FILL IN THE BLANKS WITH THE PROPER ANSWER
1. The Christian confesses his sins to GOD.
2. We come in contact with the blood of Christ at BAPTISM.
3. The church is the BODY of Christ.
4. Jesus nourishes and cherishes the CHURCH.
5. The word church sometimes refers to the ENTIRE
body of believers, and sometimes it refers to the LOCAL
congregation.
6. "For by one SPIRIT we were all
baptized into one BODY."
7. Christians should be "perfectly joined together in
the SAME mind and in the SAME
judgment."
8. When Christians are divided, it is a sign that they are
CARNAL.
9. As Gentiles we were without GOD; we
had no HOPE.
10. We must keep ourselves PURE, grow
SPIRITUALLY, and be sure that in the church
we are a part that does its SHARE.
11. The church was prepared from the FOUNDATION
of the world.
MARK THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS TRUE OR FALSE
1. There are some sins that the blood of Jesus cannot cleanse.
FALSE
2. Through baptism we put on Christ. TRUE
3. When a Christian sins, he must be baptized again. FALSE
4. The Lord adds a saved person to a man-made denomination.
FALSE
5. The church has one head and several bodies. FALSE
6. There is only one church with Jesus being its one head.
TRUE
7. Jesus has broken down the middle wall of division between
us and made both Jew and Gentile one. TRUE
8. All men and women of all races can be one in the church.
TRUE
9. Being a Christian is a great privilege involving great
responsibilities. TRUE
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LESSON #6: THE CHURCH
When a person is baptized for the forgiveness
of his sins, he is washed, sanctified, and justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus (1 Cor. 6:11). Every sin that a person has
ever committed is washed away by the blood of Jesus (Rev. 1:5).
He also has become a child of God because of his faith and obedience
to the gospel (2 Thess. 1:8).
For you are all sons of God through faith
in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ
have put on Christ (Gal. 3:26-27).
A Christian is a "new creation; old things have passed
away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Cor. 5:17).
Remember, the Christian died to sin (old things have passed away);
the sinful man has been put to death and has been born again
(John 3:1-7).
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death,
that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of
the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life (Rom.
6:4).
The question most frequently asked at this
point is, "But what happens if I sin now? Must I be baptized
again?" The answer is that a person must repent of any sin
which he commits and confess it to God Who is "faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness"
(1 John 1:9). We do have the important responsibility to make
sure that we are trying our best to obey God in all things.
But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have
fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His
Son cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7).
In other words, once we come in contact with the blood of
Jesus (at baptism), it continues to cleanse as we make every
effort to please God--to walk according to His truths in loving
obedience.
An additional blessing is that the Lord
adds the saved person to the church (Acts 2:47). What is the
church? It is NOT a man-made organization. The Bible presents
it as the body of Christ. Jesus died to obtain this body of redeemed
people; He "purchased it with His own blood" (Acts
20:28). It is so precious to Him that He nourishes it and cherishes
it (Eph. 5:29).
The book of Ephesians discusses the church
and its relationship to Jesus. Paul writes that God "put
all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things
to the church, which is His body. . . " (Eph. 1: 22-23).
Paul also writes that Jesus is "the head of the church"
and "the Savior of the body" (Eph. 5:23). Paul then
mentions several other things about Christ and the church.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church
and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it
with the washing of water by the word, that He might present
it to Himself a glorious church, not having any spot or wrinkle
or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish
(Eph. 5:25-27).
It is easy to see that Jesus not only loved
us enough to die on the cross for our sins; He also wants us
to grow and mature as Christians. It is also easy to see how
many churches there are: there is one head and one
body (church). Paul states that very truth in Ephesians 4:4--"There
is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope
of your calling." This description makes perfect sense;
after all, each of us has one head and one body.
Jesus is head over the entire church.
In the New Testament the word church is used in two senses:
it is used in the sense of the entire body of believers (as we
saw it in the book of Ephesians); and it also refers (most of
the time) to a local congregation of God's people, such as "the
church of the Thessalonians" (1 Thess. 1:1). All the individual
congregations of God's people make up the church as a whole.
But each one is Christ's church in one particular geographical
area.
How many different kinds of churches are there? The Bible
speaks of only one. Remember, Ephesians 4:4 says that there is
"one body." In any area today, however, one will find
a number of churches--all with different names. These religious
groups did not come from the Bible; some man (or group of men)
started them. The Lord is head over just one body. Paul wrote:
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into
one body--whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free--and
have all been made to drink into one Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13).
When we are baptized for the remission
of our sins and the Lord adds us to the church, we may bring
with us many ideas and practices that are false. We
must learn the truths that are taught in the Bible, and our goal
must be to "be perfectly joined together in the same mind
and in the same judgment" (1 Cor. 1:10). When Christians
began to divide themselves into separate groups in Corinth, Paul
accused them of being carnal (fleshly) rather than spiritual.
For when one says, "I am of Paul," and another,
"I am of Apollos," are you not carnal? (1 Cor. 3:4).
Those who are saved by the blood of Christ are all in one
body--His body. Unity is what Jesus prayed for (John 17:20-21),
and it is what all true believers want. We have not been placed
in separate spiritual bodies that hold conflicting views; there
is one body, one church. Even Jews and Gentiles (who hated one
another) are both members of the one body. Consider the following
test.
Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles
in the flesh--who are called Uncircumcision by what is called
the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands--that at that time
you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of
Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no
hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you
who once were far off have been made near by the blood of Christ.
For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken
down the middle wall of division between us (Eph. 2:11-14).
Now all men everywhere (rich or poor, black
or white, male or female) can all be one in the church (Gal.
3:27-28). Paul goes on to say that the church was a mystery which
was hidden in ages past but now is made known to all (Eph. 3:1-7).
What a privilege to be part of the
church of Christ, a spiritual kingdom prepared from the foundation
of the world (Eph. 1:4). "Behold what manner of love the
Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children
of God!" (1 John 3:1). We have several responsibilities
in return.
First of all, having been cleansed of sins,
we must do everything we can to keep ourselves pure (1 John 3:3).
Second, having been born again, we must grow spiritually (1 Peter
2:2). During that process we will learn that the whole body (the
church) is "joined and knit together by what every joint
supplies, according to the effective working by which every part
does its share. . ." (Eph. 4:16). If you have already obeyed
the gospel, you are blessed indeed to be part of the church.
In the last two lessons, we will discuss worship and the Christian
walk.
* If you have any questions or comments about anything in
these Bible lessons, please e-mail admin@TheBible.net
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