CHRIST’S BELIEVERS AND CHURCH

“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved . . .” was the gospel promise brought by the Lord’s missionaries . IfI believe in Christ and so am restored in the office of believer to know, love and serve God as His prophet, priest and king, what, if anything, does this have to do with a church? This understandable question becomes the more urgent as an apparently increasing number of people in our time are answering, “Nothing at all.” A missionary en route to China, when asked to what church he belonged, once answered that since he was saved he had not joined any. He suggested further that, serving a big interdenominational mission, he might be a more useful missionary if he were not tied to the practices of any one denomination. Many people, disgusted with the inconsistencies or bitter experiences they have encountered in some church, have decided that they can get along as well without joining any. After all, we can tune in on much more impressive radio and TV religious programs than we are likely to find in a local church. Why should one join any of them? Although we might try to answer such questions by citing the benefits of joining a local church, we need to see that the only really decisive answers to them are those which the Lord Himself gave us. Since we are saved by believing in Him, we must be guided by what He said . . . bout the church. When Simon Peter made his famous confession of faith in Him (Matt. 16:16) He did not say that He would use this truth Peter confessed only to save people. He said, “. . . upon this rock I will build my church . . . I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven . . .” (v. 18). This promise he repeated (in 18:18, 20) regarding those who come together in His name.

This point was exceptionally well stated by Harry Blamires in his book, The Christian Mind (p. 119). “. . . Christians did not invent the Church: it is not something which they could either have had or not have had . We must not talk-and we must not allow critics of the Church to talk—as though the Apostles sat round a table in the early days and one of them said, ‘I propose that we have a church,’ and another said, ‘I second that,’ and it was carried . . . For the Church was not manufactured to a human plan.” “God made it, not man. He came to earth and left the Church behind him. Therefore, to talk of not seeing the need for the Church is like talking of not seeing the need for the moon. The Church, like the moon, is not a human project, but a divine creation.” “God put it there. Speculators might argue that . . . God might have thought up some different instrument of salvation, just as he might have devised a different means of lightening our darkness at night. But where does that kind of speculation get us? We are not concerned with what God did not do: we are concerned with what he did. And one of the things he did was to come to earth and establish the Church.”

     

The Lord’s purpose with this church is especially clearly explained by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesians. In Chapter 2 he describes how God made men who “were dead in . . . transgressions and sins” and “by nature objects of wrath,” “alive together with Christ,” and saved them ”through faith.” The process does not stop with that. As a result of this they “are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow-citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household,” built into “a holy temple in the Lord . . . , to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (vv.19–22). Christians are not left standing alone; as believers the Lord makes them (1) citizens of His kingdom, (2) members of His family, and (3) parts of His temple.

Accordingly, the Apostle Peter, to whom Jesus spoke about building His church, wrote in his First Letter (1 Peter 2:5) that men, coming to Christ, “the living Stone . . . also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” In other words, the “calling” and “office of the believer” may not be understood as individual and independent of that of all other Christians, but it has a place in and function as part of Christ’s Church. Each believer is part of a whole “people of God,” “family of God,” “temple of God.”

Returning to Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, we notice that in the 4th Chapter he urges believers “to live a life worthy of the calling you have received” and to “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace,” considering that they form “one body.”

Our oldest Reformed Creed, the Belgic Confession of Faith, simply reflects this teaching of the Bible when it states in its 28th Article, “EVERYONE IS BOUND TO JOIN HIMSELF TO THE TRUE CHURCH.” “We believe, since this holy congregation is an assembly of those who are saved, and outside of it there is no salvation, that no person of whatsoever state or condition he may be, ought to withdraw from it, content to be by himself; but that all men are in duty bound to join and unite themselves with it; maintaining the unity of the Church; submitting themselves to the doctrine and discipline thereof; bowing their necks under the yoke of Jesus Christ; and as mutual members of the same body, serving to the edification of the brethren , according to the talents God has given them.” “Therefore all those who separate themselves from the same or do not join themselves to it act contrary to the ordinance of God.”

A Key Text

The Fourth Chapter of Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians is a key text that, perhaps more clearly than any other, helps us to understand the Lord‘s designs for the way the office He has given to all believers is to be developed and to function in His church. “. . . To each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it” (v. 7). In the church the ascended Christ (vv.11ff.) gave “some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God‘s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining the full measure of perfection found in Christ.

“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

Notice that in the development of the office and work of each believer, a special role and office is assigned to “pastors and teachers.” Similar special assignments are given in each church to “elders” or “overseers” and “deacons” (Acts 14:23; 1 Tim. 3; Titus 1:5–9). These “special offices” were given for the orderly, healthy development of the church and of each of its members toward fulfilling his or her “office” as a believer.

