The Basis for Christian Unity
“All
authority in Heaven and on earth hath been given unto me.”
These
words were among the last words that the Son of God spoke on this earth.
We,
who profess to love Him, must sit up and take notice of this dogmatic statement. Were these the words of an egomaniac or is
He Lord? Does Jesus have all authority
as He claims?
John
shows in his Gospel that Christ is Lord.
He gives seven signs to prove Jesus’ authority and that He has the
attributes of deity.
1.
By changing water to wine, He shows He is Lord
of matter.
2.
By healing the Nobleman’s son, even though
absent from the lad, He shows He is Lord over time and space.
3.
By healing the man beside the pool, He
demonstrates He is Lord of our bodies and energy.
4.
By feeding 5,000 He substantiates His creative
powers.
5.
By calming the sea He convinces us that He has
power over nature.
6.
By healing a man born blind we are convinced He
has authority over our senses.
7.
By raising the dead we must conclude He is Lord
of life and death.
But
is He Lord of His Church?
v One
does not see His Lordship by looking at a disunited Christendom!
v One
does not see it when one listens to the conflicting preachers on television.
v One
does not see His authority when He drives through even the smallest of cities
and sees churches of every name on each corner lot.
This
lack of unity among His disciples strikes a blow at His authority. Somehow, we who profess to be His disciples
should take steps to remedy this blatant contradiction of His authority.
How
can we do this? How do we surmount the
obstacles of denominational pride, party spirit, traditional dogmas, even
ethnic considerations?
The answer is simple. Putting it into practice may prove to be difficult to those who love prestige, power and position. The answer is “the Lordship of Christ.” We must put Him on the throne of each of our hearts. He must be Lord of all or not Lord at all!
Consider 10 implications.
1.
If jesus is lord, he must be the lord of the church.
Giving
Him the pre-eminence in all things and doing all to His glory cannot help but
unite us. His Lordship will trample
over denominational and ethnic barriers.
The Church will indeed be His Church and not one that recognizes the
headship of a pope or synod or conference.
2.
if jesus is lord, we will each recognize that he
alone gives the terms of pardon.
Each
of His commands will be a mandate for all to obey, and not subjects to be
quibbled over. There will be no such
talk as saying something is “essential for Church membership, but not necessary
for salvation,” as if they were not synonymous for it is the saved who are
added to His Church. Acts 2:42
3.
If jesus is lord, the polity of his church is not one
for arbitration, but one revealed for us to imitate.
Unnecessary,
unbiblical and anti-Biblical offices will cease to hinder the Church’s
progress. The pride such offices
generate will dissipate and we will be brethren rather than lords over God’s
Church. Hierarchy is monarchy. This opposes the theocracy of Christ.
4.
If jesus is lord, the ORDINANCES of CHRIST will not
be trifled with, but practiced with simplicity and solemnity, as they are
revealed in his word.
Neither
the methods, modes, nor motives behind the ordinances will be to suit party
practices, but rather the Christ who commanded them. They will not be the functions of the “clergy”, but the joy of
all believers.
5.
If jesus is lord, proof texting will cease.
No
more will men abuse the Scriptures to prove denominational teaching and
practices. Hobbyhorses will be
abandoned. The attempt to defend
unscriptural practices, which might have arisen due to some circumstance during
the history of the Church, will cease.
Reactionary thoughts and the expediencies of yesteryear will no longer
control the practices of the Church today.
We
will not run so far from the teachings of Rome that we pass by the teachings of
Jerusalem.
We
will not be content with the stagnant waters of the Reformation. We dare not “jell” the teachings of great
religious leaders of yesteryear, but go beyond them in truth and be as honest
with truth as they were.
6.
If jesus is lord, the doctrines of men will perish.
The
question, “What is the position of the Church?” should not ever be asked. That is the wrong question.
“What
is the Will and teaching of Jesus Christ?” is the question to be asked. There should be no Church doctrine. There is only the doctrine of Christ. Christ is the head of all things, and the
Church should only echo that which He has taught.
7.
If jesus is lord, the traditions of men will not set
aside the commandment of God.
As
G. Campbell Morgan noted, “The whole
truth may be summarized by declaring that Jesus violated these traditions
systematically, intentionally, resolutely.
Then observe that again and again in spite of all the objections which
they raised, which was bitter with the bitterness of great anger and hatred, he
resolutely set himself to do the same things over and over again…He flung
Himself persistently, in habit, word, deed, and attitude, against all those
traditions that stood between the soul of the people and their God.”
Again
he says, “His violation was not for the
sake of violation. He only violated the
tradition because it violated the law which it was intended to honor.”
