“Church of Christers

“Church of Christers?”

“Don’t you all think you’re the only ones going to Heaven?”

A friend once told me how a member of a church of Christ had claimed, “Only us Church-of-Christers are saved.” I don’t doubt it at all, though I’ve never heard anyone I worship with make such a claim. There are several things very wrong with such a claim, but mostly I think such problems usually arise from a misunderstanding. The matter depends entirely upon what one means by “Church of Christ.” For example, the sentiment is totally wrong if one means, “Not Baptists, not Methodists, not Lutherans, but only those of us in a Church-of-Christ Church can go to Heaven.” Salvation does not reside in being a member of this or that denomination, party, or sect. Unfortunately, this is the way the statement has sometimes been used. As such, it is at best misguided; and at the worst, a sign of ugly religious pride. Regardless of intent, it is destructive to the cause of Christ. It is judgment of the pharisaic type – strongly condemned by Jesus. So how does such a grievous misunderstanding arise between believers? To answer that requires some serious Bible study. Won’t you join me as we consider the Bible in this matter? (A short answer can be found in the blue centered text at the end of this article.)

The Bible Says That: Christ Invites All People to Heaven.

The greatest gift Christ gave to the world is His offer of salvation for everyone regardless of race, nationality, religious heritage, one’s goodness or wickedness, social standing, wealth, sex, color, language or any other of mankind’s typical criteria often erected as religious barriers.

“For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:26-28)

Christ’s Way is open to all. Christ intended that His Way would be the most inclusive religion in all history. Regardless of our prejudices, Christ accepts anyone and everyone. Praise be to God!

The Bible Says That: Christ’s Way Is the Only Way to Heaven.

On the other hand, to say something like, “Christ’s church is the only group of people with a biblically-based hope of entering heaven.” is exactly correct. That is what Jesus expressed in the most “offensive” statement ever made concerning Christian exclusivity. He said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no man comes to the Father except by me.” (John 14:6) People hated it then. People hate it now.

Listen to what Jesus said in His famous sermon on the mountain:

“Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.” ” (Matthew 7:21-23)

Jesus made it plain that all roads do not lead to heaven, not even roads built by very pious religious leaders, not even some of the roads built by people who call themselves Christ’s disciples. Even roads built by those who work miracles in His name do not always lead to Heaven! Jesus wants those who would love others, not abuse others, in His name. (See Luke 10:27, Matthew 7:12, Matthew 25:34-40, John 13:34-35.)

“No man comes to the Father except by Me.” Christ’s exclusivity is a truth rarely accepted today by the masses of believers of Jesus, much less by those who follow non-Christian beliefs. The mantra of today is “tolerance of everything.” Exclusivity may be the only “sin” left in our post-modern culture.[1]So Jesus’ proclamation that “He is the only way” may be even more offensive today than it was when He first said it.

The Bible Says That: People Who Are “In Christ” Receive the Blessings of God.

Jesus’ Apostles plainly taught that only those who are “in Christ” have hope of the promises of God’s grace. For example, Paul said repeatedly in Ephesians 1:3-14 that the blessings of Christ are found “in Christ.”

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. ”

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. “

“In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation--having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory.” (Ephesians 1:3-14)

The Bible Says That: People Who Are Saved Are In Christ, Are In His Body, and In His Church.

After Paul’s lofty recounting of the blessings in Christ, he goes on to declare that all these blessings come by the power of Christ raised from the dead, who is now the head of those who are “in Christ” – the church, which is His body.

“These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” (Ephesians 1:19-23)

Did you notice how the expressions in Christ, the church and His body are used by Paul to indicate the same group – God’s saved people? These are the same saved people Paul speaks of in the following chapter when he declares that we are saved by God’s grace through faith, not by any of our good works. (Being good can never restore goodness lost. [2])

Paul’s wonderful “saved by grace” passage says:

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:4-10)

Who are the “you, us, we” in this passage? These are Christ’s disciples, those who are saved in Christ, those who are in Christ’s body – which is His church. They are the church of Christ. (The word “church” simply means a distinct group.[3]) They are the group of all saved Christians. They are the followers of Christ, disciples of Christ. They are the Christian church world-wide, the catholic church of Christ, the world-wide church of God. They are the church of God in Christ. They are in The Way of which Jesus spoke when he said, “I am The Way.” (Acts 24:14, John 14:6) Hence, if someone says, “Only those who are in Christ’s church can be saved,” the sentiment is totally biblical. Jesus taught just exactly that.