A History of Confusion

Throughout the church’s history much confusion and harm has resulted, and continues until the present, when the relationship between the “special offices” and the “office” of each believer has been misunderstood or overlooked. The special offices have been regarded and sometimes even studied without recognizing their main purpose to develop the more fundamental office, that of each believer. What resulted from this neglect was often a caricature of the Lord’s revealed design for His church. Does this appear to be overstatement? Let us quickly survey some of the developments in the church’s history to see how it came about.

The Lord and His apostles from the beginning often warned His churches against the inroads of false teachings. Especially those in special offices must work to protect the church from them (Acts 20:28ff.) The early church father, Ignatius of Antioch, at about the end of the first century A.D., seeing the churches threatened by disunity and apostasy, wrote letters to several of them. He felt that a most effective way to protect the churches against these threats was to warn them to obey their bishops and to do nothing without the bishop’s approval. He wrote the Smyrnaeans, “You should all follow the bishop as Jesus Christ did the Father.” “Nobody must do anything that has to do with the church without the bishop’s approval . . . Whatever he approves pleases God as well. In that way everything you do will be on the safe side and valid . . . But he who acts without the bishop’s knowledge is in the devil’s service” (8:1–9:1 ). Although we can appreciate the church father’s undoubtedly excellent intentions, the direction of his counsel to suppress individual believers’ exercise of office is unmistakable. When early in the church’s history developments were taking this turn, it is not surprising that during the middle ages the church came to be commonly described as a ship operated by the clergy as crew, with the members merely going along for the ride (and paying the fare).

This state of affairs generally continued until the 16th Century Reformation. Then with Martin Luther there were indications of a change, as he was led by the grace of God to recover the Biblical gospel of salvation by faith in Christ, rather than clerical church ritual. As Luther sought to bring the church back to Gospel teaching he encountered very little support among the church heirarchy, and was driven to seek support fro m other Christians who might be in a position to help in the needed reform. The first of his three great 1620 Reformation tracts, An Open Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation Concerning the Reform of the Christian State, appealed to them to take a hand in the reform of the church, pointing to their right to do so because all Christians are priests, as the Apostle Peter taught. It seemed that in this Reformation the office of the individual church member might begin to be properly recognized after it had been increasingly overlooked for centuries. The development of the reform movement speedily took a less favorable turn, however, when leaders of the peasantry, using the Reformation appeal to the Bible, began a Peasant Revolt that in 1625 threatened to become total anarchy. This kind of radicalism Luther strongly condemned. Calvin, as we have seen, stressed the calling and office of believers in society. While some of the more radical Anabaptist Reformers seemed to accept this principle, their inclination to appeal to the direct leading of the Spirit rather than to the Bible soon led many of them to develop an authoritarian attitude and endless divisions among their followers.

The apparent promise of the Reformation to develop a more adequate Biblical appreciation ofthe office of the individual believer in the church and its relation to the special offices has been largely unrealized. Instead, we see, right up to the present time, on one hand, a traditionalism that differs in this respect very little from that of Roman Catholicism. That is strikingly exemplified by a 1965 catechism book by J.M. Snapper and G.J. Spykman, issued by the Committee on Education of the Christian Reformed Church. This elementary book, entitled Teach Me Thy Way and intended to acquaint younger children with key Christian doctrines, introduced the Church in a chapter on “The King’s Officers.” It devoted over two pages, including four illustrations, to “the duties of the pastor,” who was obviously the main officer, a short paragraph of less than 9 lines and an illustration to “the duties of the elders” who were his helpers, and a similar brief paragraph and illustration to the deacons. The whole discussion concluded with a few lines answering the question, “What are my duties to the officers of the church?” Since the officers are Jesus’ “servants” who do His work and “there is no more important work in all the world,” our duty is said to be to ‘“Pray for them and show respect for them.” Even though the chapter concludes with a citation from Ephesians 4:11, 12a, it is ironic that the quotation ends with “And he gave some to be . . . pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints,” with never a hint that the whole concern of the passage and the purposes of the special offices are to help each member to serve in the more inclusive office of the believer! This was still “the forgotten office.”

Although that book appeared about 20 years ago, there is no indication that the fault that it exemplifies has really been corrected. In fact, as we see some indications of a growing ‘“professionalism” in the training of ministers and a tendency to cast them in the role of the churches’ “executives,” the caricature may be getting worse. Mark Gibbs and T. Ralph Morton in their 1964 book, God’s Frozen People, rather aptly described some of the mischievous results of this mistaken view of special office. They quote HansRuedi Weber (in Salty Christians), “Too often the clergy undertake to fulfill by themselves the ministry of the Church. And too often the laity delegate their ministry to the man, the clergyman. This ‘one man show’ is deeply unbiblical. Too many clergy and other Church workers fail to fulfill—or even to see—their main, specific function: the equipment of ‘saints’ for the ministry” (p.17). Later they add, “Without deliberate planning and certainly without any nefarious scheming on the part of the clergy, the congregation has developed a structure that depends entirely on the minister . . . most people will say that it is only right . . . that this is their job; for this they are trained. But . . . this is what is crippling the life of the church . . . the minister has changed from being the one ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament to being in addition the director of the work and activities of a congregation” (p. 49). “No factory no regiment—could survive if conducted on the system of the authoritative rule of one man. For a church which is a body of people called into the life and work of Jesus Christ it is disastrous” (p. 52).

