“The church should be regarded as important to Christians because of its importance to Christ. Christ founded the church (Matt. 16:18), purchased it with his blood (Acts 20:28), and intimately identifies himself with it (Acts 9:4).
The church is the body of Christ (Eph. 1:23; 4:12; 5:23-32; Col. 1:18, 24; 3:15; 1 Cor. 12:12-27), the dwelling place of his Spirit (Rom. 8:9, 11, 16; 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:11, 15-17; Eph. 2:18, 22; 4:4), and the chief instrument for glorifying God in the world.
Finally, the church is God’s instrument for bringing both the gospel to the nations and a great host of redeemed humanity to Himself (Rev. 5:9).”
–Mark Dever, “The Church,” in A Theology For the Church, Ed. Daniel L. Akin (Nashville: B&H, 2007), 767.
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