; 1 Peter 2:24)

2. Security (eternal) of the believer.  (Psalms 37:23-24, 28; John 3:16; 10:25-29; Romans 8:31-39; 1 Peter 1:3-5; Galatians 2:21; Hebrews 10:11-14)

Significance: Saved by grace but kept by human effort?  Salvation cannot be by grace and works both – they are mutually exclusive (Romans 4:1-5; 11:6).  If we didn't do anything to attain salvation how can we do anything to sustain it? How would you ever know if you had sinned away your salvation? Where is the rest promised by Jesus?  When Christ said from the cross, "it is finished," He meant it!  When Christ uttered those words and when He died, all of our sins were in the future!

3. The separate and equal priesthood of each believer (individual priesthood of all believers).  (Romans 8:26-34; 1 Peter 2:1-10; Revelation 1:4-6; 5:9-10).

Significance: Christ was the Great High Priest and we need not the agency of any other to mediate on our behalf.  He was the God-man, the only truly good man, and the great go-between man.  All New Testament believers are kings and priests and have access to God through Him.

4. Scriptural baptism: (Matthew 3:13-17; 28:18-20; Acts 1:21-22; 2:37-42; 6:5-6; 8:26-40; Romans 6:1-6; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 4:4-6; 1 Peter 3:18-22)
- Mode – Immersion in water

 -Meaning – Exemplifies legal identity with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ

 -Authority – New Testament church

 -Subject – Saved person

Significance: Baptism was instituted by God as an earmark of John the Baptist's ministry.  Jesus Christ submitted to it verifying the legitimacy of it and of John's ministry and message.  The apostles required such of the one who was to replace Judas as an apostle.  We have no license to change its mode or meaning, or anything else about it that Christ put under our care-taking.  Baptism does not save, but without what baptism pictures (our identity with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ) we have no salvation.  With what baptism pictures we know upon trusting Christ as Savior we walk in newness of life.

5. Saved and scripturally baptized church membership (Matthew 3:13-17; 28:18-20; Acts 1:21-22; 2:37-42; 6:5-6; 8:26-40; Romans 6:1-6; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 4:4-6; 1 Peter 3:18-22).

Significance: The prerequisite of discipleship, yea even church membership, is salvation and scriptural baptism.  We are not to knowingly force the Godly to company with the ungodly.  "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump."  "What fellowship hath light with darkness?"  The church by scriptural definition is a called-out assembly in its very basic sense.

6. Sustaining of only two ordinances by Christ – Baptism and the Lord's Supper, being closed communion (Matthew 26:26-30; 1 Corinthians 11:20-34;  Matthew 3:13-17; 28:18-20; Acts 1:21-22; 2:37-42; 6:5-6; 8:26-40; Romans 6:1-6; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 4:4-6; 1 Peter 3:18-22).

Significance: The Lord commanded these two to be observed till he came again.  He gave no others.  Who are we to add or subtract such?  Both are illustrative and emphasize the central truths of the Gospel.  They are not sacraments!

7. Single kind of church recognized – local and visible.  There is no Biblical basis for either a universal visible church or a universal invisible church, and the latter is a contradiction of terms and hence an impossibility – an "unassembled assembly?"  See Matthew 18:15-20;  Acts 2:41; 1 Corinthians 12:18-27;  Galatians 1:1-5; Ephesians 4:4-6; Revelation 1:4-6.

Significance: The concept of a universal church, visible or invisible, has the following detrimental effects:

- Demeans the local church – If there are local churches and an all inclusive universal church, the universal church has to take precedence over the local churches.

- Tends toward denominationalism – There is an intrinsic drive in the universal church concept to join together to accomplish more with the end result being the lessening, and in most cases, even the diminishing of the autonomy of the local churches and a mind set of toleration toward doctrinal deviation.  Such deviation leads to accommodation and compromise hence ecumenism (universal Christian unity), even Catholicism in the strictest sense of the word.  An artificial oneness of believers breeds ecumenism which means the toleration of leaven (false doctrine, worldliness and sin) for the sake of unity - thereby paving the road for the one world religion / "church" of the Antichrist.  Unity without purity is self-destructive.

- It lends itself to be used as a blanket (wholesale) rejection of Christianity by the unsaved world by putting all professing Christians under one umbrella and calling it the "Church."  From such come the recent especial emphasis on the phrase "separation of church and state" whenever individual Christians speak out on social and moral issues.           

All believers are in the Kingdom of God and the Family of God, but not "the Body of Christ" or the "Church. The latter two terms describe local assemblies of believers covenanted together to fulfill the will and observe the teachings of Christ.  Paul is speaking metaphorically in 1 Corinthians 12, not mystically, in his use of the term "body" to describe the church.

8.  Self-governing church. An independent, autonomous, sovereign congregation functioning as a limited democracy (limited in the sense the church is bound by the Scriptures, the Spirit, and the Pastor's watch care) following one Head – the Lord Jesus Christ – under the leadership of a Pastor, that is, an under shepherd directed by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:15-20; Acts 1:15-26; 6:1-8; 20:28; Colossians 1:18).

Significance: Christ is the founder and the Head of the Church and He established it as a self-governing body under the leadership of a Pastor.  Doctrinally speaking, the church is to be superintended by the Holy Spirit and not self-appointed authorities either religious or governmental.  Practically speaking, outsiders imposing their will upon a group erodes the vitality and spontaneity of that group.

9.  Separation of church and state (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 5:29; Romans 13:1-7).

Significance: The government is not to make any religion the state religion, but rather is to recognize the right of people to exercise according to their own conscience their religious convictions.  A church has every right and the responsibility to speak to its immediate society and the world of moral and social issues of its day.  Both church and state are divine institutions.  They address two different areas of the human sphere of experience; but on occasions when they in performance of perceived duties overlap with each other, they are to treat one another with mutual respect taking care to not unduly erode or destroy the one or the other in the carrying out of their responsibilities.

10. Scripture as the sole, absolute, fully sufficient, and final rule of faith and practice (Psalms 19:7-11; 119; Isaiah 8:20; Matthew 5:17-18; 1 Corinthians 13:8-12; Galatians 4:30; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 1 Peter 1:24-25; 2 Peter 1:9-21; 3:1-7; Revelation 22:18-19).

Significance: Without an authority beyond and greater than man, fallen, finite man becomes the authority and there are therefore no absolutes of truth or morality.  Hence, nothing can be placed above the authority of the Scriptures, or we have no authority – not tradition, not a prophet, priest, preacher or any man, the church, or any institution, nothing.  It is either revelation from God or rationalism, relativism, and romanism.  Either God our Creator has given us His Word and preserved it and will throughout eternity or life is meaningless.