The Church and Salvation

Robert Meredith

Is the church necessary for salvation?  There are some who proclaim that one can be saved without the church.  By this accusation they are saying that the church is not important.  Let us turn to the bible and see if one must be in the church to be saved.

  The Bible tells us of the value of the church.  The apostle Paul told the Elders of the Ephesian congregation, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28).  The importance of the church can be seen in that it cost our Lord His blood.  In Ephesians 5:25, Paul said that Christ “...gave Himself for it” (the church).  The church is the blood bought institution of our Lord.  If one could be saved without the church, then he would be saved without the blood of Christ.  But this is impossible (Hebrews 9:22; Revelation 1:5; 1 Peter 1:18-19). 

  Furthermore, Paul explains in Ephesians 5:25-27 that not only did Christ give Himself for the

church, but that the people who make up the church had been sanctified and cleansed when they were baptized in obedience to the word (Ephesians 5:26).  In verse 27, the Holy Spirit, through Paul’s pen, reveals that the church is a glorious thing.  Once again if one is saved first, then later he joins a church, then he is saved without being sanctified and cleansed (Ephesians 5:25; Revelation 1:5), because it is the church who has been sanctified and cleansed.

  Earlier in Ephesians 5, Paul reveals that Jesus is the Savior of the body, which is the church (Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:18).  Since Jesus is the Savior of the church, then one must be in it to be saved.  My friends, the church is the body of Christ (Ephesians 1:22-23), and when one obeys the gospel (Romans 1:16), then God adds the one being saved to the church (Acts 2:41, 47; Colossians 1:13).

  The idea that one can be saved first then later find a church is completely foreign to the scriptures. There is but one church and when one comes to Jesus and is baptized into Him (Galatians 3:26-27), he is placed by God into the church (1 Corinthians 12:13).  To be in Christ is to be in the church, which is His spiritual body.  It is indeed sad that some say they want Christ, yet adamantly oppose His body, the church.  To refuse one is to refuse the other (John 12:48; Luke 9:26; Luke 6:46).  Jesus pleads for you to come to Him (Matthew 11:28-30), obey the gospel (Romans 10:17; Luke 13:3; Romans 10:10; Acts 2:38), and be added to the church (Acts 2:41, 47).