02.26. THE CHURCH - 02 - Its Membership.

THE CHURCH – 02 – Its Membership.

If, as we believe, all who accept the salvation provided by Jesus Christ, all obedient believers are members of his church we have already answered the question of membership in our lessons on "Faith," "Repentance and Confession" and "Baptism." We need not repeat what we said there, but there lessons may be referred to. Since in Acts 2:1-47 we have the record of the church’s establishment, we would naturally expect the conditions of membership to be given there. Acts 2:47 gives us, a suggestive word regarding church additions: "The Lord added to them day by day those that were being saved." We learn several things here: The Lord, not man, adds folk to his church. None are in it save the Lord’s additions. One may plant, another may water, but God alone gives the increase (1 Corinthians 3:6). Since it is the Lord’s church of which we wish to be members, and since he has not revealed to us that he has changed the conditions of entrance, it will be profitable to see whom he added of old. He added "those that were being saved." Who were these? A reading of Acts 2:37-41 will tell us something Three thousand who believed, who gladly heard the apostles; word, repented, and were baptized, were "added." These were the Lords additions. These accepted the conditions which we uniformly find in the New Testament. We may look at the matter from a different view-point. The church is the body of Christ (Colossians 1:18). The Corinthians were members of that body (1 Corinthians 12:27) Acts 18:8 tells us that "many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized." The Epistle to the Corinthians witnesses to the same effect. The Corinthians received and believed the great facts of the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4); they were "baptized into one body" (1 Corinthians 12:13). There is perfect harmony here with the conditions of membership given in Acts 2:1-47. There is a similar agreement in the experience of the members of "the churches of Galatia" (Galatians 1:2): they were "justified by faith"; were "sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus," having been "baptized into Christ" (Galatians 3:24-27). The letters to the Colossians and the Romans are in accord (Romans 6:3; Romans 4:1-25; Colossians 2:12). We could arrive at a similar result in another way. If the church is the body of which Christ is the Head, we would expect that men become attached to the body and to the Head in the same way. We find that it is so. Paul speaks of "the churches of Judaea which were in Christ" (Galatians 1:22), just as he repeatedly addresses Christians as "in Christ." We have seen already that the Scriptures speak of men believing into Christ, and being baptized into Christ. The Galatian letter itself is decisive (Galatians 3:26-27). If we agree that in denotation the kingdom of God, in so far as it is manifested in visible form on earth, corresponds to the church--and we have at least a definite apostolic statement that Christians have been delivered out of the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of the Son of his love (Colossians 1:13)--we have another simple line of proof. The Savior gave us the terms of entrance into the kingdom. "Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). In this new birth we have implied the belief (cf. 1 John 5:1), repentance and baptism, which are given as terms of admission to the church. Some to-day deny that "born of water" refers to baptism, I believe the denial has been made through stress of controversy. A. Plummer, in the article on "Baptism" in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, says that "until Calvin’s day" it "had universally been interpreted as referring to baptism. Wesley’s "Notes" so refer to it. The Church of England "Book of Common Prayer" has this interpretation in its "Order of Baptism.’ The writer’s copy of the Westminster "Confession of Faith" has John 3:5 quoted as a proof text in the chapter "Of Baptism." The correspondence of John 3:3; John 3:5 with Titus 3:5; and indeed with Romans 6:3-4, will be noted by the careful reader. This is sufficient treatment of the question, How do we become members of the church? It is not disputed that the penitent baptized believer is eligible for admission to the church. But another, and most important question lies before us, What of continuance in the church of God? It must constantly be remembered that initiation into the church is not enough. It is good to come into Christ. It is better to continue to abide in Christ. We have Jesus’ own exhortation to this (John 15:4; John 15:6-7). The Apostle John repeated the injunction (1 John 2:27-28). How shall we do this? The answer is that just as we came into Christ by initial obedience to his commands, so we continue to abide in him by continuing to keep his