Many people see salvation as a “me and Jesus” type of religion. For example, the viral video “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus” by Spoken Word (Jefferson Bethke) has had over 36 million views on YouTube alone. He says,
Now back to the point. One thing is vital to mention: how Jesus and religion are on opposite [ends of the] spectrum. See, one is the work of God, but one is a made-made invention. See, one is the cure, but the other is the infection.
Before I respond, it needs to be addressed that there are lots of good points about the hypocrisy of Christians in the video. An article could be written agreeing with those points. However, the quote above is problematic, for the individual aspect of salvation is not to be separated from the communal aspect.
Although having a personal relationship is central, it is centralized within the communion of the Church. Take the personal relationship outside the Church, and you’ve lost salvation. If you take a fish out of water, the fish dies.
This is why the Church Fathers said the Church is essential for salvation. If you were to leave the Church in favor of your ideas about “Jesus over religion,” as Jefferson Bethke does, then that creates a tear or schism within the Church and results in a “strange doctrine” historically. I would suggest that Jefferson read St. Ignatius, the bishop of Antioch (A.D. 110):
Be not deceived, my brethren: If anyone follows a maker of schism [i.e., is a schismatic], he does not inherit the kingdom of God; if anyone walks in strange doctrine [i.e., heresy], he has no part in the Passion (Letter to the Philadelphians 3:3-4:1).
Jefferson, his ideas, and those who follow them are in dangerous territory. Ignatius’s statements imply that the Church is essential for salvation. They do not make sense if everything is solely about a personal relationship with Jesus.
At this point, some might question Ignatius’s authority. Is he not just some oddball to be disregarded? I would encourage some digging into what other Church Fathers say, but let’s stick with Ignatius for a second. Some of my friends during my college years were skeptical about him, but that is not warranted.
The first Church historian, Eusebius of Caesarea (300s), and the bishop of New Rome, St. John Chrysostom (400s), said that “Ignatius, who was chosen bishop of Antioch, second in succession to Peter, and whose fame is still celebrated by a great many” had the “hands of the blessed apostles touch his sacred head” (Church History 3, 22, 36; Homilies on S. Ignatius and S. Babylas in F 2nd series, 9:136). Ignatius was a disciple of the apostle John.
Back to Jefferson: he is attacking the idea of “no salvation outside of the Church,” but that idea can be attested to from the earliest days of the Church. Heck, it goes back beyond Ignatius to Jesus. His salvation is centralized within the Church, to whom he said, “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me” (Luke 10:16). It is this Church that he, the Divine Architect, built: “On this rock I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18).
The Catechism recently reformulated the negatively worded quote “no salvation outside the Church” into a positive quote: all salvation comes from Christ through the Church (846). That final part of “through the Church” cannot be forgotten.
My professor of Paul’s letters, Michael Barber, notes that Paul is a heavy hitter against Jefferson’s idea. Paul calls the Church the singular “Bride of Christ” (Eph. 5:25-27). Marital imagery brings in the great truth from Genesis on marriage: “The two shall become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24). Two people in marriage form one body.
But Jefferson wants Jesus without his bride—and not only that, but Jesus without the body of Jesus! For if Jesus and the Church are in marriage, then they are one body—the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13)!
This truth about the Church can be seen in the sacraments. For baptism, you can’t baptize yourself! Another person is needed to baptize you. And what are you baptized into? Into a personal relationship with Jesus? Not exactly—even babies are baptized, and they do not have the use of reason yet.
Scripture says we are baptized into one body (1 Cor. 12:13). Once this occurs, the individual is no longer an individual. Protestant scholar Michael Gorman says that when Paul speaks of justification in Romans 5, for example, “the subject of the verbs . . . is ‘we,’ not ‘I’” (55). If Jefferson Bethke is correct in his viral video about Jesus over religion, then Paul should use “I,” not “we.” The “we” and the “I” cannot be divorced from each other. Similarly, the Lord’s Prayer does not start out with “My Father, who art in heaven,” but “Our Father, who art in heaven.”
This truth is built into the very notion of “faith.” Thomas Séding observes, “For Paul, ‘faith’ in itself is not only personal but ecclesial: ‘We believe’ (Gal. 2:16) and ‘I’ believe (cf. Gal. 2:19-20)” (69-70). The two cannot be divorced.
The other sacraments of the Church, such as the Eucharist, have a powerful role to play in salvation as well. This sacrament does not just symbolize our communion, but effects it: “We are one body because we partake of the one bread” (1 Cor. 10:16-17). The Eucharist is not just a personal encounter between you and the Lord. It creates a fellowship among believers—you can’t get away from the other Church members!
Salvation is not a private affair. It isn’t an isolated reality apart from the Church. Salvation is ecclesial in shape. It is not just “me and Jesus.” Scripture and Tradition bear this out. Never mind the fact that there are other members of the Holy Trinity besides God the Son. The Father and the Holy Spirit are within the Godhead as well, and humans need a personal relationship with them, too.