These two things are the
supreme and all-inclusive concern of the New Testament. Ponder
that statement carefully. The whole New Testament (Bible, if you
like) is concerned with how things ought to be. This is applied
to the individual Christian, the local church and the Church
universal. There is a state, a condition, a position which God
both desires and has provided for. Upon the degree to which this
state is approximated everything that is of God depends. There is
nothing willynilly, casual, mechanical, and matter-of-course with
God. Throughout the Bible all that God most earnestly desires for
His people is governed by an "If ye". Jesus very
definitely affirmed this law "If ye", and it is
implicit in every transition from potentiality to experience.
What it amounts to is that a position is essential to
inheritance. A position is essential to everything that
God wants us to know and have.
There is one fundamental law
which decides whether things are as they should be, could be, and
as God's most gracious will would have them to be. If this is
true, then we shall realize that some things will surely arise to
neutralize that one thing. That basic reality, because of the
immense and numerous issues resting upon it, will be the object
of every possible kind of opposition. We ask the Lord why any one
of a thousand wrong things exists to such harmful effect in
Christianity, and the answer, in practically every case, can be
traced to one thing. That one thing is so universal in its range
and contact that it touches everything outside of heaven. We
shall come to that one thing later. Here we are going to confine
ourselves to its application to
The
Local Church
and how things ought to be in
any such.
We are not going to flit over
the surface in this matter, but be analytical and meticulous.
1. A local church should be
throbbing with life.
The impression given and received should be one of
livingness. The testimony should be that, although you may go
jaded, weary, too tired, almost, to make the journey;
disheartened and despondent; physically, mentally, and
spiritually drained, you come away renewed, refreshed,
reinvigorated, and lifted up. The activity of Divine life,
whether by or without the teaching given, has just resulted in a
spiritual uplift.
Now, note the way in which that
has been said. "The activity of Divine life." We have not
said: 'the life of human activity'. There is an illusion or
delusion in much Christianity and in many churches that activity
is essentially spiritual life. Hence stunts, programmes,
attractions, 'special efforts', campaigns, and an endless list of
'specials' and events. All this is so often with a view to giving
an impression of life, or even creating or stimulating 'life'. It
may be the 'life' of works, and not the works of life. Life will
work, but works are not always life. That was the indictment of
the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2:2: "I know thy
works...". Divine life in release will show itself, not
necessarily in the bigness of numbers (although Divine life will
attract) but in the genuine spiritual fruits, beginning with new
births. Are the dead really raised? Does the power of life
present result in conviction of sin, and a crisis of 'turning
from death unto life' (or positive refusal to do so)
without artificial apparatus? Life is spontaneous. As the Lord of
the Church is the risen Lord, and His attestation is resurrection
life, His presence in the local church should be attested by the
power of life. So often we quote His own words when we come
together, almost as a formula: "Wheresoever two or three are
gathered in my name, there am I". At the same time, the
atmosphere may be heavy, uninspiring, and devoid of a
ministration of Divine life. Is this really consistent with His
presence in the midst?
2. A local church should be
a place where, and through which, those meeting should be
individually and together increasing in the measure of Christ.
Let us hasten to say that we do not mean increasing in knowledge
of doctrine, the teaching of the Bible, the things of
Christianity, its work, methods, interests, and so on. It is
something so common amongst Christians that, when they meet
anywhere, at any time, they can use all the time in talking about
their 'church', their minister or those who minister, the
different branches of the work, the people, the happenings, but
little or nothing about the Lord Himself and spiritual life. It
is often the most difficult thing to turn the conversation into
spiritual channels and feed upon what He is.
The criterion of a church's
real value is the measure of Christ Himself in its members which
registers itself in contacts. The testimony of a church as it
should be is that it is possible for people who come into contact
with its members to say: 'My word, that person (or those people)
really have something of the Lord. You know it when you meet
them. It is just what the Lord is to them.'
3. The local church should
be a place of living and abundant light.
This means that it should be a real house of bread. If it is as
it should be there will ever be food for spiritual satisfaction.
Because of spiritual anointing the ministry will be as from an
open heaven. Not studied and 'got up' addresses, but a message
from God, and if people are hungry they should never go away
unsatisfied. It should be possible for people to say: "We
have been truly fed today, and strengthened for the
journey."
4. All this means that a
local church is a place of warm fellowship.
Not even just social interchange. It is a family atmosphere in
which people who are disposed to fellowship find themselves 'at
home'. This atmosphere is created by a deeper reality than just
'friendliness'. This deep reality is that - more than belonging
to a community, a society, a 'group' - they are sharing one life,
and one Lord is the living supreme concern of their very
existence.
What we have said regarding
these four characteristics of a local church as it should be,
could be extended to other matters. We could speak of finance. In
a local church as it should be, there ought never to be
the necessity to appeal for funds. Not even that abomination,
hand-to-hand collections, should exist. We say nothing of special
money-raising efforts. All such things are a betrayal of a low
and defective spiritual life.
By these five things alone it
can be determined whether a local church is upon a right
foundation.
Having said all that, it is
incumbent upon us to come as quickly as possible to show what the
foundation is that will produce such conditions.
You may be expecting something
new, something extraordinary, something surprising. If so, you
may be disappointed. Much will depend upon how seriously
concerned you are, and therefore, how ready you are to brush
aside prejudice, or familiarity, or superficiality, or even
scepticism.
It is the old resort and
recourse of the Apostles. Were things not as they should
be in their days? Was there a condition in the church in Rome
that demanded such a tremendous Letter as that written to them by
Paul? Not only the great doctrinal correction, but the many
practical matters.
