Part II Doctrine
XXII. THE CHURCH
Genesis 13:14—18; Deuteronomy 7:6—11; Hosea 2:14—23;
I Peter 2:1—20; Ephesians 2:19-22; Matthew 16:13—19 There is no place in biblical religion for selfish individualism.
Redemption comes to men through their membership in a redeemed and redeeming society, not through some special arrangement made directly between themselves and God. To say this is not to depreciate in any way the importance of individual faith and personal righteousness, but only to assert that, in the Bible, faith always leads men out of selfish isolation into the divine community and that righteousness always implies right relationships within a communal framework.
As we have already seen from our study of the Bible story, God chose from the beginning to redeem men by means of a family, a society, a nation—or, to use the language of later times, a Church. Looking back on the account of God’s dealings with Abraham, we see God promising that he shall be the father of a vast family (Gen.13:14—18) and
elsewhere declaring that by means of it "shall all the families (or nations) of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 12:3, 22:18). Although the meaning of this statement is not quite so clear in Hebrew as in English, it is certain that the greatest men of Israel, such as Second Isaiah (and
the unknown author of Isaiah 10:24f) understood it to mean that it was God’s purpose to save mankind through the family of Abraham. Here we see one of the fundamental patterns of the Bible: God working in history to save men through the instrumentality of a special, chosen group.
At the next stage in the history of salvation, the group is conceived of more in terms of a nation than a family. Under the leadership of Moses, the loose association which previously existed among the tribes
claiming descent from Abraham became an organized community living under common laws and held together by a common faith and common worship. This is the stage in the Church’s history represented by such passages as Deuteronomy 7:6—11:
"Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God." The word "holy" here does not necessarily mean "morally good"; it means rather "consecrated to God’s service." The next two verses (7f) emphasize that God’s choice of Israel was not based upon any special merit on her part, but solely upon the inexplicable love and mercy of God. The concluding verses (9—11) warn that the continuance of God’s favor is dependent upon her willingness to walk in His ways.
The next chapter in the story is that of Israel’s final failure, in spite of her tremendous spiritual achievements, to finish the task for which God had chosen her. This was followed by God’s promise to create in the future a transformed community to bring His work to perfection. Seeing her with somewhat kindlier eyes than those of the prophets, we shall probably feel that the passing of the old national Israel was a necessary stage on the way to the universal Israel of God, but the prophets could see her history only in terms of failure and judgment. Most of them, however, could also look beyond the evil present and see God’s purpose ultimately being achieved by a renewed and purified people. This, for example, is the point of view in Hosea 2:14—23. God loves his people as a husband loves his wife and someday the affectionate relations of early days will be restored between them (vv. 14—20). To those who are no longer worthy to be called His people He will say again "Thou art my people," and to those from whom His justice was compelled to
withhold mercy He will show mercy again.
I Peter 2:1—10 sees this promise at last fulfilled in the Christian Church (v. 10). Part of this passage (9) is also an echo of Exodus 19:5f, which we have read in another connection, and shows that the pattern of
redemption through a redeemed and redeeming community is the same in the New Testament as in the Old. Although God’s Church is no longer limited to those who are physically descended from Abraham, the spiritual descendants of Abraham—those who have faith in Christ (Gal. 3:7)—still constitute "an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation," whose purpose is to declare to the world "the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his own marvelous light."
The same writer, in vv. 4f, uses another image for the Church—that of the Temple. The individual Christian is only a single stone in a great spiritual structure erected for the worship of God. This thought is developed further in Ephesians 2:19—22. Verse 19 emphasizes the continuity between the old national Israel and the new Israel built upon faith. There are not two churches, but one. What happened through the work of Christ was that the community of the old Israel was expanded to include the Gentiles (to whom the letter is addressed) so that they are now "fellow-citizens . . . of the household of God." Jews and Gentiles, in so far as they both have faith in Christ, are part of a great temple which provides a fit habitation for God the Holy Spirit. The foundation stones of the temple are the prophets of the Old Israel and the Apostles of the New, and Jesus Christ himself is the cornerstone.
The mention of a cornerstone inevitably calls to mind the familiar
passage about the founding of the Church in Matthew 16:13—19. While the interpretation of the passage is still a subject of much debate, it is at least clear to everyone that the stone upon which the Church—the new Israel—is to be built cannot be merely Peter the man, but Peter as the first to declare boldly his faith in Christ (v. 16). The true cornerstone of the Church is not Peter, hut the faith which he expressed.
