One should never minimize the value of the church, the church Jesus built. I am not speaking about man-made denominational churches established hundreds of years after the Lord built his church, but the church you read about in the Bible. Many do not understand the importance of the church. Years ago this sentiment was popularized by the saying, “Jesus yes; the church no.” The church that was being rejected by so many was the organized churches they could see.
Certainly, one can do without the church if one is talking about a denominational church. Almost all of them were begun long after the church one reads about in the Bible. Those in them will generally admit it does not matter whether or not you are a member of their particular denomination, for they say you can be saved without being a member of their fellowship. This is a confession, although unintended, that their denominational church is not the church of the Bible. But, with that said, it is a whole different story when it comes to the Lord’s church, for no one can be saved outside it.
Here is a list of 12 things many people do not know or understand about the Lord’s church--things that make all the difference.
(1) The same process that makes you a Christian, believing and obeying the gospel, adds you to the church the Lord built. There is no such thing as a Christian who is not a part of the Lord’s church. “And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47 NKJV) Who is saved? Is it the Christian or the non-Christian? If God has not added you to the church there is a good reason--you are not yet one of those who are being saved; you have not yet obeyed the gospel.
It is only the church, not those outside the church, that Christ sanctified and cleansed “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. 5:25-27 NKJV) If you are saved, you are in this glorious church.
(2) The church is the saved. All of the saved are in the church. One cannot be saved outside the church. Jesus is the Savior of the body (Eph. 5:23), which is the church (Eph. 1:22-23, Col. 1:18, 24). There is no passage to be found in the Bible where Jesus ever said he would save a person outside his body, outside the church. Paul speaking to the Christians at Corinth said, “Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.” (1 Cor. 12:27 NKJV) “Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.” (Eph. 5:23 NKJV) Christ is “head over all things to the church, which is His body.” (Eph. 1:22-23 NKJV)
This is not to imply everyone in the church is saved, but only that all who are saved are in the church. Paul said, as an example, that Demas had forsaken him, having loved this present world (2 Tim. 4:10). Unless he later repented and was restored, he would not have been saved, so here is a man who was in the church but left. Not all Christians are faithful, but, nevertheless, all who are saved are in the church.
(3) Jesus purchased the church with his blood. Paul, in speaking to the Ephesian elders, admonished them to “shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” (Acts 20:28 NKJV) It is by his blood that we will be saved. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.” (Eph. 1:7 NKJV) One is either in the church purchased with Christ’s own blood or he is outside. Jesus' blood never purchased anything other than the church. “The Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:27 NKJV) Saved how? By the blood of Jesus. The saved are in the church, not outside it.
(4) You cannot join the church or be added by man. The Lord adds you to the church (Acts 2:47) once you have obeyed the gospel and been cleansed by the blood of Jesus in doing so. You cannot join the church because God adopts you into it, the church being God’s family. God “predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ.” (Eph. 1:5 NKJV) If you are a child of God, it is because God chose to add you to his family. He willingly does so when we make our desire to be a part of the family known by gospel obedience, obedience that is sincere and from the heart (Rom. 6:17).
(5) “Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it.” (Eph. 5:25 NKJV) Will we say Christ loved the church and still belittle its importance? If he loved the church, should we not also love it? The church is brothers and sisters in Christ. What has Christ said about loving one another? “He who does not love his brother abides in death.” (1 John 3:14 NKJV)
(6) When one persecutes, or belittles, or makes fun of the church (Christians are the church), he is doing it to Christ. Saul, who later became the apostle Paul, was a great persecutor of the church, as you are well aware. When Christ confronted Saul on the road to Damascus, he said to Saul, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4 NKJV) In persecuting the church, Saul was persecuting Christ.
[Please note I said “the church,” not denominations, for it would have to be first proven that a denomination is the church. They came on the scene generations after Jesus’ church. Since they all deny they are the church, claiming they are only a denomination within it, and say you can be saved outside their denomination, then surely they are right and their denomination is not the church, for you cannot be saved outside Christ’s church.]
(7) God receives glory in the church. “To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 3:21 ESV) Christians are the ones who give God glory, and they are the ones within the church. “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Cor. 6:20 NKJV) “That you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 15:6 NKJV)
(8) It is through the church that the manifold wisdom of God is made known. “To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church.” (Eph. 3:9 NKJV) Do not ever expect to learn about God or the gospel or salvation from those outside the church. Remember, the church is Christians. They are the ones who proclaim God’s word, whether within the meeting house or outside it.
(9) The church is a spiritual building built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus as the chief cornerstone (Eph. 2:20), a holy temple in the Lord (Eph. 2:21), “built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit” (Eph. 2:22 NKJV). One either desires to be a living stone in that building or one does not. “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5 NKJV)
Paul told Timothy, “I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God.” (1 Tim. 3:15 NKJV) One is either a living stone in that building of God or else he is no part of it at all. Can one be saved outside it? To ask is to answer.
(10) The church is where God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are. Christians are the church. Christians have the Holy Spirit. “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you.” (1 Cor. 6:19 NKJV) The church is “a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.” (Eph. 2 21-22 NKJV) “Where two or three are gathered together in MY name, there I am in the midst of them.” (Matt. 18:20 NKJV)
This is not to say God is unaware of those outside the church, but it is to say that he abides within the church in a way he never abides in those outside the church. If you want to be where Jesus is, where the Father is, where the Holy Spirit is, you cannot remain out in the world away from the church.
(11) There is only one way into the church--through Jesus. “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” (John 14:6 NKJV) Elsewhere he said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved.” (John 10:9 NKJV) The saved are in the church (Acts 2:47, Eph. 5:23, Col. 1:24).
To enter into Christ is to be baptized into his spiritual body based upon a genuine faith, repentance of sins, and a willingness to confess him with the mouth. “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.” (1 Cor. 12:13) Baptism is into Christ (Rom. 6:3, Gal. 3:27). “He who believes and is baptized will be saved.” (the words of Jesus--Mark 16:16 NKJV)
(12) The church is the place where prayers to God will be heard. “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (James 5:16 NKJV) No one is righteous who has not been cleansed by the blood of Jesus and who, thus, is not a member of the church Jesus built. All the righteous are in the church; there are none who are righteous outside it who are of accountable age and mentally competent. “The prayer of the upright is his delight.” (Pro. 15:8 NKJV) “He hears the prayer of the righteous.” (Pro. 15:29 NKJV)
If it be said that God heard the prayer of Cornelius, a man at the time outside the church, the answer is yes, he did. He will hear your prayer also outside the church, “if” you are willing to hear and obey his word. Those who are willing have become Christians or will do so as soon as they hear the word. Cornelius was a true seeker after God.
Cornelius had a heart immediately ready to receive God’s word and obey it. God knew that, and thus it was not long until Cornelius was given that opportunity and soon became a Christian, a member of the church. But the scripture says, “One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination.” (Pro. 28:9 NKJV) Want God to hear your prayers? In the church is the place you need to be for that. “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying out ‘Abba, Father!’” (Gal. 4:6 NKJV)
Let us love the church as Jesus loved it.
[To download this article or print it out click here.]
