§ 127. The Christian fellowship, in spite of the mutability inseparable from its coexistence with the world, is, nevertheless, always and everywhere self-identical, inasmuch, first, as the witness to Christ remains in it ever the same, and this is found in Holy Scripture and in the Ministry of the Word of God*; inasmuch, secondly, as the formation and maintenance of living fellowship with Christ rests upon the same ordinances of Christ, and these are* Baptism and the Lord’s Supper*; inasmuch, finally, as the reciprocal influence of the whole on the individual, and of individuals on the whole, is always uniformly ordered, and this is seen in the* Power of the Keys and in Prayer in the Name of Jesus.
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To begin with, we must put aside the objection which asks how the unity and identity of the Church can rest upon these features, every one of which is a subject of controversy, several of which indeed have assumed such different forms in different parts of Christendom as to give rise to special and mutually exclusive communions, while others are totally rejected by particular communions which still claim to be recognized as Christian. In the first place, this is merely a very direct confirmation of what was said above, namely, that it is impossible to exhibit either of the two elements wholly apart from the other. Nay, if we go by what was indicated in the Introduction regarding the relations between Catholicism and Protestantism, it will seem entirely natural that on almost all these subjects Evangelical teaching must find itself in opposition to Roman. The same is true of several smaller communions which in essence certainly are Protestant, and which in their antagonism to the Roman Church leave us far behind. But here we must distinguish between what is inward and what is outward. For no Christian communion will admit that any such body can exist apart from witness to Christ, in the sense that what is essential in such witness must everywhere be the same, any more than it could exist without a continuous living fellowship with Christ, implying a bond between the changing generations due to their sharing the newly arisen life. Further, wherever it is possible to speak of a perfect fellowship resting upon a common spirit, we must also assume a reciprocal influence of the whole and individuals on each other. In part, therefore, differences only concern the way in which the outward is conformed to the inward; in part they consist in varying ideas as to the necessity and exact character of the connexion which must always exist between the inward and an outward possessing some particular form or other. With regard to these differences, the most important point is this, that we should judge correctly whether they are rooted in the spatial and temporal variations found in man’s spiritual nature, or are to be viewed as defects, because due to encroachments of the world upon the Church. The latter sort are to be resisted the more stoutly in proportion as such encroachments invade the innermost sanctuary of the Church; the former cancel each other where there is mutual recognition.
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Thereafter some explanations will have to be given of the relationships in which the Church institutions named above are placed in our statement, and the way in which they are combined. If we start from the principle that our Christianity ought to be the same as that of the Apostles, our Christianity too must be generated by the personal influences of Christ, for spiritual states depend on the mode of their origination. These influences, however, cannot now emanate from Him directly, for in that case they could not be recognized with such certainty as having emanated from Him supernaturally as to need no confirmatory proof of their identity with those felt by the Apostles, to which, as we have them in the New Testament representations of Christ’s personality, we have always to return. Apart from these influences no activity for the Kingdom of God could have been evoked even in the disciples by the imparting of the Holy Spirit; hence the influence of these representations of Christ will always be an indispensable pre-condition of the Holy Spirit being imparted. This principle, it is true, scarcely appears to cover the whole of the New Testament, nor need all that is taught on the subject be developed from it. But leaving this last point to be dealt with later, on the former it may be said that for the purpose stated not even the fixed written letter of the New Testament appears to be necessary; the further possibility of oral propagation must be admitted, for no more can be guaranteed than the unimpaired identity of the tradition. And so far we can agree that the actual form in which the personality of Christ is set before us does not belong unconditionally to the esse but rather to the bene esse of the Church. As regards the larger and not strictly evangelistic part of the New Testament writings, they furnish proof on the one hand that the Church-forming self-activity which He promised to men really flowed from the impressions left by Christ Himself and from the witness He bade the disciples give; and in this sense they are the source of what we now possess. On the other hand, they form a supplement to those direct utterances of Christ; for we can argue back from the ordinances and actions of the disciples to teachings and injunctions of Christ as their source. Scripture, however, as we actually have it—each single book and the whole collection as a treasure preserved for all later generations of the Church—is invariably a work of the Holy Spirit as the common spirit of the Church, and is only one special instance of the witness to Christ described in general terms in the paragraph we are expounding. For oral and written teaching and narrative concerning Christ were originally the same, and only differed by accident. Scripture now stands by itself, for its preservation unchanged guarantees in a special manner the identity of our witness to Christ with that originally given. Yet it would be a mere lifeless possession if this preservation were not an ever-renewed self-activity of the Church, which reveals itself also in living witness to Christ that either goes back to Scripture or harmonizes with Scripture in meaning and spirit. And this witness alone, taken universally as the duty and calling of every member of the Church—and viewed provisionally apart from definite forms of any kind—is what is understood here by the phrase ‘the Ministry of the Word of God.’ But taken in this general sense and thus related to each other, these two first features of the Church are essential; for otherwise faith could only be evoked by direct influences [of Christ], in which case we could look for no identity and could have no guarantee of truth. This Ministry, however, by no means acts only on the outside world; in its operation within the Church equally it is an organic structure, traceable to Christ Himself, for the communication of life and power.