XXIII. THE MINISTRY
Deuteronomy 33:8--11; Numbers 25:10—13; Malachi 2:1—9;
John 20:19—23; II Corinthians 3:1—6; 5:18—20; Titus 1:5—9 Like any other society, the Church has its officers and ministers and both the Old and New Testaments testify that the ministry was not created by the human members of the society, but by God Himself.
Although the form of the ministry, and to some extent its function, are different in the Old Israel and the New, the principle of its divine authority remains the same.
Our first selection is from one of the oldest poems of ancient Israel, called by tradition the Blessing of Moses. In the course of it each of the twelve tribes receives a blessing determined by its history and character.
The one in which we are especially interested (Deut. 33:8—11) is that of Levi, the tribe which exercised the functions of the ministry in the Old Testament Church. Just as membership in Israel was a matter of birth rather than of choice, so the priesthood in the developed religion of Israel was a privilege conferred by birth on the members of a particular tribe. As a matter of fact the priesthood in the full sense (at least
according to the so-called "priestly" document of the Pentateuch) could be exercised only by the members of one family within that tribe, the family of Aaron, while ordinary Levites were restricted to certain menial tasks.
The "blessing" begins, rather obscurely, with a reference to the mysterious Urim and Thummim, part of the sacred equipment of the priest, probably used for divination, and then speaks of some unknown test to which the tribe had been subjected in the past. Verse 9 says that the priest is to serve God with complete dedication, not allowing himself to be influenced by family ties. The most important passage is v. 10, which speaks of the two great functions of the priesthood: to teach the people God’s will and to lead in worship. These two functions remain constant throughout both the Testaments. The passage closes with a blessing on the Levites’ work (11).
In Numbers 25:10—13, the descendants of Aaron are singled out for the priesthood and promised the gift of an eternal covenant with God as a reward for their zeal in the service of sound morals and true religion.
Since a priest, in spite of his authority, is only a man, he is subject to the same temptations as other men; so it is not surprising that individual ministers often proved unworthy of their vocation and that at times the priesthood as a whole became corrupt. The prophets often speak of this, but none more eloquently than Malachi (2:1—9), whose denunciation of priestly sins gains added force from his obvious sympathy with the basic principle of priesthood. He recalls the covenant which God made with the ancestors of the tribe (vv. 4f) because of their goodness and pastoral effectiveness (6), and emphasizes again the importance of the teaching function of the priest (7). But the present generation has failed in its duty and must expect God’s curse rather than His blessing (1—3, 9).
The divine authority of the New Testament ministry is stated in the
strongest possible terms in John 20: 19—23 which claims for the Christian minister a dignity parallel to that of Christ himself ("As my father hath sent me, even so send I you"), and gives him the right to make authoritative decisions in cases of conscience which are brought before him (v. 23; cf. Matt. 18: 18). To make it possible for him to carry such a heavy weight of responsibility, he is given a special endowment of the Holy Spirit (22). While no special mention is made here of the apostles’ right to transmit their authority to others, the nature of the Church as a continuing institution made it necessary for them to do so.
At least two New Testament passages refer to the ordination of younger men by the laying on of hands (I Tim. 4:14 and II Tim. 1:6).
The first seven chapters of II Corinthians, which are largely taken up with St. Paul’s discussion of his own ministry, show the tremendous authority which the apostle—with the utmost personal
humility—claimed for himself. After a moving reference to Paul’s pastoral work in the Corinthian church, the first of the two passages Selected here (3: 1—6) tells of the grace which God gave him to bear the difficult responsibilities of his office as "minister of the new
covenant" (vv. 4—6). In the second (5:18—20), Paul describes his work as a "ministry of reconciliation" between men and God, and calls
himself and other ministers of the Church the "ambassadors" of Christ (20). The underlying conception, as in John 20:21, is that of one who is sent by a king or another powerful person to act in his name and on his behalf.
From Titus 1:5—9, we see that it was considered important that
authorized ministers should be appointed in every church. But we also see, from the list of qualifications, that ministers of the New Covenant, like those of the Old, are weak, fallible human beings who are
sometimes no better than they should be in spite of the dignity of their office. It would surely not have been necessary to give a list of such rather prosaic and self-evident requirements, if there had not been some who failed in precisely these ways. God can use even the most
unpromising materials to do His work, but the Church, like the individual minister himself, must be constantly on guard to keep the material as fine and pure as is humanly possible. The Bible shows that the ministry is an office of great dignity and great danger—the dignity is from God, the danger from man.