In Matthew 16:18, Jesus promised to build a church. In Acts
2:47, Luke tells us that people were being added to that church. Thus, we can
conclude that Jesus built His church sometime between His promise in Matthew 16
and Luke’s statement in Acts 2. Indeed, a closer study of the events in Acts 2
reveals that the Lord’s church was established on that first day of Pentecost
following the Lord’s resurrection when Peter preached the first gospel sermon.
That church is the church of Christ.
A common misconception about the church of Christ is that
“The Church of Christ” is its name. It is not. The “church of Christ” is its
description. The church of Christ is the church that belongs to Christ, that
was established by Christ, that was built by Christ, and that was bought by
Christ. It is not our church; it is His church, the Lord’s church. We are not
voted into the church by men, and we do not join a church the way some might
join a country club. Instead, God adds us to His church when we obey His
gospel.
Are those in the church of Christ the only people who are
going to be saved? Of course they are! Gods adds people to His church when they
are saved. If you are not in the Lord’s church, then you are not saved. If you
are saved, then you are in the Lord’s church. To be saved outside of the church
of Christ is to be saved outside of the body of Christ – and that can never
happen. Jesus is not just a way to the Father; he is the way to the Father. As
Jesus said in John 14:6, “ I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh
unto the Father, but by me.”
Thus, the real question is not what is the church of Christ,
but is rather how do you become a part of the church of Christ? That question
was asked in the first century as it is asked today, and the answer remains the
same. We are saved and added to the Lord’s church when we obey the gospel of
Jesus Christ. Like the Apostle Paul, we are saved when our sins are washed away
at our baptism.
There is one church of Christ. If you are a member of
something else or something more or something less, then you are not serving
God according to His plan or according to His will. He wants you to be a
Christian and only a Christian, wearing only the name of His Son, Jesus Christ,
who is the head and the savior of the church, His body.