For the same reason, namely, that we have nothing more to expect from unmediated personal influences of Christ, the linking-up of living fellowship with Christ, and its renewal, must come from the Church and be traceable to its actions; but only to such actions as must also be regarded as activities of Christ—lest Christ should be thought to play a merely passive rôle, and be overshadowed by the Church. And this communal character is the peculiarity of both sacraments. For although baptism as originally instituted was not the first beginning of contact between the Church and the individual, yet it is only through baptism that all that precedes receives such confirmation as thereby to inaugurate a continuous and conscious living fellowship with Christ. And while the Lord’s Supper is not the only means of maintaining living fellowship with Christ—and provisionally we are not regarding it here as an isolable action which even in isolation has a specific effect—yet we take it as being the highest of its kind, and subsume under it every other enjoyment of Christ as either an approximation to it or a prolongation of it. Hence we here keep more to this underlying idea than to outward forms in which the idea is realized.
In like manner, the entire influence of the whole fellowship on the individual is concentrated in the forgiveness of sin. For in view of the relationship obtaining between the sins of the regenerate and their good works, these last can be recognized only in the measure in which the sin still clinging to them is removed. But good works are at once the fruit and the seed of the gifts of the Spirit developing in each life, so that the forgiveness of sin first assigns them their place in the fellowship of believers. Finally, as regards Prayer in the Name of Jesus, representing as it does the influence of individuals on the whole, apart from which a whole animated by a common spirit and in that sense self-contained could manifest no progress—there can be no Prayer in the Name of Jesus except in connexion with the things of His Kingdom. Hence its efficacy, promised by Christ even to the smallest gathering of individuals, secures their influence upon the whole. If we regard such prayer as representing all influences of the kind, this rests on the assumption, self-evident to every Christian, that prayer necessarily includes and presupposes personal activity in bringing about what is prayed for. Thus without the two last-named features, there could be in the common life neither order nor progress and success.
- That we have here given a complete view of the elements on which the unity and identity of the Christian Church rest in every time and place is best seen if we recur to the relation of the Church to Christ. On the one hand, as the organism of Christ—which is what Scripture means by calling it His Body—it is related to Christ as the outward to the inward, so that in its essential activities it must also be a reflection of the activities of Christ. And since the effects produced by it are simply the gradual realization of redemption in the world, its activities must likewise be a continuation of the activities of Christ Himself. These we have reduced to the scheme of the Threefold Office; and in the same way it must be possible to show that the three offices of Christ are reflected and carried on in the essential activities of the Church as stated above.
Prayer in the Name of Jesus, embracing as it does the full vocational activity of each individual Christian, is a reflection of Christ’s kingly activity, both as it is in itself and as concerns the relation between His rule and that of the Father. It is the latter, inasmuch as it concludes with the reverently submissive utterance of the thoughts of each regarding the extension of the Kingdom of God or the assaults of the world. It is the former, inasmuch as it comprehends all purposes flowing from the energies of the God-consciousness. And in the Power of the Keys there is attached to the forgiveness of sins, rightly understood, all that has to do with Church order and the estimate of persons in the Church which flows from the common consciousness. Thus we have here the continuation of that kingly activity of Christ which began with His choice of the disciples and His giving of ordinances for the fellowship that was to be.
Further, since the prophetic activity of Christ consists in His self-presentation and His invitation to enter the Kingdom of God, the Holy Scriptures are the permanent reflection of His prophetic activity, inasmuch as in their composition and preservation, regarded as the work of the Church, they form the most direct exhibition of Christ. The Ministry of the Word we cannot but regard as also a continuation of His prophetic work, for it essentially consists in the applied presentation of Christ and invitation in His name.
If, finally, the essential element in Christ’s priestly office—to distinguish this as clearly as possible from the prophetic and kingly offices—lies supremely in this, that He mediates the fellowship of men with God, there will be no difficulty in acknowledging that both sacraments have a relation thereto. In this sense, that baptism owing to its more symbolical character is related more as a reflection, the Lord’s Supper owing to its more real content as a continuation.
This arrangement also shows that everything essentially belonging to Christ’s activity has its reflection and continuation in the Church, for the first three features pertain to His redemptive, the other three to His reconciling, activity. Nor in our Evangelical interpretation of Christianity shall we have to indicate any other feature of the Church which could claim to stand on the same level as these institutions. On the contrary, we shall neither place tradition beside Scripture nor subordinate the Ministry of the Word to any kind of symbolical rites; we shall neither acquiesce in the multiplication of sacraments nor by attributing magical effects to them destroy the analogy they bear to the other features of the Church; we shall neither limit Prayer in the Name of Jesus by invocation of the saints nor permit any special representation of Christ—whether individual or collegial—to usurp the place of the Power of the Keys.
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