Must One Be A Member of The Church To Be
Saved? (No. 2)
Members of the
churches of Christ have been accused of believing the church saves. Do we really believe that? I have been a member of the
The apostle Paul
affirmed that “All spiritual blessings are in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph.
1:3). That means, if I understand simple
language, that there are no spiritual blessings outside Christ--outside the
body of Christ. How could anyone ignore
what God has done for us through Christ and still be saved? Christ shed his blood to purchase the church
(Acts
We know from reading the Ephesian letter and other biblical passages that all spiritual blessings are in Christ. We know from reading Ephesians 1 what those spiritual blessings are. Being elected, or chosen, through Christ is unquestionably a spiritual blessing. We are chosen in Christ (Eph. 1:3). Being adopted into God’s family is also a spiritual blessing. Our adoption is by or through Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:5). Ephesians 1:6 teaches that we are accepted in Christ. “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has made us accepted in the beloved” (Eph. 1:5-6). Our salvation redounds to “the praise of the glory of his grace.” Throughout eternity we shall sing praises to God for his marvelous grace.
The expression, “has made us accepted in the beloved” could be rendered, according to F.F. Bruce, “He has ‘be-graced’ us in His beloved.” We do not commonly use the word “be-graced,” but it makes this passage very meaningful. The Revised Standard Version translates that passage: “He freely bestowed in the beloved.” My friends, that which God has done for our salvation, he had done “in the beloved,” that is, in Christ. When we reject Christ, refuse his gracious offer of salvation, and spurn membership in his church, there is absolutely no hope for us.
I am fully aware
that this approach may be considered by modernistic theologians as narrow,
intolerant and bigoted. But is it an
intolerant approach? Does the Bible
actually teach that men must accept Christ and his gospel in order to be
saved? Does one really have to be in the
body of Christ to go to heaven? Will you
please think with me for just a moment on some scriptural passages? Our Lord told the Jews: “I said therefore
unto you, that you shall die in your sins: for if you believe not that I am he,
you shall die in your sins” (John
Another of the
spiritual blessings which is in Christ Jesus is redemption. Paul wrote: “In whom we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his
grace” (Eph. 1:7). Paul says redemption
is in Christ, in his body, the church.
The word redemption (apolutrosin
in the Greek) means to release by payment of a ransom. What needed releasing? Our souls were in
bondage to Satan. What was the ransom
which was paid for the release of our souls?
The apostle Peter used the verb form of the same Greek word when he
declared: “Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold, from your vain conversation (or manner of life)
received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ,
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Pt. 1:18-19). Paul instructed the Corinthian Christians
that God expected them to take care of their bodies because “you are not your
own, For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and
in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor.
After hearing these scriptures dealing with redemption, do you think redemption is a spiritual blessing? Surely, no one would dispute that truth. If redemption is a spiritual blessing--which Paul clearly teaches--where is it to be found? It is in Christ, in his church and nowhere else. Can one be saved without being redeemed? Without the blood of Christ? Of course, not! The redeemed are in the church; there is none outside. Did not Paul emphatically teach that Christ shed his blood to purchase the church? “Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock,” Paul commanded the Ephesian elders, “over the which the Holy Spirit has made your overseers, to feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood” (Act 20:28). Do you honestly believe you can be saved without being in that institution for which Jesus gave every drop of his blood?
Of course, liberal theologians, radical feminists and others, deny the necessity or the propriety of Christ’s shedding his blood for our redemption. Leslie Weatherhead’s book, The Christian Agnostic (Nashville: Abindgdon, 1966), comes very close to making fun of the New Testament’s teaching on redemption and atonement. He shows his disrespect for the scriptures and for the Christ who died for us when he wrote: “Frankly it is nonsense to say, ‘Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins’” (p. 114). The scripture Dr. Weatherhead called nonsense is Hebrews 9:23. Weatherhead asserts that we are not bound by the atonement theories which Paul and John the Baptist believed and taught (pp.116-117). Weatherhead asks, “Can there be a more revolting idea than these words from William Cowper?
There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.
I do not know about you, but I have always taken great comfort and hope in these beautiful words written by William Cowper. Are we to conclude from this modernistic theologian that our hope in Christ is really in vain? My friends, you and I have no reason to be discouraged. Our Lord did die on the cross and shed his blood for the remission of our sins (Mt. 26:28). What Leslie Weatherhead has done is to prove that he does not have the slightest idea of the real nature of New Testament Christianity. Paul affirmed: “In Christ we have redemption through his blood” (Eph. 1:7).
