​​According to Bible teaching, the "church" does not save you; the church is the saved!  No one will be saved because they are a member of, or associate with, any particular church or religious organization.

 

Concerning the church, as we read about it in the Bible, the scriptures make it clear that, "the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved" (Acts 2:47).  So, if you are "saved," if you are a Christian--one who has entered into a life-giving relationship with God through faith in Jesus and His sacrificial death on the cross--then you are already a member of the church of Christ. No one needs to vote you in or give their approval because no human being can stand in judgement of your salvation or your place within the church, the body of Christ.  Only the Lord can make such a determination. 

 

Concerning our eternal life with God, our salvation is completely dependent on God's LOVE for us and His GRACE toward us which He has made available through the sacrifice of His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  The Bible says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift if God; not of works, that no man should glory" (Ephesians 2:8-9).​

 

God's love for us caused Him to send Jesus into the world to save lost humanity. The life and teachings of Jesus, His sacrifice on the cross, and the proclaiming of the Gospel (Good News) to all people everywhere constitute God's part in our salvation.​  In response to God's love for us, we human beings have a part in our salvation as well.  According to Bible teaching, we respond to God's love and receive His grace through...  
 

• LOVE born of FAITH in God and all that He has done for us through the sacrificial gift of His Son:  "And without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing unto Him; for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that seek after Him" (Hebrews 11:6). Jesus said that the greatest of all commandments is to "...love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets”  (Matthew 22:37-40).  Apart from a genuine LOVE for God and for others that comes from hearing, believing, and having an authentic faith in God, no amount of "commandment keeping," or anything else we do, will make any difference in our eternal destiny!  To become a Christian and be saved, every person must first believe the gospel message of God's love for them; and then make the personal choice to love God and to "seek first His kingdom and His righteousness" (Matthew 6:33).

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• REPENTENCE born of LOVE for God: "The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked; but now He commands all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30). Jesus made the statement: "...unless you repent you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3).  "To "repent" means to turn away from sin and selfishness and to live for God. The Apostle Paul said, "For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf" (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). Repentance involves making the personal choice to surrender one's heart and life to the Lord and to seek to please Him in all our decisions, words, and actions for the rest of our lives.  We do this out of an authentic love for the Lord and, "We love because He first loved us" (I John 4:19).

 

• CONFESSION of Jesus as our Lord: Jesus said, “Therefore, everyone who confesses Me before people, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before people, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 10:32-33).  The Apostles Paul reminds us that, "If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation" (Romans 10:9-10).  Neither of these two passages is talking about a one time event in our lives, but rather, Jesus and Paul have in view a lifestyle of continually confessing our faith in God and our love for Christ to people all around us as we go through life. So, "confession," like "repentance," is a continual way of life.  As Christians, we must always be ready and willing to confess before men our belief in God and our commitment to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

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• BAPTISM into Christ as an Expression of our Faith:  And Peter said unto them, 'Repent and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38), "Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for the one who has died is freed from sin" (Romans 6:4-7). "Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (I Peter 3:21).

 

• Every authentic child of God knows and understands that it is not our faith alone, or even our own obedience to God, and certainly not the the water of baptism itself that saves us - we do not believe in a "water salvation." We are saved only by the sacrificial death of Christ.  His death alone is the only thing that can pay the price for our sins so that we can have eternal life with God.  As the passages noted above, and many others, explain, baptism (a simple burial in water) is the expression of faith that God has chosen whereby we are put "into Christ" and "into His death" (Romans 6:3). When we express our faith in this way, we are "united with Christ in the likeness of His death" (Romans 6:5); and it is at that moment that we are "justified by His blood" (Romans 5:9), "we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace" (Ephesians 1:7), "and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin" (I John 1:7).

 

• Remaining FAITHFUL to Christ: The Bible says, "Take care, brothers and sisters, that there will not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another every day, as long as it is still called “today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we keep the beginning of our commitment firm until the end" (Hebrews 3:12-14).

 

• Contrary to what many of the religious denominations in the world believe, the Bible clearly teaches that following Christ and enjoying a life-giving relationship with Him is a continual choice that we, His people, make as we walk through life.  God has not, and does not, take away our free will. Love must be given freely and willingly, or how can it really be called "love?"  So, God does not override the freedom He has given us to make our own personal decisions and to choose to love Him and submit to His will for our lives. The Bible verses above teach us that people's hearts can be "hardened by the deceitfulness of sin" so that they "fall away from the living God."  This is one reason why we seek to obey God's word when it tells us: "let’s consider how to encourage one another in love and good deeds, not forsaking our own meeting together, as is the habit of some people, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near" (Hebrews 10:24-25).

AN OPEN INVITATION
 

In the parable that Jesus told about a farmer planting his seeds (Luke 8:4-14), He made the point that good seed produces a good crop. When the simple truth of the gospel is planted in a good and honest heart, it will still produce today what it produced back in Bible times - a beautiful child of God, a disciple of Christ, a Christian; nothing more and nothing less.

 

We encourage you to open your heart and mind to the good seed of God's word and allow Him to plant His message of love deep in your heart; ​and we invite you to come visit with us at the church of Christ meeting together in Roscoe, TX or to reach out to us with regard to any further questions you may have about your personal walk with the Lord. Our hearts desire and our prayer unto God for you is for your salvation. We want you with us, as a part of God's forever family, when this earth and all its works are destroyed by fire and God's children inherit that "new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells" (2 Peter 3:10-13).