Dear Readers Please Note:

This does not mean one church is as good as another; or that all Christ-claiming roads lead to Christ. Nor does it mean The-Church-of-Christ equals THE church of Christ, i.e., Christ’s church. It does mean there are many proper ways of describing the unique group of people who are saved in Christ. Christians are to be such a unique people that Peter describes us as “strangers” among non-Christians. (1 Peter 2:11) Christianity is inherently exclusive: one is either “in Christ”, or not. This is not really so unusual. All religious groups are inherently exclusive in some regard or another. That’s why they’re different: because of differences exclusive to each unique religious group.

In The Bible, How Did People Become “Saved”?

Before returning to Heaven, Jesus gave His Apostles final instructions regarding their mission here. Those instructions were so significant that the inspired Apostle Matthew chose to end his account of the story of Jesus with what is now often called the Great Commission.

“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” ” (Matthew 28:18-20)

Notice that Jesus told His Apostles to:

1) make fellow disciples in all nations

2) baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

3) teach them to observe (do) all that Jesus commanded the Apostles

In the Bible, Sinful People Asked “What shall we do?”

On Pentecost, ten days after Jesus ascended to Heaven, the Apostles received the power of the Holy Spirit and began to implement their mission of making disciples of Christ. Peter’s witness on that day is recorded by Luke in Acts 2. According to Luke, many people believed Peter’s evidences that the crucified Jesus was indeed the Christ, the Son of God. After Peter spoke, people were deeply convicted in their newfound faith that Jesus was their long-sought Messiah, but that was not the end of the story for them. In their overwhelming guilt for their role in His murder, they begged Peter, “What can we do?” Notice that Peter did not say, “Nothing – you are already forgiven based simply upon your faith that Jesus is the Messiah.” Their guilt remained. Nor did He say, “Whatever works for you is your personal truth.” Instead, he told the believers to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins, and thus receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, the grace of God, that had been promised by their prophets. In obedience they did just that, and the Lord added about 3000 rejoicing souls into His body that very day!

In the Bible, People Were Forgiven of Their Sins When They Faithfully Obeyed Christ in Baptism.

Notice that Peter did exactly what Jesus told them to do in the Great Commission.

He: 1) made disciples, 2) baptized them, and 3) taught them about obedience in Christ. This is the Biblical pattern for obeying Christ’s commission to His disciples. This is still a pattern we can follow today – that we should follow today if we want to follow Him.

Regarding those first converts, it is significant that their obvious faith in Jesus as the Messiah was not sufficient. More was required of them to receive the forgiveness they so desperately needed. The reality that they had to do something to accept the grace freely offered does not nullify grace at all. Were it not for God’s grace, there would be nothing to have faith in, nothing to be received. (For even our faith itself is a gift.) But merely believing the truth – having faith alone – was not sufficient. Even the devils believe, as the book of James reminds us. (James 2:19)

No, it takes obedience to the will of God, doing it, putting our faith into action, not just having a correct belief concerning Jesus’ identity. Paul called this interaction “the obedience of faith” when introducing and closing his treatise on faith, (Romans 1:5, 16:26.) Obedience is not legalism or earning one’s salvation by good works. Obedience is simply doing what God tells us because of our faith in God. Part of faith’s obedience is baptism, whereby our sins are forgiven. Jesus commanded it, the Apostles taught it, and Christians entering Christ’s church did it.

Paul, in that grand treatise on salvation by faith, explained baptism into Christ as a death and burial to sin, and then we’re raised from that burial in baptism to begin our new life in Christ:

“How shall we who have died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:2-4)

Anyone who has answered the call of the gospel by faith in Jesus, repented, and been baptized in obedience to the Lord, has begun that new life. Paul calls it being “clothed with Christ in baptism,” (Galatians 3:27). That immersion in water is the basis of the expression which speaks of having our sins completely washed away, as Paul himself did when he was converted, (Acts 22:16). According to Peter, it is not the physical washing of water that cleans, but rather it is the washing by the blood of Jesus that occurs in an obedient heart, (1 Peter 3:21). This helps us understand Jesus’ baptism even though He was sinless, (Mark 1:9-11). Jesus was showing us how to be obedient children. His obedience “well pleased” His Father. Jesus began His ministry with His baptism. In so doing, Jesus gave us a wonderful example for how to begin our new life in Him as obedient children adopted into God’s family!

