Christian Unity


Christian Unity is always among the Christian things that are of the greatest importance. While Christian Unity is in itself of great importance, to know what it is, is of greater importance. Thus because to desire, and to strive for, and to promote, as Christian Unity what is not Christian Unity at all is a most dangerous mistake and an immense loss. And much of just this has been done, and much of it is being done just now as a part of the several great "movements" in and by the churches that are now being urged. In studying Christian Unity for what it really is, it will be helpful first of all plainly to state what it is not. One of the clearest expressions of what it is not is the following prodigiously false statement of what it is: This unity is two-fold; it comprises:

"1. Unity of doctrine and faith, which consists in the common accord of all the Faithful in admitting and believing all that the teaching church proposes to them as revealed or confirmed by Jesus Christ."

"2. Unity of government, which produces unity of communion, and which consists in the submission of all the Faithful to their respective bishops and in particular to the Roman Pontiff, supreme Head of the church."

Yet utterly false and Romish as all of that is, take away from it only the part that pertains to "the Roman Pontiff," and it fairly expresses the view of every denomination in the world as to what is Christian Unity. But Christian Unity is altogether another thing than is any of that; and is as far higher than all of that as Heaven is higher than the earth. Uniting of Christians upon doctrine, is not Christian Unity. Agreement of Christians in belief, is not Christian Unity. Uniting or agreeing of Christians upon a platform or statement of belief, or of doctrine, or of principles, is not Christian Unity. Uniting of Christians in an agreed assent and submission to an order of church organization or church government, is not Christian Unity. Union of purpose or of effort of Christians or among Christians in promoting a cause, is not Christian Unity. Free and pleasant fraternal association of Christians, is not Christian Unity.

Christians might have all of these things in one combination, indeed many of them do, and yet not have Christian Unity at all. Christian Unity is far more and far higher than is any association of denomination or federation or council even of all the Christians in the world for any purpose or upon any platform or in any cause or in submission to any church government. And it is so well worth having that it is worth more than all other things put together.

Come then, let us know what it is in its pure truth and splendid worth, and then let us have it for all that it is worth. In the Scriptures the Reformers found the divine principle and Christian truth of Christian unity.

Matthias said: "The Body of the omnipotent and altogether indivisible Jesus Christ, the community of saints, is not divided, neither indeed can be divided. That Church, by virtue of its eternal and immutable unity, depends wholly on the unity of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of His Spirit. It is Jesus Christ Himself, who, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever dwells in His Church and in each most insignificant portion of it, holding together, vitalizing, sustaining, the whole and all its parts. Bound with each other in the unity of the life of Jesus, many shall come together and be held in union by the cords of a glowing love."

Huss said: "Christ alone is the all-sufficient Head of The Church. The Church needs no other. And therein consists its unity. All true unity must have its foundation in Christ."

When this fundamental Christian truth was announced, to the church men it was all new and strange and hateful. And when it was proclaimed abroad to all people in their own tongue, it was all the more so. How utterly foreign it was to all the realm of their horizon may be seen in some measure in the following standard definition of the "Mark of Unity" of the Roman Church:-- This unity is two-fold; it comprises:

"1. Unity of doctrine and faith, which consists in the common accord of all the Faithful in admitting and believing all that the teaching church proposes to them as revealed or confirmed by Jesus Christ."

"2. Unity of government, which produces unity of communion, and which consists in the submission of all the Faithful to their respective bishops and in particular to the Roman Pontiff, supreme Head of the church."

"To break the unity of faith, by rejecting even only one point of doctrine, constitutes heresy; to break the unity of government, by rejecting the authority of the legitimate heads, produces schism." Christian Apologetics, Section 313.

Christian unity, the only true unity that can ever be, is totally different from that. It is as far higher than that as heaven is higher than the earth. And it is as far truer than that as the precision of the Spirit of Truth is beyond the wanderings of the carnal mind. Christian unity is far more than is any unity upon doctrine, among Christians, and is far above that. Christian unity is far more than is any unity of belief, of Christians; and is far above that. Christian unity is far more than is any unity of Christians upon a platform of belief, of doctrine, or of principles; and is far above that. Christian unity is far more than is any unity of submission to church government; and is far above that. Christian unity is far more than is any union of Christians, or among Christians; and is far higher than that. Christian unity is far more than is any unity of purpose, of Christians; and is far higher than that. Christian unity is far more than is any unity of effort of Christians promoting a cause; and is far higher than that. Christian unity is far more than is any unity of association of Christians; and is far higher than that. Christian unity is far more than is any unity even of brotherhood, among Christians; and is far higher than that. Christian unity is far more than is any unity of association, or of brotherhood, for any purpose, or upon any platform, or in any cause, or in submission to any group. Christian unity is nothing less, and is nothing else, than the divine unity itself: "the unity of the Spirit." Note that it is not unity from the Spirit. That is, it is not a unity of people, derived from the Spirit. Nor is it, primarily, a unity caused among people by their possessing the Spirit. It is "The unity OF the Spirit" Himself.

Christian unity, then, is only the divine unity, as that unity is in the Divinity, and of the Divinity Himself. See this in the Scriptures of Truth, where the Reformers found it; for there it is plainly and repeatedly stated. First, in the Saviour's promise of the Comforter:

"I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever . . . I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you . . . At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." John 14:16,18,20.

