We Are the Body of Christ (Part 4)

"Saving faith is an immediate relation to Christ, accepting, receiving, resting upon Him alone, for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of God's grace."  - Charles Spurgeon

When we met last, the final point made was that Christ is the Savior of the Church, that is he is the head over the church body. Jesus sacrificed himself to save the church; he purchased salvation for it. 

We'll expand on this a little, this week, by turning our focus onto the sanctification and cleansing of his church. There is a definite cleansing virtue in the word of Christ. As spoken to the church (believers) it works grace, and works out evil and immorality (John 15:3).

In John 17:17, Jesus prayed to His Father (God) for the sanctification of his disciples. Jesus also desires this for his church. Believers are sanctified (purified) by the truth of Christ. Thus, faith received from the word of Christ purifies the heart (Acts 15:9),

We are aware that Jesus is the world's Savior; that he died for all. It's crucial for this to be shared. The gospel, the good news of salvation through Christ, must be preached, or delivered to all (Mark 16:15). And who better to do this than the Church!

It's not rocket science that we are talking about here. If one believes the gospel message; he believes in Christ as his Savior. The gospel being the word of peace and reconciliation by his atoning sacrifice, including the doctrine of free and full pardon by his blood, justification by his righteousness, and complete salvation by him.

This pardon, however, does require that a few conditions be met. They are: faith in Christ, of course, and obedience to his command. Baptism, which we will talk about later, is also a part of this.

Regardless, if a person doesn't have enough faith in Christ to obey him, then he doesn't have enough faith to be saved. Unfortunately, for the unbeliever this means that he remains unchanged. There is no promise of salvation (John 3:18).

There are several more points that I'd like to touch on regarding Jesus and the sanctification and cleansing of his church, but I think that they would be better saved for next time.

I hope that you have found our discussions worthwhile, thus far, and that you will join me again for our next discussion of Jesus and His glorious Church!

Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Galatians 2:20; Romans 6:6; Hebrews 13:12; Colossians 3:1

Prayer: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, amen.  - Ephesians 1:3

May the Lord bless,

Shawna