commandments (John 15:10). Christians are saved persons (Ephesians 2:8); yet from another viewpoint our salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed (Romans 13:11). We are not yet eternally saved; "He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved" (Matthew 10:22). Christians have been "translated into the kingdom of the Son of his love" (Colossians 1:13), but yet "the entrance into the eternal kingdom" lies before us; and to get this entrance we must in faith supply virtue, and in virtue knowledge, and in knowledge self-control, and in self-control patience, and in patience, godliness, and in godliness love of the brethren, and in love of the brethren love (2 Peter 1:5-11). As members of the church, we have been called out (for so the word ecclesia signifies), but we have now to give diligence to make our calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10). The names by which members of the church are known in the New Testament are significant of the Lord’s requirements. If they are "Christians" (1 Peter 4:6), they must glorify God in the name, it must from their lives be manifest that they are Christ’s ones (cf. Acts 4:13). If they are "disciples" (Acts 9:1), they must continue to be true to their name and be learners of Christ who is meek and lowly in heart (Matthew 11:29), and must grow in knowledge (1 Peter 3:18). If they are "brethren" (Acts 9:30) they must "love the brotherhood" (1 Peter 2:17), they must not set their brethren at nought (Romans 14:10), or do wrong to and defraud their brethren (1 Corinthians 6:8). They who are "obedient to the faith" (Acts 6:7) must continue faithful: "Be thou faithful unto death, and I win five thee the crown of life" (Revelation 2:10). It is not enough that a man be "born anew" (John 3:5), he must "walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4). It is not enough that one "put on Christ" in baptism (Galatians 3:27); he must as a Christian put on Christ, wearing him daily, as it were, as he would wear a beautiful garment, which others may behold and admire (Romans 13:14). All Christians are called "saints" (Romans 1:7); but the name should not merely be a technical one: all should be "holy and without blemish and unreprovable" (Colossians 1:22), holy in all manner of living as he which called them is holy (1 Peter 1:15-16). Let it not be thought that holiness of life is merely advisable, without being necessary. Jesus taught that fruit-bearing was a condition and test of discipleship (Matthew 7:16-20; John 15:8). Men of disorderly life are withdrawn from (2 Thessalonians 3:6 :1 Timothy 6:5). The church of God, both for its own good and in order that the sinner may be brought to repentance must have no company with men of wicked life (1 Corinthians 1:1-31), or with false teachers, so as to condone their errors (2 John 1:10-11). To have Christ, men must abide in the teaching (2 John 1:9). This continuance in good works this abiding in Christ, is obviously as important as the first acceptance of Christ. We can never too constantly affirm the need of holy living (Titus 3:8). We must make it clear that he who becomes a Christian is a babe in Christ (1 Corinthians 3:1), the Christian life is begun, not finished. Constant prayer for help and guidance, feeding on the sincere milk of the word (1 Peter 2:2), attendance on the means of grace found in the divinely appointed worship meetings of the church--these are requisite for growth in grace and knowledge. It is not the Lord’s will that we should always be children; he would that we all should "attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). There are two texts which surely are peculiarly appropriate at the close of this study. The first is, "These things write I unto thee ... that thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Timothy 1:14-15). The second is the most glorious passage which the Bible contains concerning the church: "Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify its having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Ephesians 5:25-27). What a price, cleansing, and destiny!

QUESTIONS.

1. What is the meaning of the word "church"? 2. Name some of the uses of the word "church" or "churches" in the New Testament. Comment on the significance of these. 3. When was the church established? 4. What does Matthew 16:18 tell us of the church’s establishment? 5. By whom was the church established? 6. Of what use is the church? 7. Who are members of the church? 8. State the conditions of entrance into the church as implied or stated in Acts 2:1-47. 9. Show from the Scriptures that something more is required than becoming a member of the church. 10. Give and comment on the meaning of some of the titles applied in the New Testament to Christians as individuals. 11. How do we (a) abide in Christ; (b) grow in grace? 12. Why did Jesus give himself for the church?