Yesterday’s study concluded by referring to Ephesians 3:7-11, where Paul writes that through the church the wisdom of God is being made known to those in the heavenly realms. We might ask in what sense is that? Don’t the angels know about these things better than we do? The answer is, yes, they do. Consequently, Paul does not mean that the angels are looking down upon the church to have the Scriptures explained to them intellectually. They have better minds than we do, and they know perfectly well what it says in Scripture. It’s not in that sense that they’re looking to the church. Rather, I believe it’s in this sense of our proving the truthfulness of these things by showing that the wisdom of God in salvation really works in people that are just like you and me. If this is the idea, Paul is asserting that the church on earth is the center of the universe so far as the attention of the heavenly beings is concerned.
It is also important to point out that when we talk about the church acting as a pillar of the truth by holding it up for the world to see, we’re not talking about the ministers only. They ought to try to do that, of course; that’s part of their responsibility. But the ministers aren’t the church. The people are the church. Christians are the church, and that includes everyone who confesses the name of Christ. Thus, if the truth is to be held up, it must be the people of God—all of them, from the youngest to the oldest, from the least to the greatest. Everyone is to take this Word and share it, and teach other men and women the good news of God’s grace in Jesus.
Into this denial of truth comes the church of Jesus Christ, not with anything of its own but with the revelation of God—this precious deposit that is ours in Scripture. It proclaims to the world that here, in the Bible, is the truth. If you would build a life that is solid and will stand the buffetings of the temptations and the troubles of this world, come and build upon this foundation because this is the place where you’re going to find it. You’re not going to find it anywhere else. When we begin to talk about the church being the foundation of the truth, certainly this is what we have in mind—that the church has the truth because God has given it to her in Scripture.
In yesterday’s study, we saw that when Paul talks about the church as being the pillar and foundation of the truth, he is not saying that the church is therefore the foundation for Christ. It also does not mean that the church is the foundation of the Bible. The Bible is the truth, of course, but the church did not invent the Bible; nor did the church decide which books would be in it and which would not.
Each of the books in the Bible has been written for a special purpose, but you don’t always find that purpose explicitly stated. Or if you do, you don’t always find it in the same place of the book. Sometimes it comes at the beginning, and sometimes at the end. Sometimes a book is written primarily for instruction, and other ones deal with problems.
