A Christ-Centered Church

While the definition of the word “Puritan” remains a matter of some debate, there is no doubt that ecclesiastical issues were close to the heart of every Puritan preacher. Despite the fact that in creed and sermon the doctrine of the church was incessantly expounded in terms of the covenant and of grace and the doctrines of Christ’s threefold office, historians of the period have not paid much attention to the strong Christocentric nature of the Puritan doctrine of the church. A full exposition of John Owen’s ecclesiology is beyond our present purpose, which is merely to demonstrate that Owen’s views of the church’s nature, composition, authority, mission, ministry, and worship have strong and direct ties to Christology.

The Nature of the Church
In the writings of John Owen one can find the following definitions of the church. The first is a definition of God’s house, his Zion:

By the church of Christ I understand, primarily, the whole multitude of them who antecedently are chosen of his Father, and given unto him; consequently, are redeemed, called, and justified in his blood;—the church which he loved, and gave himself for, ‘that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy, and without blemish,’ Eph. v. 26, 27. And, secondarily, also every holy assembly of mount Zion, whereunto the Lord Christ is made beauty and glory,—every particular church of his saints, inasmuch as they partake of the nature of the whole being purchased by his blood, Acts xx. 28. (8:286)

The church exists in visible structured societies, and must do so, since man was created to act in society, and the “principle end” of living in society is the glory and worship of God. To create a holy worshipping society, God revealed his will to Adam in innocence, and, after the fall, with a specific view toward the coming of Christ, to Adam’s descendants. Owen often calls such a society a “church-state” to signify all the various ecclesiastical structures since creation: households of patriarchs, the nation which covenanted together at Sinai, and the particular local church of the New Testament era (a “gospel,” or “evangelical, church-state”). By any definition, it centers on Christ.

- Richard Daniels

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http://www.johnowen.org/media/daniels_christology_owen.pdf