In the Bible, Baptisms Marked Change and New Beginnings.

F. LaGard Smith aptly describes baptism as the believer’s “wedding ceremony”.[4] In literal marriage, without a legal wedding, no marriage exists regardless of how much ‘in love’ a couple may be. A wedding of some sort is essential for a marriage to exist. But the wedding is only the point of beginning of the marriage. It doesn’t ensure a permanent marriage. Likewise, baptism is only the essential beginning of our “born-again” relationship in Christ. It’s a new birth, a new beginning! Jesus said we must be born again of water and the Spirit to enter His kingdom, (John 3:5). If we remain faithful to Christ, we will gain the promised salvation (1 John 1:9), just as a husband and wife who remain faithful to one another continue to enjoy the blessings of their marriage. Like marriage, biblical baptism is a conscious act of obedience on the part of the believer. It follows that putting some water on an infant’s forehead is not an act of conscious obedience on the part of the infant, and it certainly isn’t an immersion, (which is what the word baptism means). Infant baptism is not the type of baptism spoken of in the Bible.

In Our Day, We Must Ask Ourselves If We Are Saved.

Because one must be “in Christ” to be saved, and because people in congregations calling themselves churches of Christ teach that a biblical baptism is essential to be born-again in Christ (as do several other churches using other names), it is not so odd that believers who have not been baptized into Christ put two-and-two together and conclude “You don’t think I’m saved. You think you’re saved, but I’m not. You Church-of-Christers think you’re the only ones going to heaven!” Most often that is a conclusion reached, but not what has actually been said or taught. Nonetheless, “Am I saved?” is the question each one of us must ask of ourselves.

The truth is it doesn’t matter one bit what “we guys” think, or what anyone else thinks about another person’s salvation. That is God’s business. The Bible tells each of us what He thinks. That does matter!

We must each ask ourselves, “Am I saved, according to the word of God? Have I actually submitted to His ‘wedding ceremony’ as the bride of Christ? Am I truly in Christ? Do I remain faithful to Christ?”

These are serious, and certainly emotional, questions for each of us.

In Our Day, Our Answers Sadly Differ – and Divide.

Unfortunately, it is precisely in answering these questions when things become most strained between seekers walking on all those different roads: roads that may be different from “the Way” described in the Bible. Recall Jesus’ declaration that, “Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in Heaven.” (Matthew 7:21-23) Turned into a positive statement, this reads, “Those who do the will of My Father enter into Heaven.” Notice the emphasis Jesus put on doing the will of God. Thus, the “belief” that Jesus requires is an obedient belief. “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” (John 3:36). Unfortunately, the vast landscape of Protestant religion has de-emphasized the “doing” part. Many even go so far as to declare that the seeker actually can “do” nothing to affect his salvation, either in receiving it, or in keeping it. As we have already read from the Bible, this just is not what is taught in the gospel of grace presented in the New Testament by Jesus and His Apostles.

In My Life, Which Will I Be? A Naaman? A Cornelius? A Paul?

Why is it that so many good and godly people who so very much desire the full measure of the grace of God in Jesus Christ refuse to accept it on His terms? Is it not just the story of Naaman playing out again and again? You remember the story about how leprous King Naaman refused to go wash in the muddy Jordan to be cured. He wanted to do it his own way instead of the way God’s prophet told him to do. That is, until a slave girl showed him it was no big deal in view of what he could gain by washing the way the prophet had required. (2 Kings 5)

Why have so many believers similarly substituted a humanly designed process to obtain salvation that is nowhere found in the Bible? For example, many believers teach that, “We just need to pray the sinner’s prayer and receive Christ into our heart.” There is no such teaching or prayer in the entire Bible! Praying as we seek God is certainly good and proper. Cornelius prayed for God to come. Paul prayed for God to come. The answer to their prayers was someone coming to teach them about Jesus. Upon hearing it, they were both baptized into Him, washing away their sins. (Please read the record of these conversions in Acts 9-10). We have these examples and many more in the book of Acts, but what will we do? Can we wash in Christ’s “Jordan” for us, or must we always have it our own way, on our own terms?

