The Proclaimer

Christ's Church

We are truly blessed to live in a democracy that ensures religious freedom and allows us to worship God as our conscience dictates.  People have many choices available to them when it comes to churches they can attend.  When I was a boy, the slogan “Attend the church of your choice,” was a popular one, the idea being that which church you attend doesn’t really matter as long as you go to church.  But from a Biblical point of view no such choice exists.  Having identified the body of Christ as the church (Eph. 1:222, 23), Paul makes it plain: “there is one body” (Eph. 4:4). 

The concept in the religious world is that all different denominations make up the body of Christ, therefore, which church you attend or join is a matter of indifference with God.  But this concept is foreign to the New Testament.  Those believers on the day of Pentecost that obeyed the instruction to, “Repent, and . . . be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38) were then added by God to the church.  Listen to the language of scripture: “Then those who gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day about three thousand souls were added to them. . . And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:41, 47).  When an individual is baptized into Christ, God adds him to the church, the Lord’s body which is made up of all baptized believers saved from their sins.

Jesus made it plain that He would build His church, the church of Christ.  “And I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.  I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 16:18, 19).  We must understand that when we use the term “church of Christ” we are not referring to some denomination, but rather using a phrase denoting ownership.  It is “the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood” (Acts 20:28).  It is the church that belongs to Christ, Christ’s church or the church of Christ. What Jesus “purchased with His own blood” was the souls of men and women, individuals who have had their souls purified through their obedience to the truth (1 Peter 1:22). 

When Jesus told Peter and the apostles He would give to them “the keys of the kingdom of heaven” He referred to the gospel, God’s power to save (Rom. 1:16).  When an individual hears the gospel proclaimed and believes that Jesus is Lord and King he willingly submits himself in humble obedience to His commandments.  Jesus said, “All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth” (Matt. 28:18). And so, some ecclesiastical hierarchy or ecumenical council does not dictate and regulate the beliefs and practices of Christ’s church.  Instead, each individual member is accountable to Christ for his beliefs and practices.  Christ is King of His kingdom; head of His body which is the church. Truly “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).

There is, therefore, but one choice to be made.  That decision is not which church I will attend or join, but whether I will submit myself in obedience to the commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ.  If I am willing to believe in Him as the Son of God, repent of my sins and be buried with Him in baptism for the remission of sins God will add me to Christ’s church.  It is Christ that I must choose.  And when I do, the choice of which church I will attend is made for me, for I know there is but one – the one belonging to Christ.      

                                                                                                  -- Clark Dugger

The Proclaimer