In Search of the Lord's Way
by Phil Sanders
"Just a Christian"
Did you know that you can be a member of the church that Jesus purchased with His own blood without belonging to any denomination? Today we're going to explore how you can be just a Christian, just a member of the Lord's church. The Bible is God's wonderful message of faith, truth, hope, and love. God gave us His Word to teach us, to encourage us, to comfort us, to reprove us, and to give us eternal life.
John 20:30-31 says,
John 20:30 There are also many other signs (attesting miracles) that Jesus performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these have been written so that you may believe [with a deep, abiding trust] that Jesus is the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed), the Son of God; and that by believing [and trusting in and relying on Him] you may have life in His name.
The more we study the Bible, the stronger our faith will become; and that faith leads to life in His name.
If I told you I just bought a car, you would ask, "What kind of car did you get?" It's pretty difficult to talk about cars without talking about some kind of car. We want to know the make and the model. Is it a hybrid or an SUV? What color is it? If I said, "It's just a car!" we would have no concept of what that meant; but the very first car was simply a car. It was the one and only car.
When you speak of being a member of the church, the first thing people ask is, "What kind of church is it?" They want to know if we go to a community church or a denomination. The idea of being just a Christian and simply being a member of the church Jesus built is foreign to the thinking of most people.
But as you read the New Testament, the church is simply "the church." There was no kind of church. Did you know that you can be a member of that original church? That you can be just a Christian!
Our reading today comes from Paul's first epistle to the church at Corinth, chapter 1, verses 10 to 13.
I Cor. 1:10 But I urge you, believers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in full agreement in what you say, and that there be no divisions or factions among you, but that you be perfectly united in your way of thinking and in your judgment [about matters of the faith]. 11 For I have been informed about you, my brothers and sisters, by those of Chloe's household, that there are quarrels and factions among you. 12 Now I mean this, that each one of you says, "I am [a disciple] of Paul," or "I am [a disciple] of Apollos," or "I am [a disciple] of Cephas (Peter)," or "I am [a disciple] of Christ." 13 Has Christ been divided [into different parts]? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul? [Certainly not!]
When
people speak of the church they attend, they usually classify themselves as
denominational or nondenominational. There
are many kinds of community churches and denominations.
Various denominations
developed when religious people began holding to their own opinions about God's
teaching to the point that they refused to work with others. They began spreading their peculiar doctrines
or practices. In time, they needed a
name to represent themselves. This name
became a sort of brand or trademark for that particular kind of church having
its own characteristics. It became a
denomination.
Taking up a brand name implies a division. A denomination is a "named division." The divided church at Corinth had members lining up behind individuals and separating themselves from others by following his name. Some followed Paul and said, "I am of Paul," some Apollos, and some Peter. Paul was horrified at that! He said in I Corinthians 1:13,
I Cor. 1:13 Has Christ been divided [into different parts]? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul? [Certainly not!]
Of course, the answer to these questions is no. No, Christ isn't divided! No, Paul wasn't crucified for you! No, you weren't baptized in the name of Paul!
Many denominations ask their members to go beyond faith in Christ and vow to follow the denominational bylaws or official statements. They follow their brand of Christianity; and this commit-ment to their doctrines and practices define them as a certain kind of Christian. Isn't this exactly the kind of division that Paul was speaking against?
Because so many generations have gone by with "brand name" Christianities, people have become satisfied and settled in their ways, never dreaming that the Lord disapproves of the divisions that come from brand names. God has never approved of such division.
Have you ever broken a favorite dish? When it happened, you probably groaned and wished you could put it back together in its pure and original state. Our religious world is spiritually broken. We need to leave this brokenness and go back to the original church, the one that you read about in the New Testament. We seek to bring back the pure and unbroken church, as God meant for it to be, by returning to the truth and to the ideals that are found in the New Testament.
In the early 1800's, people who loved God grew weary of the fighting and division among Christian denominations. They believed the Lord wanted His people to be united. They realized that all of the bad-mouthing and exclusiveness of the denominations shamed the name of the Lord. Their constant conflicts and divisive ways caused people to fall away from Christ in disbelief.
The Lord Jesus prayed,
John 17:20 "I do not pray for these alone [it is not for their sake only that I make this request], but also for [all] those who [will ever] believe and trust in Me through their message,
Why?