In Our Day, Salvation is not Determined by One’s Church. Salvation is Found “In Christ”.

Salvation is not determined by whether one is a Baptist, a Methodist, or a “Church-a-Christer.” To suggest that membership with some religious organization is the basis of salvation is to make laws God has not made. God condemns that. There were no such denominations in the days of the New Testament. All the “different roads” of our day have arisen since then. Then, Christians truly were “just Christians.”

That’s what we of the Weatherly Heights church of Christ want to be: just Christians.[5] That’s all we want to be. We are not part of any supposed larger “Church-of-Christ” denomination. We use the descriptor “church of Christ” simply to confess our allegiance to our Lord, NOT an allegiance to any affiliation of churches. The Bible used similar terms to identify specific local congregations. (See Romans 16:16, 1Thessalonians2:14, Galatians 1:22, 1 Corinthians 1:2, 2 Corinthians 1:1.)

Any Christian, anyone in Christ, is automatically a part of the body of Christ, Christ’s church. This is the only sense in which it can rightly be said, “Only those in the church of Christ are saved.”

There is a big difference between saying, “Only those in the church of Christ are saved.”

and saying, “Only those in The-Church-of-Christ are saved.”

The former is a statement of a profound biblical truth.

The latter statement reflects a seriously misguided perception of Christianity.

In Our Day, An Apology and An Invitation.

Unfortunately, such an important distinction (i.e., Christ’s church versus “Church-of-Christ” denomination) may not be readily apparent when we are discussing religion with others. Sometimes one person says, “church of Christ” and the listener hears “Church-of-Christ” or vice versa. Confusion and miscommunication results. This has happened even between preachers and their congregations of Christ’s people. Even worse, sometimes a very misguided Christian has indeed said, “Only those in the Church-of-Christ are saved” meaning it in an unbiblical denominational sense. That is completely wrong. If someone has actually said that to you in the past, we sincerely apologize. Such makes the teachings of men into the teaching of God. That is how divisive denominational thinking arises. No doubt, our heritage has been guilty of such thinking as well. Satan readily uses religious pride to destroy God’s people just as easily as he uses the vilest temptations of the flesh.

In the Bible, dividing ourselves according to our allegiances to mortal leaders is condemned, (1 Corinthians 1:10-13). Christ prayed for unity among His believers, (John 17:21). We certainly don’t have that unity today across the religious landscape, and now probably never will. But Paul still reminds us, “There is one Lord, one Faith, one baptism.” (Ephesians 4:4-6) Historically, religious oneness has not been all that high on man’s wish list. Obviously, Christ was worried about this from the beginning days of His church, since He had so much to say about it in His final prayers before His arrest, (John 14-17). Co-opting the church of Christ into The-Church-of-Christ Church (i.e, just another denomination) is just as much a perversion of His desired oneness as any other religious group’s attempt to make some humanly designed creed, catechism, tradition, or method into the word of God. Such is the kind of hypocrisy condemned by Jesus concerning the traditions and attitudes of the Pharisees.

Today, if you ask:“Are only Church-of-Christers saved?

We answer, “No – the Bible nowhere teaches that.”

But if you ask, “Are only those in Christ’s church saved?”

We answer, “Yes – that is precisely what Jesus taught.”

(Possibly this is the best “short answer” when addressing this matter.)

Are you “in Christ” according to the teachings of the Bible?

Have you been baptized into Christ? Wouldn’t you like to be?

Wouldn’t you like to do what the Lord said to do in His word?

You can be baptized today, just as were those first Christians on Pentecost. You certainly don’t have to come to us to be baptized into Christ, but please call us for help if we can assist you in any way. (256) 881-9540.

If you would like to know more about the people who assemble as the Weatherly Heights church of Christ in Huntsville, Alabama, please feel free to contact us for more information. You are welcome to come join us in any of our worship services. We have a pamphlet that explains what to expect at our worship assemblies. If you are interested, call us at (256) 881-9540 and we will send you some more information.