A Divine Organism

“Christians are not like members of any body but are according to their very nature members of a specific body, the body of Christ.

"The church is not a human organization that has contracted by common consent to keep alive the memory of a great man, Jesus Christ. On the contrary, the church is a divine organism mystically fused to the living and reigning Christ, who continues to reveal himself in a people whom he has drawn to himself.

"What is the relationship between Jesus and his followers? Jesus dwells in them; the church is the aggregate body to whom Jesus has given his life.

"If the Church is the body of Christ - the means of the head's action in the world - then the Church is an indispensable part of the gospel, . . . Therefore, to adopt what might be called an 'anti-church stance' would be to dilute the very gospel itself and at the same time to demonstrate a misunderstanding of what the Bible means by 'the church.”

–Ogden, Gifts & Graces, p. 30.