John 17:21 that they all may be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe [without any doubt] that You sent Me. 22 I have given to them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected and completed into one, so that the world may know [without any doubt] that You sent Me, and [that You] have loved them, just as You have loved Me.
They believed that the division and animosity came from people holding to human opinions, and creeds, and councils, and practices, and names. They believed the only way they could have fellowship and unity was to unite on what the Lord commanded.
Many Christians left Europe to find religious peace in America, but found the same conflicts here. They wanted something better -- a pure and true Christianity free from the stains of human opinions. They believed that, "If we abandon the human and concentrate on what is truly divine, we can unite."
This
unity could only come from following the truth that's found in God's Word. This meant they had to cast off everything
that was human and denominational and return to the Christianity that was found
in the New Testament, a Christianity that knew nothing of denominationalism.
They
rejected human opinions and human innovations since these things don't find
their authority in God's Word, but in men. They believed that "nothing ought to be forced
upon Christians as articles of faith; nor required of them as terms of
communion; but what is expressly taught, and enjoined upon them, in the word of
God." So they said, "We speak where the
Bible speaks, and we are silent where the Bible is silent." They wanted unity in essentials, freedom in
matters of opinion, and love in all things. They wanted a pure and true faith in Christ
alone found in the New Testament as the source of their faith and practice.
It shouldn't surprise us that people left the pure, inspired teaching and pursued what they wanted. The New Testament predicted that Christians would fall away from the truth of the gospel into error and false religion. God knew the hearts of men would often follow their own paths.
Paul told the elders of the church at Ephesus,
Acts 20:29 I know that after I am gone, [false teachers like] ferocious wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 even from among your ownselves men will arise, speaking perverse and distorted things, to draw away the disciples after themselves [as their followers].
Paul, by inspiration, realized that when you
twist the teaching, you cause people to fall away from the truth and from God.
Paul
warned Timothy,
I Tim. 4:1 But the [Holy] Spirit explicitly and unmistakably declares that in later times some will turn away from the faith, paying attention instead to deceitful and seductive spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 [misled] by the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared as with a branding iron [leaving them incapable of ethical functioning], 3 who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from [certain kinds of] foods which God has created to be gratefully shared by those who believe and have [a clear] knowledge of the truth.
The devil is a deceiver; he intends to lead people to believe false teachings and he lies about certain practices being God's will. He doesn't care who he hurts by deceiving people.
Paul knew that Christians would be weak like ancient Israel and would wander away from God's teaching. He knew they would rather believe a comforting lie than to hold to the gospel truth. Inspired of God, he predicted,
II Tim. 4:3 For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine and accurate instruction [that challenges them with God's truth]; but wanting to have their ears tickled [with something pleasing], they will accumulate for themselves [many] teachers [one after another, chosen] to satisfy their own desires and to support the errors they hold, 4 and will turn their ears away from the truth and will wander off into myths and man-made fictions [and will accept the unacceptable].
Once a lie gets perpetuated, later generations become convinced that this falsehood is true. They don't even know they've been deceived.
Many today want salvation, but they don't want to take up a cross to follow Jesus. They want a Savior, but not a Lord. They're comfortable believing a lie and will actually oppose the truth. They are so settled in what they believe, they don't want to hear it could actually be wrong.
For instance, early church history confirms that Christians wandered away from the teaching and practices that were found in the New Testament. The New Testament says absolutely nothing about things like holy water, lent, penance, infant baptism, intercession of the saints, sprinkling for baptism, sacrifice of mass, celibacy of priests, purgatory, priestly absolution, a pope, instrumental music in Christian worship, salvation by faith only, or the doctrine of "once saved, always saved."
Century by century believers moved farther away from the simplicity of the New Testament and its Christianity. They no longer followed God's pattern for the church in the New Testament, but became something different. If we are to please God, we must return to what God willed in the New Testament. Returning is necessary, because repentance from error is necessary. One cannot remain in error and still please God.
James 5:19-20 says,
James 5:19 My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you strays from the truth and falls into error and [another] one turns him back [to God], 20 let the [latter] one know that the one who has turned a sinner from the error of his way will save that one's soul from death and cover a multitude of sins [that is, obtain the pardon of the many sins committed by the one who has been restored].
By ceasing to follow man-made doctrines and practices, the church could restore the doctrine, worship, and organization of the New Testament church.
