The Church is the body of Christ. It is a spiritual organization. The members of the Church are a group of Christians who have the life of God. They become members of the Church because they all share a common characteristic. That is, each one has the assurance of salvation and has received the gift of eternal life from God according to the promise in the Bible. With respect to our earthly lives, we may have different backgrounds, social status, walks of life and achievements. But all these earthly elements do not constitute the requirements to partake in the Church of God. Whether we belong to the Church of God and become members therein depends solely on whether or not we have the eternal life given by Him. Having this life, we are by nature part of the Church. Without this life, we do not belong to the Church at all. This is an extremely solemn issue that each one of us has to examine before God.
The salvation that Christ has achieved through His sacrifice on the cross is the only ground for sinners to be reconciled to God. Our nature and our works are entirely unrelated to, and unfit for, the salvation of God. It is on this ground of salvation that we are, through faith, forgiven and accepted by God. It is on the same ground that He gives us the spiritual life. And by virtue of this spiritual life given by Him, we partake in the body of Christ, which is the Church.
Spiritual life comes through the redemption of Christ. The way of redemption and its certainty are clearly recorded in the Bible for us to seek and to claim. For example, it is written in Ephesians 2:8-9: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” Redemption emphasizes on grace. It does not depend on our works, nor does it rely on our fulfillment of the Law of the Old Testament. Redemption also stresses on faith. It is a faith that acknowledges and accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior from our heart and mind and the yielding of our will and life in commitment to Him. Therefore, redemption cannot be treated as a mathematical formula, through which one may obtain a certain predicted result by mechanically following a certain set of criteria and requirements. Such a “merit-by-effort” concept, by itself, flatly rejects God’s principle of salvation by grace, and falls into the snare of “justification-by-works”, which is completely contradictory to the Scriptural faith of Christianity.
To a genuinely saved and born again Christian, there should be a genuine confession and repentance of sins through his experience of believing and accepting Christ. He realized the fate of eternal death as a consequence of his iniquity. Then he came to understand the great love of Christ Who had sacrificed Himself on the cross for him and this generates in him faith and desire toward Christ’s redemption. As a result, he received forgiveness of sin and the gift of life as promised by God. “He who has the Son has life.” (1 John 5:12) Once we have received this spiritual life, we then become a part of the Church.
It is necessary for a visible church to deal with matters concerning church membership. Therefore, there are principles in our organization and administration to fulfill this purpose. According to our constitution, Christians who are truly born again, and are baptized, and have been accepted by the executive committee of our church, will be eligible to become members of our church. In practice, when dealing with recognition and acceptance of believers, we stress strongly on the aspects that believers should have the clarity and certainty of their claim to being saved. They should demonstrate a real change in life and walk, corresponding to their commitment in faith, which shows the new life of Christ that is dwelling in them. As it is written in Ephesians 4:1-3: “To live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” and Ephesians 4:22-24: “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” With the witness of the new life and new walk, they will be acknowledged and accepted publicly by the visible church.
While the visible church is still staying on earth, there will be deficiencies in church administration due to human weaknesses. The lack of vigilance in watching, or a laxity in keeping up the faith, may contaminate the purity of the visible church. It is the responsibility of the executive committee of the church to fulfill its obligation to retain the purity of the church through the guidance of our Lord and His Word. We do not wish to have people uncertain of their faith being accepted because of our mistakes, lest anyone who is without the salvation of God would mistakenly consider that he was saved and secure in the household of God. At the same time, we do desire that the Church would keep the purity in faith, pleasing to the Lord, so that functions of the body of Christ will not be hindered. The church as one body will then be strengthened and unified, being “children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life.” (Philippians 2:15-16)