Any
tradition of man that changes Jesus’ commands or hinders a person from doing
what Jesus said or is a stumbling block to anyone’s faith, must be sacrificed
to the Lordship of Jesus and the unity of His Church. It matters not if it is a certain liturgy, uniformity of dress,
peculiarity of speech, or uniqueness of polity. Ecclesiastical distinctions must be laid at the feet of a jealous
Jesus who insists that He alone is the Head of the Church.
8.
If jesus is lord, and he is giVen the pre-eminence,
the names we have choseN to use to distinguish ourselves from other believers,
thUs hindering unity, will fall into disuse.
We
will share Martin Luther’s pleadings who said, “I pray you leave my name alone, and call not yourselves Lutherans but
Christians. Who is Luther? My doctrine is not mine. I have not been crucified for anyone. St. Paul would not that any should call
themselves of Paul, nor of Peter, but Christ.
How then does it befit me, a miserable bag of dust and ashes to give my
name to the children of Christ? Cease,
my dear friends, to cling to party names and distinctions. Away with them all. And let us call ourselves only Christians
after Him from whom our doctrine comes.”
John
Wesley said, “Would to God that all party
names and unscriptural phrases and forms which have divided the Christian world
were forgotten: that we might all agree
to sit down together as humble, loving disciples at the feet of the common
Master, to hear His Word, to imbibe His Spirit and to transfer His life into
our own.”
9.
If jesus is lord, the creeds we confess, which only
hinder christian unitY, will be abandoned.
Creeds
that say more than Christ has said, say too much. Creeds that say less than Christ says do not say enough. Creeds that say just what Christ says are
unnecessary. If a creed is taught in the
Scriptures, we have it revealed in the words and teachings of the Holy
Apostles. If it is not, then we are
free from all the division that the creed may have created.
We
are convinced that we should let Scriptures speak for themselves in the
language the Holy Spirit has chosen.
The Bible is an all sufficient rule of faith and practice.
Creeds
only serve to dominate us and therefore, divide us into warring camps. The Church is built on the fact that “Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
No manual, rules of discipline, statement or series of propositions can
make that statement clearer or establish Jesus’ Lordship in plainer language.
10.
If jesus is lord, it will stop the abuse of the poor
stewardship we that profess to be christians now demonstrate.
On
Sunday morning, in any given town, a dozen buildings house various small groups
of believers within their walls. They
each sing, “We are not divided, all one body we; one in hope and doctrine, one
in charity.”
The
devil laughs, the world marvels how we can honestly claim such a thing, and the
angels weep! The poor stewardship
involved in building and maintaining the many buildings, as well as the
“staffs” of so many various churches, in a pathetic monument of our failure to
establish Christ as Lord of His Church.
My
reader-friends, as believers, can you imagine what kind of an impact we could
make on the world if the Gospel was not bogged down with party spirit, ethnic
and denominational pride?
What
if Jesus was Lord in each of our lives?
What if we spoke the same things and were of the same judgment? What if we dropped our party names,
tradition, creeds, rules of discipline and spoke where the Bible speaks and
were silent where the Bible is silent?
Such
a thing is possible! It must be
done! In the last century hundreds,
yea, tens of thousands were renouncing the party spirit and party names to
simply be Christians. This was true of
churches as well as individuals.
Christ
was enthroned as Lord of the Church.
Men were encouraged to be united in essentials, and to grant liberties
in matters of opinion but to have love in all things. That plea should never
die. It is the “breath of fresh air”
that again could revitalize the fires of evangelism, benevolence and Church
growth. The Holy Spirit could breathe
again into the graveyard of decayed bones and the Church could be alive with
joy.
The
Lordship of Christ! This is the answer to division and debate. This is the cure for a financially strained
church that has to compete with the well-endowed philosophies of humanism and
communism. The world will not be won
until the Church is One.
Until
we recognize the authority of Christ, there can be no great evangelization for
the world. It is His claim of authority
that is the basis of the great commission.
He has told us that “A kingdom divided against itself cannot
stand.” He places an anathema on those
who preach another Gospel than the one once delivered.
He
tells us to beware how we build on Him as the foundation, lest we suffer loss. He prayed for the unity of all believers so
that the world might believe that He was sent of God.
The
authority of Christ is the key to answering the prayer. Unity will not come by agreeing to
disagree. It will not come by joint
sunrise services. It is not by ignoring
differences. It is not to be by an “I’m
okay, you’re okay” philosophy. Nor will
it come by joining the denominations into larger denominations. It is by each one of us, who professes
Christ as Lord, to make Him Lord, indeed.
Only then can Jesus’ prayer be answered.
Won’t
you do what you can do to make His prayer come true?