Christ and the Church (Concluded)

Authority Through Christ

CENTRAL to this section of our study is an inci­dent that became a turn­ing point in the ministry of Christ. Jesus and His disciples had come to the district of Caesarea Philippi, and here He asked His disciples who everybody thought the Son of man was. Fol­lowing their varied an­swers He then asks them whom they think He is, and this is followed by Peter's dra­matic answer, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16:16). Christ then declares that it is upon faith such as this, and men with such faith, that He is establishing His church. Then Christ states that this church will not be subject to the demands of death and that it will have authority on the earth to bind and to loose; in other words, to make decisions in the area of spiritual concepts, moral be­havior, and organizational policies. Let us consider these two areas separately.

The Authorized Organization

After the death and resurrection and as­cension of Christ, the believers would be without a central organization. No longer acceptable to the Jews, they would be forced from the synagogues. Organization was imperative. There needed to be a un­ion of the believers on a social level that would offer a united front to the antagonis­tic world. This union would be governed by the union on the spiritual level, and would ensure stability, order, and disci­pline. Without this, the congregation would have been left helpless, facing a hope­less task.

During and just after the Last Supper, Christ outlined the office of the Holy Spirit as a unifying factor in the new church. It was not to be left to the whim and will of finite, sinful man. Neither was it to be left, period. Two areas were needed, and both were met with divine wisdom. On the spir­itual level the third person of the Godhead was sent to govern the church and provide the power to transform men. On the social level an organization was established, gov­erned by the Holy Spirit, operated by men to provide a solid, aggressive front to the world, and to maintain itself in a proper manner.

It was the church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit that would establish correct doctrine, proper standards, and effective warfare.

The inseparableness of the church from Christ (and vice versa) is taught in the last half of the fifth chapter of Ephesians. Here Paul is drawing the analogy between the union of husband and wife and the rela­tionship which should be between the church and its Lord.

Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. . . . As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their hus­bands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. . . . For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church, be­cause we are members of his body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one." This is a great mystery, and I take it to mean Christ and the church (verses 22-32, R.S.V.).

In this context it is seen that to be united to Christ is to be united to Christ's church.

To be a member of Christ's church is to be united with Christ. It also indicates that membership in the church is not only use­less but a farce if one is not in union with Jesus Christ.

The Authority of the Organization

Within this second area (the authority of the church to bind and to loose) we must pay special attention to two passages of Scripture, both in the book of Matthew. In chapter 16:19 Christ states concern­ing the church: " 'Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven'" (R.S.V.). This indicates that this organiza­tion which Christ established is to have the authority to make decisions in the area of moral behavior and organizational policy. It is not to be a loose organization, with open membership regardless of a person's behavior or theology, dependent only upon his assertion of belief in Christ. If such were the case we would be faced with a spineless church dealing more in sociology than in theology—a social club of vast dimensions, which preaches not doctrine with authority, but theories with doubt and inconsist­ency. A church unsure of itself, its origin, its purpose, and its objectives. A church with no foundations, no unity, and no hope. An existential union of quasi-believers.

Christ repeats the same phrase again in chapter 18, just after He has outlined the manner in which to deal with erring mem­bers of the church.

In verse 15 He introduces the occasion—a sinning brother. He outlines the manner of dealing with the brother. Three opportunities are to be given: once with you, once with one or two others with you, and once before the church. If the individual remains unrepentant, then he is to be dis­fellowshiped. In fact, his conduct has affected his state in that the individual no longer feels part of the body of Christ or has a desire to fellowship with it. It is now that Christ repeats the assurance of the authority delegated to the church by Heaven, and then indicates the wisdom and justness of this authority by stating that " 'where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them' " (Matt. 18:20, R.S.V.). With the presence of Christ guaranteed, the church is not left to its own finite wisdom. Christ declares that it will be Himself who will guide in the decisions made and the plans carried out in the matter of moral behavior and organi­zational policy.

Let no one consider the church a mere human institution, governed by humans. It is yet the church of Jesus Christ and is governed by Him through the human agencies of the organization. Four state­ments from the pen of Ellen G. White will set their seal to this:

Although there are evils existing in the church, and will be until the end of the world, the church in these last days is to be the light of the world that is polluted and demoralized by sin. The church, enfeebled and defective, needing to be re­proved, warned, and counseled, is the only object upon earth upon which Christ bestows His su­preme regard?

To accuse and criticize those whom God is using, is to accuse and criticize the Lord, who has sent them.²

Angels of God are commissioned to have over­sight of the work; and if it does not move right, those who are at the head of the work will be cor­rected, and things will move in God's order with­out interference of this or that individual.³

God is leading out a people, not a few separate individuals here and there, one believing this thing, another that. Angels of God are doing the work committed to their trust. The third angel is leading out and purifying a people, and they should move with him unitedly. Some run ahead of the angels that are leading this people; but they have to retrace every step, and meekly follow no faster than the angels lead. I saw that the angels of God would lead His people no faster than they could receive and act upon the important truths that are communicated to them.'

The Testimony of the Growing Church

The testimony of the apostolic church is that it was not a nebulous fellowship made up of anyone who confessed Christ, regardless of theological beliefs and moral behavior.

The first indication of this appears just following the day of Pentecost, as Luke records, "And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved" (Acts 2:47, R.S.V.). The King James Version translates this passage as fol­lows: "And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved." Most trans­lators agree with the Revised Standard Version. Moffatt, who was on the Revised Standard Version committee, translates in agreement with the Revised Standard Ver­sion, but adds this footnote: "Omitting the ekklesia], although the omission makes it difficult to get the above sense, or in­deed any, out of the Greek." Thus, considering the sense beyond the words ac­tually written we find that there was an organization from the start.

