*Editor’s Note: The views expressed in this series are not intended as an official statement of CBTS or a uniform position of its faculty. This material is offered in the spirit of faith seeking understanding and to encourage further theological reflection. To read more installments in this series, click here: 1, 2, 3.
The Holy Spirit, says Baptist Catechism 94, “maketh the reading, but especially the preaching of the Word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation.”[1] The framers of The Catechism place special emphasis on the public proclamation of Scripture, as does the Apostle Paul:
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:14–17)
The public ministry of the Word is not only how believers are (very often) brought to faith, but also how they are preserved in the faith, such that they do not fall away.
In 1 Timothy, Paul speaks of Hymenaeus and Alexander: two men who made shipwreck of their faith. It is in this wider context of apostasy that Paul gives the following charge to Timothy:
Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. (1 Timothy 4:13–16)
Paul clearly has the local church in view. He has written so that Timothy will know “how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). In this epistle, salvation (consisting of both conversion and perseverance) is tied very closely to the church.
The gospel ministry has been given by Christ to the church so that His people will be nourished and grow in their understanding of the sacred oracles. By being taught the true faith, Christians are protected from false doctrine and deadly heresy.
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:11–16)
According to John Calvin,
That those who neglect this instrument should hope to become perfect in Christ is utter madness. Yet such are the fanatics, on the one hand, who pretend to be favoured with secret revelations of the Spirit,—and proud men, on the other, who imagine that to them the private reading of the Scriptures is enough, and that they have no need of the ordinary ministry of the church.[2]
Reformed Baptists agree with Calvin’s assessment that it is especially through the preaching of the Word that God builds up believers unto salvation. Because of this, we understand that if at all possible, a believer must be in submission to duly called elders in a gospel preaching church. The elders not only teach the Word (publicly and in private), but give examples to their congregations of holy living. “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith” (Hebrews 13:7). “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account” (Hebrews 13:17a).
But while preaching and teaching can take place outside the church, the Lord’s Supper cannot. The Apostle says that the Corinthians celebrate the Lord’s Supper when they come together “as a church.” It is a corporate act, whereby the many are made, as it were, one loaf.[3]
Moreover, the Supper is a means appointed by Christ for the preservation of His people. 2LCF 14.1 affirms that the grace of saving faith is “increased and strengthened” not only by the Word, but also by “the administration of baptism, and the Lord’s Supper, and other means appointed by God.” This is why Paul says: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16). Drawing on this, 2LCF 30.7 says that,
Worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of the visible elements in this ordinance, do then also inwardly by faith, really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally, but spiritually receive, and feed upon Christ crucified, and all the benefits of His death; the body and blood of Christ being then not corporally or carnally, but spiritually present to the faith of believers in that ordinance, as the elements themselves are to their outward senses.
Tom Hicks explains the Reformed Baptist perspective in this way:
The two ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s supper are “visible words” that preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in visible form…The Lord’s Supper preaches Christ when the believer eats of the bread and drinks from the cup, signifying the union of the believer with Christ’s broken body and poured out blood. Reformed Baptists agree with Calvin’s view of the Lord’s Supper as a means of grace. Calvin taught that the Lord’s Supper is not a mere symbol. Rather, when a believer takes the Lord’s Supper, the Holy Spirit effectually administers the benefits of the body and blood of Christ who is glorified and has ascended into heaven. The Holy Spirit brings the benefits of Christ in heaven to believers on earth by means of the Lord’s Supper. Thus, the Lord’s Supper is a means of grace. It is effectual for the salvation, or sanctification, of the elect in the sense that when a believer takes the Supper, the Holy Spirit strengthens and nourishes his faith as he participates in real fellowship or communion with Christ (1 Cor. 10:16). Christ is really present at the Lord’s Supper, not physically but by the Holy Spirit who conveys the benefits of Christ’s physical body and blood to the believer.[4]
It is true, as Dave Chanski observes, that “the Lord’s Supper is not a means of our receiving a different kind of grace, but…is simply a different kind of means of grace—a symbolic one.”[5] But this surely does not mean that a believer does not need the Lord’s Supper, so long as he has the Word. To the contrary, Thomas Watson writes that “when we see Christ broken in the bread, and as it were crucified before us, this doth more affect our hearts than the bare preaching of the cross.”[6] To treat the Supper as optional or unimportant is to disparage the church’s Lawgiver by asserting that He gave us a superfluous ordinance. Catechism 96 calls it a “means of salvation.” To rightly partake, we must be in the pale of a local church. Many Baptists, historically, have seen church membership as a prerequisite to participation in the supper. Such was the position of James P. Boyce in his A Brief Catechism of Bible Doctrine, where it is asked “Who alone are authorized to receive it?” The answer is, “The members of his churches.”[7]
In most circumstances, it is necessary for a Christian to become a member of a local church. If he does not, he is willfully cutting himself off from the means of grace appointed by Christ for his perseverance and sanctification. Moreover, he is disobeying the Lord he claims to serve. Jesus says “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Failure to obey such a fundamental precept in religion rightly calls the genuineness of someone’s salvation into question. “Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him…” (1 John 2:4).
