The visit was pleasant, until we got down to the object of the visit - the discussion of religion. “What I have against you people,” said the host, “is that you think the Church of Christ are the only ones who are going to heaven.” He was highly insulted that we might believe such a thing. What matters, of course, is not what we might believe on any matter, but what does the Bible have to say. We are obligated to believe whatever the Bible says.

In answering the charge, we need to define what is meant by the term “Church of Christ.” If the term means “Church of Christ Denomination,” as it almost always does in the minds of those making the charge, then we deny it. We deny that we believe that only those in the “Church of Christ Denomination” are the only ones who are going to be saved. In fact, we deny that there is salvation in a “Church of Christ Denomination” at all, any more than there is in any other Denomination. The Lord did not put salvation in a Denomination. He put salvation in the church He built, and the church He built is not a Denomination.

Jesus said, “Upon this rock I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18). He is the builder and owner of the church. He built only one church. It is not a Denomination. It is not made up of Denominations. It has no connection with any of today’s Denominations. It is Christ’s church, that is, the church of Christ.

Christ placed salvation in His church. He added to the church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:47). All the saved are added by the Lord to the church of Christ. He never adds them to a Denomination. “Christ is the head of the church and he is the Savior of the body” (Eph. 5:23). Jesus Christ saves the body which is the church of Christ. He never promised to save any other body—which would be a Denomination.

Since the Lord adds all the saved to Christ’s church, then if we are saved, He put us there. Since Christ saves the body, the church, then the church is the body of the saved. No one outside the body is saved. Therefore, we are going to have to be in the church to be saved. And it is the church which belongs to Christ, that is, the church of Christ.

The question now is, are we members of the church of Christ or are we members of a “Church of Christ Denomination?” If we hear and believe the same gospel those in New Testament times heard and believed, if we obey the same commandments and do the same things those in New Testament times did, we will be members of the same church they were, that is, the church of Christ. If not, why not?

Now, in light of the correct definition of church of Christ as the church which belongs to Christ, we must affirm in the light of the Bible’s teaching that one must be a member of the church of Christ in order to obtain eternal salvation.

Copied from The Messenger
(South Florida Avenue - Lakeland, Florida)

Jesus is our mediator. A mediator stands between two estranged parties. He must be neutral, having no relation to either party or else equally related to both. Jesus alone qualifies as a mediator between us and God. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).

As Son of man and Son of God, Jesus stands where no other could. Facing God as God, perfect and without sin (John 10:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21); yet, “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3), “touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” and “tempted in all points like as we are” (Hebrews 4:15); “it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest, in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17). How wonderful to have such a mediator!

Jesus is our advocate. An advocate is one who pleads another’s case before a tribunal or bar of justice. John, the beloved apostle, said, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). The word is “paraclete,” the same word Jesus used for the Holy Spirit (John 14:16,26; 15:26; 16:7, translated “Comforter” or “Helper”). Note that Jesus refers to the Spirit as “another paraclete” (14:16).

How wonderful! Our mediator, so carefully balanced as God and man, steps over to our side and pleads our case, becomes our lawyer for the defense!

Jesus is our propitiation. “And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). A propitiation is a substitutionary sacrifice, an atonement. You see, we stand before God’s bar of judgment “guilty as charged.” We need a mediator. We need an advocate. But being guilty, and God being just, we need something more. Our mediator and advocate steps over to the gallows, as it were (more accurately, to the cross), and takes our place. He not only pleads our case, He bears our punishment. He, the sinless one, accepts condemnation, in order that we, though sinners, might be justified, and God still be just (Romans 3:23-26). “God made him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ, our Mediator, Advocate, Propitiation!

Copied from Preacher Talk (6/89)
Magnolia Bible College
Kosciusko, Mississippi

I supposed I knew my Bible,
reading piecemeal, hit or miss,
Now a bit of John or Matthew,
now a snatch of Genesis;

Certain chapters of Isaiah,
certain Psalms (the twenty-third);
Twelfth of Romans, first of Proverbs.
Yes I thought I knew the Word.

But I found a thorough reading
was a different thing to do,
And the way was unfamiliar
when I read my Bible through.

You who like to play at Bible,
dip and dabble here and there,
Just before you kneel a weary
and yawn out a hurried prayer;

You who treat the Crown of Writing
as you treat no other book,
Just a paragraph disjointed,
just a quick, impatient look;

Try a worthier procedure,
try a broad and steady view;
You will kneel in rapture,
when you read your Bible through.