There is Christian unity. There is "the unity of the Spirit." It is the unity of the individual Christian with, and in, the Father and the Son: This unity is accomplished by the mighty grace of "the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost." And just to accomplish this divine unity is the primary purpose and the grand object in the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is plain in the Scripture just quoted; but see it again as shown in the prayer in Eph. 3:14-19:

"That He would grant you . . . to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that"-- so that, in order that-- "Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God."

Next, read the Saviour's prayer for Christian unity; and see there the same thought three times expressed:

"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one."

That is the prayer. How is that prayer to be fulfilled? How is that unity to be accomplished? What is the real key of it? Here it is: "That they all may be one:"

1. "As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, THAT"-- so that, in order that-- "they may be one IN US."

2. "And the glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given them, THAT"-- so that, in order that-- "they may be one, EVEN AS We are One."

3. "I in them, and Thou in Me, THAT"-- so that, in order that-- "they may be made perfect in One." John 17:21-23.

Thus, three times in direct connection, there stands expressed by the Lord Jesus His own thought of Christian unity. Three times He tells how it is to be found; and every time, without a scintilla of variation, this Christian unity which He defined and for which He prayed for us, finds its key, its spring, its idea, only in unity with the Father and with the Son, in the very unity of the Father and the Son. That, and that alone, is Christian unity.

Christian unity then is nothing less and nothing else than the divine unity itself, as that unity is in the very Godhead. The unity of the Godhead is the unity of Spirit, in the Spirit; for the Godhead is only Spirit. And all who "have been made to drink into this one Spirit," of the "one Lord," through the "one faith" of the one Christ, and of the "one God and Father of all"; and who are possessed of this "one Spirit"; and "live" and "walk" "in the Spirit":-- all these are one in Him and with Him in the very "unity of the Spirit," which is the divine unity itself.

Next, see this thought in the words of the Scripture defining Christian Fellowship.

"That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.... This then is the message which we have heard of Him and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all."

By this Scripture it is plain that Christian fellowship is not primarily fellowship with one another; but first fellowship with the Father and with the Son; and then fellowship with one another as the consequence of this fellowship with the Father and the Son. It is only when Christians "walk in the light as He is in the light", it is only when we have "fellowship with Him", that "we have fellowship one with another." That light is God. Walking in the Light is walking in God. Thus, we have fellowship with Him; and having fellowship with Him we have it with one another. And this Life and Light is "declared" in order that, having the Life, and walking in the Light, we may have fellowship with Him; and this in order that we may have fellowship with those whose fellowship is, "truly and primarily "with the Father and with His son Jesus Christ."

Next we see the thought of the Spirit on this as expressed through Paul, in Eph. 2:11-18. When God would put an end to the enmities, and spites, and separations, between Circumcision and Uncircumcision, and would "make both one," He did it by "reconciling both unto God in one body by the Cross," so that, "through Christ, we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father." Thus again is Christian unity portrayed; and again it is only unity with the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit, in the very unity of the Godhead.

That and that alone is Christian unity. And all so-called unity of "church governments" of organization, association, federation, confederation, accomplished even by Christians, is of only human contrivance, is only a hollow sham, is a sheer counterfeit, and never Christian unity at all. All who are of this true unity are one. They are one already by the very virtue of the divine unity itself; and they need no "church governments," federations, confederations, organizations nor associations to cause them to be one. All such contrivances as these are only the open confession that they have not the real unity of the Spirit and in the Spirit-- the divine unity; and they must go about to supply the lack by constructing a mere human, political and worldly "unity." All who are of this true, this divine, unity are one. They know it; they know it by the Spirit of Him in Whom alone the unity is found. They are one, from God and in God. And their unity being in God and coming from God, nothing that can ever come from man can ever affect it in the least. It being of heaven and from heaven, nothing from earth can ever spoil it. In heavenly love it abides, even upon earth. And among all these, "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female." There is neither white nor black, red nor yellow, American, European, Asiatic, nor African: "for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Christ is all, and in all." "The one God and Father of all is above all and through all and in you all"; with "the Son also himself subject" unto the Father, "that God may be all in all." 1 Cor. 15:28. That is Christian unity; and nothing else is. And this is only the revelation of "the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself; that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in ONE all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are in earth; even in Him." Eph. 1:9,10.

Jesus prayed for this divine unity of believers, in order that another great and glorious thing might follow; that is,-- "That the world may know that Thou has sent Me." And when this the true Christian unity is found and manifested, that grand and glorious thing does follow, and will ever follow.

Then will the prayer of Jesus be fulfilled. They will all be one as the Father is in Jesus and Jesus in Him; and the world will know that God sent Jesus, and that He loves us as He loves Him.

The time has come when Christian unity as it is in truth-- "the unity of the Spirit"-- will be known and manifested. For now is the time when "the mystery of God should be finished." Rev. 10:7.

This mystery is "God manifest" in the flesh, "Christ in you the hope of glory," through the divine Spirit. And thus is the divine Spirit making manifest the divine unity in Christians, and thus true Christian unity.

And the culmination of this true Christian unity is that "glorious Church" which the divine Lord "will present to Himself" without "spot or wrinkle or any any such thing, but holy and without blemish" at his "glorious appearing," in the soon-coming day of the glorious second advent of Christ our Savior.


Related Sites:

The Association of Creation 7th Day Adventists
The Creation 7th Day Adventists, Who Are They?
The Creation 7th Day Adventist Church


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