Did you notice in my reading of Ephesians 1:7 how Paul attached forgiveness of sins to redemption in Christ? “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.” The sins which you and I have committed can be forgiven in Christ and only in Christ. I can forgive you when you sin against me; you can forgive me when I sin against you; but God, through Christ, forgives all our sins. Would to God that every man, woman, and child knew the peace of being forgiven by their Creator. They can know, if they will turn to Jesus Christ and obey his gospel.
The
Greek word translated “forgiveness” comes from two other Greek words which mean
to send away or to send from. When we
obey our Lord and come in contact with the blood of Christ, our sins are sent
away; they are forgotten. Our fellowmen
may not forgive even when we repent and seek forgiveness, but God always
forgives when we seek in the right way, that is, according to the divine
plan. Peter said to the Jews on
Pentecost: “Repent, and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”
(Acts
The Greeks had two words which referred to the canceling of a debt or a bond. Forgiveness of sins is God’s canceling a debt or a bond. One of the Greek words--chiazein--literally meant to put an “X” over it. We understand that kind of language. Before the invention of the correcting typewriters, when we made a mistake on our old manual typewriters, we simply backed the carriage up to the mistake we had made and put an “X” over it. But when you placed and “X” over your mistake you could still see the mistake. The mistake was cancelled, but we were constantly reminded of the mistake every time we examined what we had written. That word is never used in the Greek New Testament.
The
second word which referred to the canceling of a bond or a debt is exaleipho which means to wipe away, to
wash away. On modern typewriters and on computers,
mistakes can be corrected and no one can determine that they were ever
made. They are simply wiped away. That, my dear friends, is what occurs when
you obey the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let me read again Acts 3:19: “Repent and be
converted (literally, “repent and turn”) that your sins may be blotted out,
when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” The Greek word rendered “blotted out” means
that sin will never more be remembered by the God of heaven. It is wiped away forever. Jeremiah predicted the total removal of sins
under the new covenant. The Hebrew
writer quotes at length from Jeremiah and then concludes: “For I will be
merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I
remember no more” (Heb.
Do you want me to explain to you how God wipes away sins never again to be remembered? If I knew, I would certainly tell you, but I do not know. The more I try to forget some event in my life--whether someone’s sin against me or my sin against them---the more I remember it. But when God forgives, he forgets. The sins will never be mentioned anymore--not even in eternity. King David expressed that truth in these words: “He has not dealt with us after our sins: nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psa. 103:10-12).
How
are our alien sins forgiven in Christ?
The scriptures require us to believe in God and in his son, Jesus
Christ. “Let not your heart be troubled;
you believe in God, believe also in me” (John 14:1). The Bible also commands all men everywhere to
repent because we are going to face God in the judgment (Acts
The word translated “sins” in Ephesians 1:7 refers to trespasses. The word signifies a false step, a blunder. The word is closely related to the word rendered “fall away” (Heb. 6:6). The word furnishes precious little comfort to those who believe a child of God cannot so sin as to be eternally lost. Men and women sin before they become children of God, but their sins are forgiven when they obey the gospel. We also sin after we obey gospel, but “if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Christ continually cleanses us from our sins” (1 John 1:7).
Paul teaches in Ephesians 1:7 that redemption and forgiveness of sins in Christ are “according to the riches of his grace.” My friends, that expression does not mean that God’s grace will save you without any response on your part. God’s grace provided the means by which we can appropriate the salvation which is available in Christ. As you know, if you have carefully read the book of Acts, Peter, on Pentecost and on Solomon’s porch, and at the house of Cornelius, never hinted that God’s grace had provided for salvation without faith and obedience on the part of the hearers. In every one of these cases--and the other examples in Acts--the hearers were required to have faith in God, repent of their sins and be baptized into Christ for the remission of sins. Obviously, you can think about these cases of conversion anyway you please, but there is no way under heaven you can find salvation by grace alone in the book of Acts or in any other New Testament book.
We know man cannot save himself. Without the grace of God, he is hopelessly and helplessly lost. But God’s grace alone will not save anyone. If it will, then it will save everyone on the face of the earth. Why would I make such a statement? Peter said at the house of Cornelius: “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation, he who fears God and works righteousness is accepted of him” (Acts 10:34-35).
My friend, if you want to be forgiven and added to the Lord’s church you must believe in Christ, turn away from evil, confess our Lord Jesus Christ before men, and be buried with him in baptism to rise to walk in a new life.
Winford Claiborne
The International Gospel Hour
P.O. Box 118
Fayetteville, TN 37334
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