Article - To Forsake Christ’s Church is to Forsake Christ (part 2)
When a child of God leaves the church OF CHRIST, not only does he desert God’s family, but he also abandons Christ and all the spiritual blessings that go along with being a faithful member and worker of Jesus’ church (Galatians 6:10; Ephesians 2:19; 1 Timothy 3:15; Hebrews 3:6; 8:8-10; 10:21; 1 Peter 2:5; 4:17). Hebrews 3:6 states that Christians can only remain part of the household of God IF they hold fast firm to the end. One might argue: “Well, I am a member of the church. I just choose not to assemble with the church. But I love Jesus and I still maintain a relationship with Him.” Such thinking is deceptive and damning to one’s soul for the following reasons (taken from Hebrews 10:24-31): When one abandons assembling together with fellow Christians (1) he fails to consider other fellow Christians (and Christ, Hebrews 3:1-6) to motivate them toward love and good works; (2) he sins willingly; (3) Jesus’ sacrifice for his sins no longer remains for him; (4) he becomes an adversary (enemy) of God (God’s boiling anger will devour him – if, of course, he does not repent, Acts 8:20-24; 1 John 1:9); (5) he will suffer worse punishment than those who suffered capital punishment under Moses’ law – reasons: At the point that he forsook the church of Christ, (a) he trampled God’s Son under his feet (that is, he treated Jesus with insulting neglect); (b) he regarded Jesus’ blood as just a common thing (that is, it no longer mattered to him that Jesus shed His blood for His church, Acts 20:28); and (c) he insulted God’s Spirit (because he no longer lives according to the Spirit, but according to the flesh, Romans 8:5-17). It is a fearful thing for an erring Christian to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 4:4-8; 10:31; 2 Peter 2:20-22)! Young people (and all Christians), “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31).
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