Very early in the career of the apostles and their company the need of authority and discipline became apparent. It was the custom of the early Christians to sell their goods and live a communal life, holding all things in common, even to the point of such daily needs as food.

Two of these early Christians, who ap­parently lacked a full commitment and surrender to Christ and the church, sold their property and gave what they im­plied was the full amount to the central dispersing agency. The disciples, of course, had no way of knowing that this was not the full amount from the sale. It was then that the office of the Holy Spirit became important. It was this Holy Spirit, prom­ised to the church to guide it, that in­formed the church of the duplicity of these two members. It was also God who took it upon Himself to demonstrate the dire consequences of attempting to deceive Him.

It was not long after this that there arose a dispute between the different groups within the church. One group felt that it was being neglected, while another group was receiving more than its share of food. The church claimed the promise of the presence of their Lord in their midst, and under divine authority and divine guidance set apart seven men as officers in the church. These men were set aside by the laying on of hands, and under their guidance the "word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem" (Acts 6:1-7, R.S.V.).

Of great interest in this area of study is the activity of the apostle Paul in Asia Minor and Europe as an organizer of churches. His letters to two of his interns give us insight into his attitude toward the authority and responsibility of the church.

In the third chapter of his first letter to Timothy, Paul lists the qualifications of the offices of elder and deacon of the church. He repeats much of the counsel in his letter to Titus. It would be absurd to argue that these qualifications refer only to the church officers and have no bearing upon the members themselves. Each of us is entrusted with a talent to be used in Christ's service. None of us is to be a parasite upon the church, riding to heaven by merely sitting in the pews. Any qualifications that are attached to the of­fices within the church of necessity refer to all members. Christ's Sermon on the Mount allows for no minimum Christians. There is no such thing as a member of the church of Christ desiring to be just good enough. Any person united to Christ is seeking the highest attainments possible through that union. With Paul they say: "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:12-14, R.S.V.).

If the church has the authority to estab­lish qualifications for its offices, it has the same responsibility and authority to estab­lish qualifications for membership.

The Church the Agency of Christ

Turning from the subject of the author­ity of the church, we shall return to the subject of the inseparability of Jesus Christ and His church on earth.

"God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles" (1 Cor. 12:28, R.S.V.).

From the above statement it is evident that the church is the agency of Christ's activity on earth. Separate from the church in person, present in the person of the Holy Spirit, Christ continues to call the world to repentance, to declare God's love for humanity, and to offer reconcilia­tion through those people who are in union, in harmony with Him, His church. It has been aptly said that Christ has no feet but ours, no hands but ours, no tongue with which to speak but ours. It is Paul's declaration in his letter to the church at Ephesus that it is "through the church," that the "manifold wisdom of God might now be made known" (Eph. 3:10, R.S.V.). God has no other agency in this earth through which to communicate His will and His love than through the organized church. At this point it is well for each of us to ask ourselves seriously whether we are standing in line with or in the way of God's activity through the church.

It has been declared in the writings of Ellen G. ^-White that were it not for the presence of God's church, God's people in this earth, acting as a bulwark against the tide of evil this earth would have long since destroyed itself. In truth, it is the church of Jesus Christ that is the last stronghold of righteousness and truth in this world. Without this aggressive force in the world humanity would have long since disappeared, a victim of its own evil passions and destructive forces. Little won­der that Paul refers to it in his letter to Timothy as "the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth" (1 Tim. 3:15, R.S.V.).

The Church the Body of Christ

In Colossians 1:18, Paul refers to the church as the body of Christ (see also Col. 1:24; Eph. 1:22, 23; 5:23). This concept has significance only in relation to the last area of study, "The Church the Agency of Christ." In connection with his reference to the church as the body of Christ, Paul also refers to Christ as the head of the body. Certainly no body is complete or alive without a head. The head of a body is the center of control. It is the center of decision, it is the center of action. Apart from the head, the body is dead, inactive and useless. At no time in history do we find this better illustrated than after the death of Christ. The Jewish church, once the body of the Lord, had divorced itself, cut itself off from its head, and like a freshly decapitated hen was thrashing about in vain attempts to remain alive. The destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, so idolized and worshiped, is de­scriptive of any body cut off from its head.

No person can be a member of the body of Christ without recognizing Christ as his head personally. Christ is not the Lord and Saviour of the church, the body, until He is the Lord and Saviour of the individ­uals who make up the body. There must first be the individual application, and then the general application is also true.

In his letter to the church at Ephesus, Paul refers to the body of Christ again, and calls it "the fulness of him that filleth all in all." This interesting phrase conveys the idea that the church of Christ, His body, is the completeness of Christ, or to put it in the reverse, the head of the church, Christ, is incomplete without the body. By this we may understand that Christ is dependent upon the church on earth to carry on the work that He began some 2,000 years ago; not only carry it on, but with His guidance and by His power to bring it to completion. We as individu­als through our union with Jesus Christ the Son of God are become the fullness, or completeness, of Jesus Christ. Therefore, just as it was true that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself," so Christ is in us still reconciling the world unto Himself. This is not done, however, by individuals as disjointed as a dismem­bered torso, an arm here and a leg there, but by individuals united in one body as a body itself is united in an anthropomor­phic analogy. Certainly no one would ar­gue that a body with a broken or missing member is as useful as a complete and healthy body. So with the body of Christ, His church on earth.