Was there a state of things in
Corinth - divisions, carnalities, disorders, rivalries,
dissensions, and much more; all of which cried aloud: 'This is not
as it should be!'? Was there an incipient movement away from
grace, back to legalism, with all its loss of glory, in Galatia?
Was there a 'fly in the beautiful ointment' to spoil its sweet
fragrance at Philippi? Was there threatening the exalted level of
spiritual knowledge at Colossae an insinuation of spurious
spirituality, a false spirituality in the form of mysticism?
Yes, all this, and more, was
making for a loss of real testimony, power, influence, and
effectiveness in the local church of those times. But the
Apostles did not condone, excuse, or accept it. Their whole
attitude was: "These things ought not to be." How did
they approach these situations? Had they one common basis and
means of approach and attack? Yes, they had. In every case it was
the same.
To Rome: Romans 6:3-10.
To Corinth: 1 Corinthians 2:2.
To Galatia: Galatians 2:20;
5:24; 6:14.
To Philippi: Philippians 2:5-8.
To Colossae: Colossians 2:11-12;
3:3.
Well, there it is; plain,
clear, and positive: the Cross of Jesus Christ brought by the
Holy Spirit right to the root and foundation of the life of every
believer. A fundamental - foundational - crisis, and thereafter
an inworking and an outworking. "We", "Ye",
"I" - all the pronouns of direct application.
Christians believe in the Holy Spirit. Very many desire to know
the Holy Spirit as a reality and power in their lives. But it
should really be understood and recognized that the Holy Spirit
is committed and wedded to the Cross. His coming awaited the work
of the Cross. Only after the symbolic representation of the Cross
in death, burial and resurrection with Christ by baptism did the
Holy Spirit take His place in power in the lives of the first
believers. Because the taproot of everything that the Cross was
meant to deal with is the self-life, the self-principle, the New
Testament word for which is "the Flesh", the Holy
Spirit leads those under His government into the experiences
which are calculated to expose and bring to the Cross the
self-life of the child of God. It is a primary and inseparable
part of the Holy Spirit's business to make good and real the
meaning of the Cross.
This is not popular truth, but
the Cross is the gateway to fullness, and the deeper the Cross
the greater the measure of Divine life, power and light. This is
the only way for things to be as they should be, and as God
wishes them to be. Life, food, light, fellowship, and much more
depend upon the degree in which the Cross is a reality in the
individual and in the company. This touches the whole realm and
range of Satan's power and work. Power, authority, over him is
inseparable from the Cross. Therefore he will do everything to
undercut, to set aside, to belittle, and discredit the Cross. The
Person of Christ and the Cross of Christ have been the two
grounds of the most bitter controversy in the history of
Christianity. Of course, they are really one thing. It is the
Person Who gives the Cross its real meaning, and it is the Cross
that vindicates the Person, provided that by the Cross is meant
the death, burial, and resurrection.
What we have said about the
Cross and fullness in its several aspects - that is, abundance of
life, food, light, fellowship, finance and victory over Satan -
is not just theory or idealism. We have written history and
experience in our own time. We have seen this in reality, and
have also closely studied the course of things in many Christian
communities.
This calls for a further very
important word of reminder. It has to do with what we may call
the 'spread-over' of the Cross. The Scriptures cited earlier, and
many others, make it quite clear that the Cross of Christ is
something that has to become very real in the experience, and
not only in the doctrine, of the Christian. But who could survive
the Cross in what it meant in the case of Jesus Christ? It rent,
devastated, and desolated Him, soul and body, heart and mind. For
Him it was a going out into outer darkness and forsakenness. All
the eternal agony was concentrated in a few hours and a last
terrible moment. There is no other creature in God's universe who
could go through that and survive. Thank God, no other creature
is ever required to go all that way. He went it for us. And yet,
that does not mean that the whole teaching concerning our being
"united with him in the likeness of his death" (Romans
6:5) is a contradiction. Nor does it mean that the Cross is only
an objective historical doctrinal matter. Paul spoke of "always
bearing about in the body the putting to death of Jesus" (2
Corinthians 4:10). This working of His death in the history of a
believer, and in a local church (if it is on a right foundation)
will be progressive and periodic. The law of nature is more life,
more fruit, more growth, by recurrent winter, alternating
experiences of death and life, and every cycle unto increase.
This is the law of the Cross. God is not a God who believes in
theories; He is immensely practical. The theory of the Cross is
universally held. We sing about it.
"`Tis the
way of the Cross",
and
"`Tis the
way the Master went;
Should not the servant tread it still?"
But the meaning of the Cross is
to displace one entire kind, in order to make room for Another -
capital A.
One of the greatest enemies to
things being as they should - and could - be is our
superficiality. This is an age of 'quick returns', easy gains,
least trouble, everything with as little effort and cost as
possible. Depth is a lost dimension. Stamina is a minus quality.
Who today would take the pains to read such classics on the Cross
as Dr. Mabie's The Divine Reason of the Cross and The
Meaning and Message of the Cross? This superficiality is
costing the Church and Christians very dearly, and so there is
artificial life, artificial food, artificial fellowship which
will not go through in the time of testing.
There is such a depth, power,
fullness, in the Cross of Christ as to spread over all time and
all eternity. So saw the Apostle when, at the end of the fullest
life, he still cried: "That I may know him and the power of
his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings; being
made conformable unto his death" (Philippians 3:10).
First published in "A Witness and A
Testimony" magazine, Mar-Apr 1966, Vol 44-2