THE GRACE OF GOD AND CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP

Curtis A. Cates

Two of the most beautiful and meaningful interwoven principles in the scheme of human redemption are the grace of God and Christian fellowship. And, though these lofty matters are so clearly presented in the Scriptures, much confusion and false teaching exist in the religious world and even among God’s people.

This article will examine the relationship of grace and fellowship. Its thesis is, God’s grace can no more permit, establish, and sanction the faithful fellowshipping of the unfaithful than God’s grace can flow to the disobedient.

 

The Grace of God

 

God’s grace saves all who obey and persist in the gospel. The grace of God (charis, Gk.) is favor, unmerited favor, as it relates to man’s redemption. His grace became desperately needed by man when sin entered the world. Adam and Eve transgressed God’s law in the Garden; they were separated from God (Isa. 59:1-2); they committed suicide spiritually, requiring the penalty of life for life. Christ “through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God” (Heb. 9:14) in order to save man—he would be the perfect sacrifice, offering his blood [the life of the flesh, Gen. 9:4] as the penalty for sin (Isa. 53:5). Through the seed of Abraham, Christ, all families of the earth—Jew and Gentile—would be blessed (Gen. 12:1-3; Gal. 3:16ff). By God’s grace, the obedient are justified “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:21-24).

However, God’s grace is conditional. “Who then can be saved?” (Matt. 19:25). “Are they few that are saved?” one asked the Lord (Luke 13:23). The many, or the few? Of Cain and Abel, only Abel was saved by grace (Gen. 4:1-16); of the hundreds of millions living at the time of the flood, only eight souls were saved in the ark (Gen. 6-8). Of all the men of Israel above age twenty who left Egypt, other than the Levites, only Joshua and Caleb were able to enter the promised land.

God’s grace can save those who worship and serve only the Lord (Matt. 4:10), who are believers (1 Cor. 7:12-16), who obey the Word (1 Pet. 3:1-2) who do the will of the Father (Matt. 7:21), who believe and are baptized (Mark 16:16). Those who obey not the gospel are lost (Rom. 10:1ff).

Under the law of Moses:

 

  • Moses pleased God by forsaking Egypt;
  • Israel caused the walls of Jericho to collapse by compassing them seven days;
  • Rahab was spared by hiding the spies (Heb. 11);
  • those bitten by serpents were healed by looking on the brazen serpent (Num. 2:8-9);
  • Naaman was cleansed of leprosy by dipping seven times in the River Jordan.

 

Likewise, under the law of Christ, the faith that saves must motivate one to obey. Indeed, all a Christian does is motivated by faith. The alien’s faith must bring about a change of mind (Luke 13:3; Acts 17:30-31); acknowledge the deity of Christ (Acts 8:36; Rom. 10:10; 1 Tim. 6:12, 13); and submit to God through baptism (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; Gal. 3:26-27). The child of God through faith praises God in singing (Col. 3:16; Eph. 5:19); talks to God through prayer (Acts 2:42); listens to God through Bible study/teaching (Acts 20:7); remembers the sacrifice of Christ through the Lord’s Supper (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. Ll:23ff); sacrifices through freewill offerings (1 Cor. 16:1-2; 2 Cor. 8, 9); leads others to Christ (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 8:4); and persists in a faithful life of service to God and man (Rev. 2:10). The law of Christ must be obeyed, because works of obedience, tied to the cross by faith, enable God’s grace to flow (Rom. 4:16). “Faith only” does not save (Jas. 2:19, 24; John 12:42; Heb. 5:8-9; Tit. 2:11-12).

 

Christian Fellowship

 

God’s grace establishes fellowship (koinonia, Gk.), both with God and with all other Christians. Since Pentecost of Acts 2, when the gospel was first proclaimed, this has been true. The reader will remember Christ’s prayer for Christian unity [not union] in John 17. Christ’s mission to earth was to make it possible through His sacrifice for the redeemed to be spiritually one with God and one with all the saved. His sacrifice would bring eternal life (John 17:2).

Christ had earlier taught his disciples to pray that the will of God, the scheme of redemption, be accomplished on earth as it was in the eternal purpose of God in heaven (Matt. 6:10). His will was finished on earth (John 19:30), the kingdom was established (Acts 2), and all baptized penitent believers were “made perfect in one” (John 17:16-26) through the apostles’ teaching (Acts 2:42). Through God’s grace, New Testament Christians were, and are, separated from the world and made one in Christ (Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 10:17; 12:13; 2 Cor. 6:17). Throughout the centuries since the establishment of the church, the faithful have been united with God and thus with all other faithful brethren.

With whom is Christian fellowship (association, communion, joint participation, intimacy, et al.) established? John answers, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Christians fellowship those whom God fellowships (1 John 1:3-6), those who are recipients of God’s grace.

Some to whom God’s fellowship (grace) does not/cannot extend are:

 

  1. Those who refuse to believe in God (Psa. 14:1; Rom. 1:18ff);
  2. Those who reject the deity of Christ (John 3:16; 14:1; 8:21, 24);
  3. Those who have dead faith (Jas. 2:24; John 12:42);
  4. Those who cease their obedience at the point of repentance (Acts 9:9; 22:16);
  5. Those who fail to confess Christ or make the wrong confession (Matt. 10:32-33; 1 John 2:23; 4:15);
  6. Those who are not baptized or are baptized for the wrong reason [which would include being baptized for “a” right reason] (Acts 19:1-5; 2:38; Col. 2:11-13).

 

Fellowship with God is in Christ, where exist salvation (2 Tim. 2:10), all spiritual blessings (Eph. 1:3), redemption (Eph. 1:7), eternal life (1 John 5:11); et al. God’s grace cannot reach outside of Christ, the one body. Thus, fellowship of God and of Christians reaches only those who are scripturally baptized into the one body, into Christ (John 3:5; 1 Cor. 12:13; Rom. 6:3-4; Gal. 3:26-27). Warning! To extend fellowship to those whom God does not fellowship or to refuse to fellowship those whom God does fellowship is to err from the faith, to place one’s soul in imminent jeopardy.

God fellowships those children of his who are strong in the faith (Eph. 3:16; 6:10; Gal. 6:1) and those who are weak (Rom. 14:1; 1 Cor. 3:1; 10:28-33; Heb. 12:12-13), in danger of drifting from the faith if not rescued by the brethren. Not everyone is full grown (Heb. 5:12-14; 1 Pet. 2:2).

Some neither God nor Christians can fellowship. These include:

 

  1. Members of the church who are immoral [“Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Eph. 5:11; cf. 1 Cor. 5:1-13)];
  2. A brother who will not correct a personal offense [“Let him be unto thee—and thus to the whole congregation—as the Gentile and the publican” (Matt. 18:15-17)];
  3. Whosoever abides not in the doctrine of Christ [“He that biddeth him (the false teacher) God speed is partaker (becomes a false teacher) of his evil deeds” (2 John 9-11)];
  4. Those who would divide the church [“mark them . . . and turn away from them” (Rom. 16:17; 2 Thess. 3:6, 14)]; and
  5. All others who cease walking in the light (1 John 1:7).

 

The marvelous grace of God brings salvation and Christian fellowship; however, this fellowship must be maintained: “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12).