So many preachers teach that by being born again in Jesus Christ, man will be saved from the eternal jesus gospel of love for one’s sins. Simply believe and have faith in the Lord Jesus and accept Him as one’s personal savior, man is already a born again Christian. So many has been led to believe that this is enough to achieve salvation from eternal damnation.
With this kind of belief, it is not important for man to join any religious organization and that it is not necessary for one to belong to a church. Faith alone in Christ and having a personal relationship with Him is enough to attain salvation.
True enough, God appointed Christ as the savior and not the Church or any religious group. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one who will save and not the Church. Does joining a church organization really has nothing to do with God’s divine plan for the salvation of man? Can man really do away with the Church?
The True Relationship With Christ Is Being One With Him
On the other hand, there are those who preach that the Church of Christ is important and necessary for man to be saved. Do they replace Christ with the Church as the appointed savior? How about a personal relationship with Christ? Is it no longer needed?
Preachers of the Church of Christ claim as written in Ephesians 5:23, that it is the Church that the savior Jesus Christ will save. It is therefore necessary for man to be a member of the Church of Christ if he wants to be saved and that it is not true that man needs only to have a personal relationship with Christ.
In Colossians 1:18 of the New King James version, we find: “He is the head of the body, the church.”
While in Ephesians 5:23, NKJV, “Christ is the head of the church, and He is the savior of the body”.
Being one with Christ is the true relationship with Him. We can only achieve this by being a member of the Church founded by Christ Himself. It is the Church that has union with Christ and this union is inseparable. Man cannot just accept Christ while rejecting the Church or man cannot just accept the Church while rejecting Christ.
Examine this fact that Christ established a church and said this church is His (Matt. 16:18). Why would He have built a church and identified it with Him if it is not important in fulfilling His mission as the Savior?
The Widely Accepted Belief
“Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people” (Heb. 9:28, New International Version). God decreed that the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23) in the lake of fire which is the second death (Rev. 20:14). Man needs to be saved from this, so God sent His beloved Son who gave His life and precious blood for the salvation of man. The common understanding and belief is that the whole of mankind has benefited from His death on the cross, the grace of Christ’s salvation. A careful examination of God’s will reveals that this is not so.
The Lord Jesus Christ Fulfilled The Will Of God
The mission of Christ as given by God, is to save mankind from eternal punishment. The Lord Jesus carried out this mission without violating any of God’s laws.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matt. 5:17, NIV).
Christ did not violate this law that god decreed on sinners:
“Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin” (Deut. 24:16, Ibid.).
Can a father redeem his son or take his child’s place from the punishment of sin by dying on his child’s behalf? Can a child die for his father to save him? Definitely not. The law clearly states that each is to die for his own sin. If Christ died for other men and took their place for the death sentence that God imposed because of their sins, Christ violated a law of God.
