“For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:27-28).
On his way to Jerusalem, the Apostle Paul stops along the coastline near Ephesus and calls for the elders in the Ephesian church to join him there. He takes the opportunity to warn them and to edify them about some important matters.
One of the points of edification is that Jesus purchased the church by the shedding of His blood on the cross. To call the church a blood-bought institution, then, is a scriptural idea. The blood of Jesus Christ was the price paid so that the Lord’s church could some into existence.
A full awareness of this fact surely stirs some emotion within us—surely it calls to action a feeling of deepest gratitude that Jesus loved us so much that He suffered for us and He established His church so that we would have the privilege of being a part of it. With this solid spiritual relationship with Him in place, then, we have an assured hope of going to heaven.