However, Reformed Baptists must recognize that church membership is not absolutely necessary for salvation. A situation is conceivable in which a true believer is genuinely unable to join a local congregation. John Owen, in his work On Schism, says the following…
Let us suppose a man, by a bare reading of the Scriptures, brought to him by some providence of God (as finding the Bible on the highway), and evidencing their authority by their own light, instructed in the knowledge of the truths of the gospel, who shall thereupon make profession of them amongst them with whom he lives, although he be thousands of miles distant from any particular church wherein the ordinances of Christ are administered, nor perhaps knows there is any such church in the world, much less hath ever heard of the pope of Rome (which is utterly impossible he should, supposing him instructed only by reading of the Scriptures);—I ask whether this man, making open profession of Christ according to the gospel, shall be esteemed a member of the visible church in the sense insisted on, or no?[8]
For Owen, the answer to the question he poses would seem to be, “Yes!” Later in the treatise, he asserts that,
A man may be a member of the catholic church of Christ, be united to him by the inhabitation of his Spirit, and participation of life from him, who, upon the account of some providential hinderance, is never joined to any particular congregation, for the participation of ordinances, all his days. In like manner may he be a member of the church considered as professing visibly, seeing that he may do all that is of him required thereunto without any such conjunction to a visible particular church.[9]
Because such a man has a saving interest in Christ, and confesses him before men, Owen asserts that not only is he a member of the invisible catholic church, but through his confession of the Savior, this man is even a member of the visible church, for he is a visible saint.
To sum up, there is surely no salvation outside of the invisible church. God has “put all things under (Christ’s) feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:22–23). But can Reformed Baptists affirm there is normally no salvation outside of the visible church? Yes– but not because visible church membership makes us members of the invisible church. Baptists believe that only those already united to Christ by saving faith can join the visible church! John Gill says that, “into a gospel-church state; none (can be admitted) but such who are begotten again to a lively hope of the heavenly inheritance, and who, as new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word and ordinances, that they may grow thereby, having tasted that the Lord is gracious…”[10] Reformed Baptists believe that, ordinarily, there is no salvation outside the visible church, because it was established to point the eyes of our hearts to Jesus Christ: the Author and Finisher of our faith. Indeed, this is the calling of every minister and every member in every local church!
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:23–25)
About the Author
Quinn Privette is one of the pastors of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in West Jefferson, NC. He has been married to his faithful wife, Rose, since 2022, and they are blessed with one daughter.
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[1] The emphasis is my own.
[2] John Calvin, Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul to the Galatians and Ephesians, trans. William Pringle, (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 282.
[3] See 1 Corinthians 10:17 & 11:17-20.
[4] Hicks, What is A Reformed Baptist?, 210-211.
[5] Dave Chanski, “Chapter 30 Of The Lord’s Supper,” in A New Exposition of the Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689, ed. Rob Ventura (Geanies House, Fearn, Ross-shire, IV20 1TW, Scotland, Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 2022), 516.
[6] Thomas Watson, A Divine Cordial; The Saint’s Spiritual Delight; The Holy Eucharist; and Other Treatises, The Writings of the Doctrinal Puritans and Divines of the Seventeenth Century (The Religious Tract Society, 1846), 4.
[7] James P. Boyce, Abstract of Systematic Theology (Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press, 2025), 572.
[8] John Owen, The Works of John Owen, ed. William H. Goold, vol. 13 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, n.d.), 147.
[9] Ibid, 175–176.
[10] John Gill, A Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity, 563.
This blog post is authored by a student of Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary.
