Do Christians have to go to church?

I've heard the question asked "Do Christians have to go to church?" As believers in Christ, we don't HAVE TO go to church; rather, we DESIRE TO GO WITH ALL OUR HEART and GET TO go to places where we can hear truths about our wonderful Jesus.  The reason why going to some of these designated places of worship is such a big chore for many Christians, especially young people, is because something else, not the gospel, is being preached at many of such gatherings.

Think about it: You have a friend who can tell you so much about a certain Someone who is so in love with you and wants to bless you with all that He has, even when everyone else has rejected you and all look upon you with condemnation and disgust because of your many sins and addictions; Someone who took all the bad that you deserve so that you can keep on getting all the good that He deserves. Someone who died for you and will never condemn you, judge you or wonder why you just don't want to stop sinning. Unlike the world that thinks you love to wallow in your sins, He knows that you really want to stop but cannot. He knows that you can't save yourself from your many sins that you struggle to give up everyday so He came to save you from those sins. You'll want to know more about this Someone. This is the gospel and that Someone is Jesus. Matthew 1:21 says of Him:

“She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

But in many “churches," Christ isn't portrayed as Saviour from sins, if He is given any prominence at all. Rather, God is wrongly portrayed as a hard Taskmaster who is eager to punish the sinner when he sins and let the devil have a go at him at the slightest opportunity.

People who are already doing their best to be obedient but can't (because the arm of flesh will fail) go to church looking for Salvation, including salvation from their sins. But there they are told that God will punish them if they don't obey the law and stop sinning by themselves, as if they had not been doing their best to obey. They are not pointed to Christ as the One who saves from sins. The Lord is presented as Punisher of sins and not Saviour from sins. This situation is akin to an oncologist father refusing to take care of his beloved child who has terminal cancer…. because the child has cancer. He even tells his beloved child “heal yourself of your cancer or else I will punish you.” 

More law is given to these beloved of God in church, but the very law that they are given makes them go and sin more, “For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under Grace.” Romans 6:14. Under law, sin has dominion.

Remember Romans 5:19– “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”

Committing acts of sin isn't what makes people sinners. Adam's disobedience did, long before anyone had the chance to do an act of sin. Acts of sin, lack, oppression, sickness and every bad thing that plagues the world today exist as a result of having this inherited sin/old nature. When the law is introduced as a means of putting oneself in the right with God, acts of sin proliferate; we see this in Romans 7:5-

“When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death.”

The law that people are being told to obey so that they can get in God's good books arouses evil desires that cause one to sin profusely.

1 Corinthians 15:56 says: “For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power.”

Without the law, sin is powerless over us. When we believe that we are made righteous by the obedience of Christ (Romans 5:19) and not our own obedience, we are free from the power of sin. We get to produce a harvest of good deeds for God according to Romans 7:4-

“So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the One who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God.”

This is the crux of the gospel: Righteousness by faith. No matter how vile your sins are, Christ will never condemn you, judge you or tell you to go and get your act together before He graces you with His audience and saves you from your sins and their consequences. We see this in His way with sinners throughout the gospels. He never asked the woman caught in adultery, Zacchaeus the thieving tax collector or Peter who denied Him three times to first go and obey the Ten Commandments, fast, or be a particular way first before He showed them His salvation.

But in many churches, Christ isn’t portrayed as the One who saves from sins. People are told to go and stop sinning, obey the Ten Commandments and save themselves from sin before Christ will look their way, and no one can. Following this cosmetic recommendation to get right with God when Christ died for this same purpose (to give us right-standing with God) is akin to a person with HIV rejecting a freely given cure for the virus and thinking that he can be made whole by putting plaster on a festering wound that is as a result of an illness from the virus. See Romans 8:3-4 (MSG)

"...The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn’t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us."

Unless the virus itself (sin nature) is removed, the diseases will recur and eventually kill the carrier. Christ came to save us from the power of the virus of sin.

Our hearts and minds are naturally averse to sitting under such teachings that tell us what we already know about ourselves but are powerless to change; teachings that condemn us and then increase the burden (of the law) that we are unable to bear. It is against man and contrary to man; see Colossians 2:14– “having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us.” The letter kills. Christ has fulfilled its requirements for us. 

The people yearn for the truth that makes free but what is being served in many places of worship is a horrid mixture of part-law and part-grace aka "Stop sinning, obey the Ten Commandments to make yourself right with God and come to Christ or else you will burn in hell."  This is the "neither hot nor cold" that Christ spoke of in Revelation 3.

Christ never condemns or judges, no matter how vile our sins are. He saves us from our sins and transforms us to life (see 2 Cor. 3:18.) 1 John 4:19 says “We love because He first loved us.” As He opens our eyes to His love for us more and more, not only do we desire to hear more about His saving Grace, hence our desire to be in places where the true gospel is preached, we get to love to talk about Him too. In Him, we get to live in triumph over sin and death (Romans 5:17.)

When and where the true gospel of righteousness by faith and not works of the law is being preached, the exhortation to us in Hebrews 10:25- "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching" becomes our default mode. We desire to be in the assembly of fellow believers.

Remember Revelation 21:8 King James Version (KJV)- "8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death."

Christ came to save us from our sins that lead to hell, as it is written in Matthew 1:21- "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

We see our salvation in the word of Christ Himself in John 3:16- “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." 

Christ came to save us from our sins so that we will not perish in hell. Only believe. But the message that we hear in many places of worship is "deal with those sins that you have been trying so hard to give up and obey the law or die and perish in hell." But Romans 3:20 tells us that all the law-keeping in the world cannot make anyone righteous in the sight of God. Christ did it all. We are made righteous by His obedience, not ours. Through Him, we get to live in triumph over sin and death. We get to stop living in sin. (Romans 5:17.)

Believers will swim oceans just to get to places where the true gospel is being preached. Christ does it all.