Our intent is to follow the teaching and the ideals of the New Testament. The Lord Jesus built His church before any denomination existed. We want to be in His church, the church purchased with His blood. His church is not denominational, inter-denominational, or even nondenominational. The church that Jesus built was undenominational. Moreover, it was pre-denominational. Jesus would never approve of unifying the truth with error, because Jesus wants the church to remain holy and pure.
Churches of Christ strive to "do Bible things in Bible ways and call Bible things by Bible names." They believe they must "discard from their faith and their practice everything that isn't authorized by the New Testament of the Lord and Savior, and to believe and practice whatever is there enjoined."
This desire to restore New Testament Christianity grew out of a conviction that the Bible is the complete and final authority. Therefore, it was and still is sufficient to teach us all that we need to know for eternal life and for godliness.
Just as a seed will produce only after its own kind, so the seed of God's Word will produce the same Christianity today that it did in the first century. The Lord Jesus said in Luke 8:11 that the seed of the kingdom is the Word. The Bible gives us all of God's revealed will for life and godliness.
Jesus promised His apostles that they would be guided into all the truth (John 16:12-13). If men go beyond this Word and begin to preach other things, they will not only lose their relationship with God, according to II John 9, they will also produce a different product than the church that Jesus built. Who would really want that?
Some believe that the primary goal of restoration is to unite all churches. They believe that Jesus' prayer for unity in John 17 means that all churches should embrace one another on the basis of the most fundamental things. In their minds, there are very few essentials. Some feel as long as a person believes in and loves Jesus, he is right with God. They seem to ignore everything else that Jesus said and they embrace only what He said about unity.
Before Jesus prayed for unity in John 17:20-23, He first prayed for His followers to be sanctified or "set apart" in the truth (John 17:17). We can't have unity without the truth. We can't blend truth with all kinds of error and still have unity. Christians are to buy the truth and not sell it (Proverbs 23:23).
Jesus said,
John 8:31 So Jesus was saying to the Jews who had believed Him, "If you abide in My word [continually obeying My teachings and living in accordance with them, then] you are truly My disciples. 32 And you will know the truth [regarding salvation], and the truth will set you free [from the penalty of sin]."
Christ didn't pray for a unity that sacrifices or compromises the truth. Actually, it's our faith in the revealed truth that unites us. Christian unity is not ecumenism, where groups unite but maintain conflicting and contradictory beliefs and practices. Uniting with those who teach or worship in error sells out the truth for compromise. To be faithful and true to the Lord, Christians cannot ignore or tolerate error like the ancient churches at Pergamum or Thyatira did. Jesus called them to repentance; and He calls us to repentance as well.
Why are we talking about this? Because our love for God and the souls of men means speaking out against error and for the truth. Loving the Lord means loving the truth that He taught and loving what is written in the New Testament. Let me ask you, "Isn't the church of our Lord, the one He purchased with His own blood, given to the world through His inspired apostles and prophets, isn't that good enough?
How could we dare to change it or think that we could improve on it with our human ideas and practices? We can't! That's why we have to leave everything that violates the will of God and return to the pure teaching. We must remain in God's Word.
God expects His people to leave sin when they learn the truth. Repentance leaves every wrongdoing and embraces the Lord's will. When the church at Pergamum in Revelation 2 strayed by holding to false teachings of Balaam and the Nicolaitans, Jesus sternly warned them to "repent therefore or else I am coming to you quickly." In the same chapter, Jesus also warned the church at Thyatira not to "tolerate" the false prophetess Jezebel or her teachings but to repent. When people believe or practice something false, God expects them to repent.
Calling people back to the truth is to save their souls. We must get right with God. This is true, whether we make our plea to an individual, or to a group of individuals, or to a church. To follow Christ, we need to put away what comes from man and follow what comes from God.
Love the Lord, get right with God, and get involved in the Lord's church. Place your faith in Jesus as the Christ; repent of every sin; confess Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God; and be baptized into Christ. Peter told the people at Pentecost in Acts 2:38,
Acts 2:38 ... "Repent [change your old way of thinking, turn from your sinful ways, accept and follow Jesus as the Messiah] and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Both repentance and baptism are necessary. The New Revised Standard Version says,
"Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
Many have come to believe falsely that baptism is unnecessary, but more than a dozen recent translations show one must be baptized to receive forgiveness. Won't you be baptized today?
