The Bible contains many descriptive images of the church. In many people’s minds, the church today is not something that engenders admiration, much less a positive influence. If not ridiculed for hypocrisy and pride, it is at least ignored by too many, or so it seems, by those on the outside. But for those who understand her true identity, she is admired and loved for the beauty accorded her by the Lord. After all, it is to Jesus that we should look for her true identity and character, not to those whom He has called to Himself and is in the process of sanctifying.
Among those images of the church in the Bible are such marvelous pictures of the church as Jesus’ sheep (the flock of His pasture over which He is the Good Shepherd), His Body (of which He is the Head), a temple (in which He is the chief cornerstone), and perhaps most beautiful of all, the church as his bride (for whom He is the Groom). Some have identified as many as 100 images of the church in Scripture. Many of these are found in the hymnody of the church, so that in singing of her, believers are acknowledging and celebrating her spiritual DNA. Several of these images are drawn together most lyrically in the hymn, “We Are God’s People,” written in 1976 by Bryan Jeffery Leech (1931-2015).