You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. (Revelation 3:1)

The church is often regarded as the place of salvation, the visible community of those who have passed from death to life. But Christ himself spoke to a church and declared it dead though it had the reputation of being alive. His words expose the reality that the church, which claims to hold the message of salvation, stands in need of salvation itself. The gospel must be preached not only to the world but also to the church, because many within its walls have never believed in Christ.

This truth overturns cherished assumptions. Many imagine that evangelism is for outsiders, while the church requires only teaching and nurture. But in fact, evangelism is necessary inside the church as much as outside it. The church contains multitudes of unsaved people who have never known Christ, who remain sinners under judgment, who are sick in body and soul, who are impoverished in faith and in life. They sit under sermons, sing hymns, and recite creeds, but remain strangers to the grace of God. Far from being the safest place, the church can be the most dangerous, for religious traditions multiply bonds and intensify blindness.

The condition is worse because the unsaved in the church are usually the hardest to reach. They assume they are already saved, knowledgeable, and spiritual. They take pride in their familiarity with theology, their training in seminaries, or their service as pastors, deacons, and teachers. They trust their heritage, their rituals, or their denominational pedigree as if these guaranteed their standing before God. They rely on their church attendance, and what they consider kindness and good deeds. To confront them with the gospel is to pierce their pride, and they resist it with greater force than a pagan who has never pretended to believe. When Jesus preached, it was the religious who opposed him most fiercely, and the same dynamic remains.

The pride of religious people produces not only resistance but outright hostility to the truth. Professors of theology may teach the history of doctrine while remaining strangers to Christ. Pastors may labor in ministry while never having been converted. Sunday school teachers may instruct children without believing the message they recite. Church members may sit through countless sermons, sing in choirs, and serve on committees while having no living faith in Christ. They cloak their unbelief under the guise of knowledge, activity, or respectability, which makes them more dangerous both to themselves and to those who follow them.

Their misplaced trust takes many forms. For some, the church itself becomes the object of faith, as if belonging to the institution meant belonging to Christ. Others cling to ideology, whether theological or political, and measure their standing with God by their loyalty to these systems. Still others rely on heritage, culture, or relationships, assuming that family traditions or social ties can substitute for faith, just because these occur in a religious context. These objects of trust give a false sense of security but cannot save. They are idols that obscure the face of Christ.

In contrast, some outside the church hear the word of God and believe, even with little exposure to formal religion. They may have no denominational ties or institutional heritage, yet they exercise genuine faith in Christ. Meanwhile multitudes inside remain unsaved, worshiping the church instead of the Lord. This irony offends religious sensibilities, but it is why the church is powerless and why unbelievers perceive hypocrisy within its walls. The gospel is sometimes clearer to those outside than to those inside, because outside there are fewer distractions of tradition and pride.

This reality confronts the church with a hard truth. It is not enough to maintain the forms of religion. And it is especially moronic if your religion is in fact something like a historic heritage or a political ideology. God has no respect for your heritage or ideology. He only respects faith in Jesus Christ. To say that the church is full of unsaved people is mere observation. It should not even be controversial. It is the reason church services are void of life and power, and why sickness and poverty reign in places where abundance should abound. The world mocks a church that does not resemble Christ. In fact, in many places the world has more of Christ than the church, because some in the world believe, only that they remain outside rather than join churches that care only about politics and morals, and that by their unbelief and cessationism crucify Jesus over and over again before their eyes.

The gospel must therefore be preached to the church as much as to the world. Evangelism is not limited to overtly hostile environments or distant regions. The gospel must be introduced, perhaps for the first time, to pulpits and pews, seminaries and classrooms, ministries and denominations. The same message declared to pagans must be declared to pastors: repent and believe in the gospel. The same call that confronts atheists must confront theologians: abandon your pride and trust in Christ. The same summons that rescues the drunkard must rescue the deacon who has never believed.

This strikes at the heart of religious self-assurance, and so it is offensive to many. They protest that the church is the community of the saved, that to question this is divisive or heretical. Yet this very protest reveals the depth of their unbelief. In Jeremiah’s day the people cried, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord,” as if the temple itself guaranteed their safety. Today many echo the same error, crying, “The covenant of the Lord, the covenant of the Lord,” as if covenant or church membership could save them. But the covenant will not save them, because they do not believe the covenant. To resist the gospel is to resist Christ, no matter what religious vocabulary surrounds it. The message may be harsh, but it is merciful, because it confronts the church with the only hope of salvation.

The alternative is to remain under delusion, to preserve the reputation of being alive while remaining dead. That is the condition Christ condemned in Revelation, and it is the condition that must be exposed today. The church must hear again that salvation is in Jesus Christ alone, not in their heritage, ideology, or institution. Anything less than genuine and exclusive belief in the Son of God leaves a person condemned, no matter his religious background or knowledge.

When Jesus declared a church dead though it had a reputation of life, he was not announcing the end but calling for repentance. He revealed the truth so that the church might abandon its illusions and turn to him. That same mercy still confronts the church today. It is a message of judgment, but also of hope, because the one who exposes death is the same one who raises the dead to life. He speaks to those who falsely assume they have salvation, calling them to faith. He tears down idols of tradition and ideology so that his word may take root.

The church must preach the gospel to itself with fresh urgency. Its members, its teachers, and its leaders must test themselves to see whether they are in the faith. Do they trust in Jesus, or their historic theologians and traditions? Are they cloaked with the righteousness of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, or draped in human creeds and credentials that cannot save? They must cast off the worthless reputation of piety and seek the reality of Christ. The gospel is not only for the world but also for the church, and Christ saves wherever he is truly believed.