Scripture Reading:
Eph. 1:19-23; 5:23-32; Col. 1:16-19,24; 1 Tim. 3:15-16; Gal. 3:28; Col. 3:11; 1 Cor. 12:12-13
In our last lesson, we saw that the message that God gave to Paul was called a mystery. This means only that it was a secret until God chose to reveal it to mankind. He did this through Paul. The mystery was concerning the church today. The word “church” means “a called out group.” For example, we read in Acts 7:38 concerning the “church in the wilderness.” This was a “called out group” of Jews that the Lord led through the wilderness. The church today is called “the Church, the body of Christ.” If you read the Scripture text given above you will see that in each of these, we are taught concerning this church. In the first ones, it is clear that the church today is called, the body of Christ. Every saved person belongs to this church. No one who has rejected or refused to accept Christ as their Saviour belongs to this Church, the body of Christ.
In 1 Corinthians 12-14, we see that the Holy Spirit of God places us into this church when we accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our own personal Saviour. This is a spiritual act, not just something done by man to put us in a church organization. No human being can put us in this church or take us out of this church. It is something that only God does through the Holy Spirit. Our salvation and our being in the church is only from the Lord.
In Galatians 3:28 and Colossians 3:11, we are told it doesn’t matter whether we are Jew or Gentile, bond or free, male or female, we are all one in Christ in this Church, the body of Christ. We are all one in Christ who is all and in all.
It is wonderful to know that any one can be saved, and belong to His Church, the body of Christ. There may be some reading this that are Jew by nationality, or of some other nationality—you are saved in the same way and you belong to the same church when you are saved. The important thing is to accept the Lord Jesus as your personal Saviour. Each of us have “sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23) and “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). So, we all are sinners, and deserve death. But “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).
We must not confuse this spiritual church that God calls the “Church, the body of Christ” with any local church that we may attend. All saved people from every local church are added to the “Church, the body of Christ” by the Holy Spirit when they accept Christ as Saviour. There are no unsaved ones in this church.
I trust that many who are reading this have accepted Christ as Saviour, and if so, they are also members of the Church, the body of Christ.
“And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.” (Col. 1:17-18)
