BASIC BIBLE STUDIES
# 029
Membership in The Church
"Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and the same day about three thousand souls were added to them" (Acts 2:41). "And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved" (Acts 2:47b).
One of the attendant blessings of being saved and brought into a right standing with God is membership in the church. Just as surely as a person who repents of his sins and is baptized for the remission of his sins receives the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38), just that surely that person also is added to/incorporated into the spiritual body of Christ, the church (Acts 2:47; I Corinthians 12:13). According to the New Testament, there is no such thing as a person being saved and not being a member of the church. Membership in the church automatically follows being saved, as much so as daylight follows dark. Membership in the church is not a human act of "joining," but a divine act by which the Lord Himself adds the saved person to the church. The person who cavalierly says: "You can be saved outside the church as well as inside the church, the church never saved anybody," shows a remarkable lack of understanding of what the church is! While it is true that "the church never saved anybody," nevertheless the church is the aggregate body of those people whom God has saved, and therefore there is not a saved person on earth who is not a member of the church!
The church had always been in the eternal purpose of God because God had always planned to save mankind through Jesus Christ (II Timothy 1:8-10), thus creating for Himself "a people for His own possession" ( Titus 2:14; I Peter 2:9). These "special people" are the ones who have come to faith in Christ as their Savior, and responded in obedience to the message of the gospel of God's grace (Romans 6:16-18). As a result of receiving God's salvation, they have been added to the church so "that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known (displayed, hf) by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord..." (Ephesians 3:10-11). And just as the church was in God's eternal purpose "from the beginning of the ages" (Ephesians 3:9), so the church will be in the consummation of all things, for "to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen" (Ephesians 3:21).
Christ Himself brought the church into existence. He said: "...and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). Christ "built" the church by shedding His blood so that mankind might have the remission of sins (Matthew 26:28), and all who receive remission of sins by the blood of Christ become members of "the church of God which He purchased with His own blood" (Acts 20:28). (Note: This verse is a powerful proclamation of the deity of Christ, for it was God the Son [Christ] who shed His blood for the sins of the world [I Peter 1:18-19], yet in this passage Paul designates Him as "God," as do many other passages). Since the church is composed of those who have been "purchased with His own blood," there is not a blood-cleansed, blood-redeemed person anywhere on earth who is not a member of the Lord's church. And since Christ is the one who paid the purchase price for the church, it belongs uniquely to Him!
The reasons for membership in the church are many. Christians (people redeemed by Christ) need fellowship with one another. The Christian life was not meant to be lived in isolation from the rest of God's people. The writer of the Book of Hebrews admonishes: "And let us consider one another so as to stir up to love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching" (Hebrews 10:24-25). God's people need the blessings and benefits to be derived from corporate worship and fellowship (Acts 2:41-47; Acts 20:7). The notion that one can be "a good Christian" without having to "go to church" is not rooted in New Testament teaching, as the above passages so clearly reveal.
For this reason, Christians are to be organized into local congregations/churches, with a plurality of elders (also known as pastors, shepherds, bishops) tending "the flock of God which is among [them], serving as overseers..." (I Peter 5:2). Paul and Barnabas "appointed elders in every church" (Acts 14:23). The only organizational and governmental structure for the church known in the New Testament is the local church "with the bishops and deacons" (Philippians 1:1). Elders/bishops/pastors (in the New Testament all of these terms refer to the same function) and deacons must meet certain qualifications in order to scripturally serve as such (I Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-9). When these divine qualifications are ignored or compromised, great harm comes to the church.
People skilled in evangelism serve in the local church, with some serving fulltime as paid evangelists, preachers, and teachers (I Corinthians 9:14). But every member of the local church is to see himself or herself as a minister/servant of Christ (Romans 12:4-8; I Peter 4:10). The New Testament does not make a distinction between "clergy" and "laity," but sets forth the principle that all of God's people are "a royal priesthood..." (I Peter 2:9).
For this reason, Christians are to "serve one another" (Galatians 5:13), "be hospitable to one another" (I Peter 4:9), "comfort one another" (I Thessalonians 4:18), "exhort (encourage and admonish) one another" (Hebrews 3:13), "confess [their] faults to one another, and pray for one another" (James 5:16), and above all "love one another fervently with a pure heart" (I Peter 1:22). Christians are "members of one another" because they are members of the "one body" of Christ, which is the church (Romans 12:4-5; Ephesians 1:22-23). So intimate, in fact, is the relationship between Christ and the members of His church that Paul says: "For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones" (Ephesians 5:30).
Membership in the church is a rich privilege. Such membership cannot be purchased with money. It cannot be earned by good works. It comes only as result of complying with the conditions set forth by Christ and His apostles for appropriating His grace and being saved. When those conditions are met, the Lord adds that person to the church. Having been saved and added to the church, one must not take his or her membership lightly, as if little is required or expected of them. All members of the church must heed the exhortation: "Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (II Peter 1:10-11).
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Hugh Fulford