If, on one hand, the life and work of the church, and of the minister in particular, are being crippled by this unbiblical and exaggerated notion of what one man, instead of the Lord’s whole congregation, is supposed to be doing, they are, on the other hand also being handicapped by a growing reaction in an exactly opposite direction. Instead of seeing the life and work of the church mainly or only as those of special offices, many today are claiming that its life and work are only those of believers and that there is really no room for special –and certainly not authoritative—offices at all! That movement has drawn support from a 1972 C.R. Synod Report on Ecclesiastical Office and Ordination which tried to reduce special church offices to mere services and tried to eliminate from them any real authority. Despite a later synod’s effort to correct that opposition to authority, the effect of this report has been to increase confusion about the roles of special offices and that of believers. Considering the present confusion about the proper responsibilities of special office in relation to those of each believer, we need hardly be surprised that some churches, including our own, are being driven to take extraordinary measures (even to the point of adding new denominational departments) to deal with the problems of a growing multitude of demoralized ministers.

The Biblical Correction

The needed corrective for this spreading church demoralization is really neither complicated nor difficult. We need to return to the Bible in which the Lord revealed His design for the functioning of His church and its offices. (Problems in this area have arisen and continued to arise, exactly where or as the church, on whatever pretext—today the fad is to talk of the “time conditioned” character of the Bible and its proper interpretation sees fit to ignore that guide. And real Reformation has always been by way of a return to that God-appointed Guide.)

Although, as we have been seeing, the Lord is restoring every believer in Him to office, the work of that office needs to be done, not independently, but in relation to the rest of His church (1 Cor. 12:7ff., “Now to each man the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good . . .”). In that church each believer needs to profit by the work of the special offices the Lord has given for his and her development. The Letter to the Hebrews (13:17) enjoins us, “Obey your leaders and submit to them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.”

At this point we may observe that God’s Word restricts eligibility for the special church offices to men (1 Cor. 14:34–38; 1 Tim. 2:11–3:12; Titus 1:5ff.). We may not use what the Bible teaches about the office of each believer as an excuse to set aside what it cites as “the Lord’s command” about special office (1 Cor.14:37), as many seem determined to do. Those who defy the Lord’s order should not be surprised by the confusion and anarchy with which He sometimes rewards disobedience.

Although we are commanded to submit to church authority as representing Christ, this does not mean unconditional or‘ unlimited submission to that authority. We must and may submit to it only as it is itself submissive to God’s Word (Acts 17:11; Gal. 1:8; 1 John 4:1f.).

The Apostle Peter, to whom the Lord had spoken about His establishing His church and about how He would build it through the official work of His representatives, instructed and warned the church elders (1 Pet. 5:1ff.) “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers –not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.” Notice the warning against three vices that have ruined official service throughout church history, laziness, greed and grabbing for power, and the proper corrective for each one of them! If those in special office serve in this eager and exemplary way and each member makes grateful use of that service, how can the church and its members fail to prosper?

In the November, 1956, issue of this publication, then called Torch and Trumpet, Rev. Martin Monsma, who was Professor of Practical Theology at Calvin Theological Seminary, wrote a twelve-page article about “The Believer’s Office and the Church.” That article—which at some points seems more up-to-date now than it was thirty years ago—although it is too long for extensive quotation here, lists some important rights and duties of believers within the church. It cites (1) their right and duty “to organize themselves into autonomous local churches”; (2) their right and duty “to judge as to the Church’s doctrinal position and as to its ecclesiastical practices,” including the right to protest and appeal against injustices or errors of church officials or assemblies; (3) their “right of reformation,” including the “right of secession” when protests and appeals are disregarded by churches which are no longer faithful to the Bible or their confessions; and (4) “the right and duty of church members to take an active part in the activities of their church.” Much more was said and can be said about these matters, but this summary highlights church members’ official responsibilities, which are commonly overlooked and at times are even being denied by churches’ growing bureaucracies.

We need to notice, not only what members may and should do to correct what has gone wrong, but, more positively, how each believer must seek to profit by the church life and activity and the special services of its officials, and how each must engage in the service of Christ to which all are called. That service includes a missionary responsibility to bring the gospel to others, and a broader, related duty to serve Christ in the world. The believer’s missionary role and his or her place in society are subjects for future articles.