Two weeks
ago we began a discussion regarding the results of personal salvation in Christ
and why it might be associated with enhanced wellbeing as found through Teleios
research.1 Our current blog series is describing what happens, as taught
in the Bible, to individuals at the time of their salvation. We started last
week with the fantastic promise of spiritual baptism, resulting in a steadfast
new and wonderful position of a believer. This week let us overview our
membership in Christ’s church.
At salvation
the Holy Spirit places each of us into the church of Christ (I Corinthians
12:13). This is a great promise and is a part of the results of our belief in
salvation by faith alone in Christ.
The form
of the church into which we are placed by the Spirit can be called, in
theological terms, the church universal. This form of the church roughly can be
described as the following:
- It is the union of all believers worldwide who form the complete body of Christ.
- Its head is Christ who sits at the right hand of God the Father and currently leads His church (Colossians 1:17-18, Hebrews 8:1, Ephesians 1:20-23).
- Scripture does not indicate that our membership can be revoked from the church universal.
- Although we are each instructed to be holy as God is Holy (I Peter 1:16), we each have different functions within the church (I Corinthians 12:13-27; Romans 12:4-5).
The
practical outworking of the church universal is multiple organized bodies of
believers often called the local church, but in our current age might be
virtual (online) as well. Para-church organizations (e.g. independent missions
or college ministries) function within the church universal but similarly to the
local church. This is a topic for a future blog. Scripture gives broad
definition to how churches are organized which allows great flexibility to
serve Christ in various times and cultures.
These
concepts of the church I've tried to base on Scripture without cultural overlays
of expectations and definitions. Regardless, the concept of the universal
church is controversial. For example, the some Baptist churches may not accept
the concept of a ‘universal church’.2 However, as the Apostle Paul states,
we do what we do in faith using what we need to serve God, filtered by prayer
and God's word (I Timothy 4:4-5, Romans 14:23).
Our reviews
so far we've covered…that at our salvation through faith in Christ’s death on
the cross; we have a spiritual baptism that identifies us as resurrected to a
new life and places by the Spirit in Christ’s Church.
Praise be
to God for such wonderful promises and positions resulting from such a great
salvation. Stay tuned next week as we continue our discussion of the results of
salvation. Thank you for joining me today.
1.
MacIlvaine, W.R., Nelson, L.A.,
Stewart, J.A., Stewart, W.C. (2013). Association of strength of religious
adherence to quality of life measures. Complement Ther Clin Pract, 19:251-255.
2.
Ryrie, C.C. (1981). Basic theology: A popular systematic guide to
understanding biblical truth. Colorado Springs: Victor Books; 277.
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