1878 190 The idea of a church (or an assembly) of God is one foreign to scripture. We find in scripture "the assembly of God" in a particular locality, and also as applied in a corporate sense to the totality of the church in the world — to the system which is built upon the profession of Christ's name, admittance into which is by baptism unto His name. To these two ideas (facts as they were at first), and to nothing else, is the term "Church of God" applicable. No assembly of christian people can now be designated as "the assembly of God" in a locality; this would be to ignore the real and received condition of the church, and would be an unjustifiable and untenable assumption. The remedy for those Christians who desire to quit what they know to be evil is in Matthew 18:20, the "two or three gathered together" in Christ's name, but proving the reality of it by subjection to Him. His name is owned in all orthodox denominations; the proof of the being gathered together in His name, and the reality of it, depends upon the principle of those so gathered, and upon practical obedience to His word. Otherwise it would be as easy to say, (and certainly more guilty) "I am of Christ," as "I am of Apollos." But when gathered in that name, and practically subject to His word, they have the assurance of His presence as the object of their affections, and the living source of authority, and they have likewise the teaching of God's word, both as to their individual privileges as Christians, and as to the doctrine of the church, whether as to its calling or as to its interior action and economy. It is our duty, as well as our privilege to be guided by the latter, as far as is possible under the circumstances, for God's rules as to His church remain, however long and generally they have been set at naught, and the Holy Spirit yet dwells in the church (not merely in a particular section of it), in spite of the church's utter disobedience and insubjection. Special blessing is, without doubt, with those who seek to be obedient; but there should be no assumption of what in the present divided state of the church, would not be true — of what would be true only of all believers together, and in common with ourselves.
Moreover, "the church of Christ" is a phrase never found in the New Testament as applied either to a single local assembly, or to the church collectively.* In these senses it is always as we have seen, "the church of God." We meet, it is true, with the expression, "the churches of Christ," and that remarkably enough in the Epistle to the Romans (Rom. 16:16), an expression as anti-Popish, and as anti-Roman Catholic as the apostle, under direct inspiration could have used.
[*"Upon this rock I will build My church," said Christ the Lord to Peter, and this of the church as a whole, as contrary to Popish idea as can be. — Ed.]
Again, Christ is never spoken of as "Lord of," or "Lord to," the church. It is well to search scripture carefully, not for the sake of making distinctions, but with the object of (by God's grace) learning what God would teach us by distinctions He Himself has made. We need to search scripture in the present day — when in the department of scripture knowledge as in every other, men's minds are active, and a mistake, which might at first be unobserved, as though immaterial, may in due time be at the foundation of and vitiate a vast superstructure built upon it. Godly vigilance and care were never more needed than at the present time.
But though Christ is never spoken of in scripture as Lord of, or to, the church, there is very much which is connected with His Lordship, and indeed everything pertaining to individual responsibility. Ministry, discipline, church government, even our individual faith ("stand fast in the Lord"), is connected with the Lordship of Christ. So also we read of "brethren in the Lord," and of the church, till it grows "unto an holy temple in the Lord." So likewise the table is the Lord's table. All responsibility is unto the Lord. But with this is closely connected the name of Christ; for "we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ," and, as the head of the woman is the man, so the head of the man is Christ. Headship certainly is involved in the name of Christ, though the term "Lord" may express His rights as such more specifically and more generally.
Now it is in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that a few Christians (few at least comparatively), who desire to quit evil, are gathered together. They feel, although His name may be owned in the various ecclesiastical systems as part of their creed, that His authority is extensively and systematically set at naught in these systems, and that the Holy Ghost is, as to church action, almost entirely prevented from acting by human rules and organisation. This necessarily is destructive of true unity. Such Christians see and feel that this is a very serious state of things. God has supplied a resource, rather than a remedy, in His word, for those who seek it and care for it; and in His love and mercy He shows us in what it consists. It consists in forsaking such systems and in coming together in Christ's name, believing in His promised and assured presence, and being really and practically subject to Him, that our meeting in His name should be a reality, and not a mere form (in which even less of His presence may be felt than He vouchsafes in the systems which we have left), whilst it might be saying, "the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these."
But we can arrogate to ourselves nothing of what belongs only to the saints as a whole. True, God teaches us by His word. He has taught us what "the church of God" is — what it is in its true and responsible state — what it is in His mind and purpose, whilst in the world, — what it will be when its true state is over. All this it is our privilege to know, and to enter into the joy of. We learn that the church of God is the house of God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and that even though this house is in sad confusion, so as to be comparable to a "great house," containing vessels of honour and vessels of dishonour, yet till it pleases God to take away true Christians, and to give up what is left to demolition, His house, and no particular body of professing christians within it, is the temple of the Holy Ghost. We learn also that the church (viewed spiritually) is the body of Christ, and we have to act, so far as in us lies, upon the principles laid down in God's word for His church. For instance, we should do nothing which would contravene the truth of the unity of the body — we should act upon the principle of the unity of the body as far as we can, yet not say that we are God's church or Christ's body, for we are but a fragment of the former, and as individuals are members of the latter. We have not a corporate existence of our own in God's sight, even though endeavouring to the utmost of our ability to keep the unity of the Spirit, and to observe the unity of the body. Water baptism admitted us into the house of God, but "by one Spirit we are all baptised into one body." Of the latter the one loaf is a figure, whilst it is a symbol also of Christ's body given for us. Our earnest desire should be to maintain the holiness of the Lord's table — that holiness which alone is consistent with His presence. If it be asked, "as those thus gathered around our Lord Jesus Christ, what are we?" Simply the few or remnant, gathered to His name and in subjection to Him. At all events, if the word church is used, it should be understood to be limited to mean, that we endeavour to act as far as we can on church principles, without being strictly and formally a representative body, and owning that we are but a remnant strictly and formally. J. B. P.
*[The writer is alone responsible for certain thoughts and expressions in this paper, which is avowedly to exercise the minds of others, not to dogmatize. — Ed.]