We must not suppose that the unity of the invisible
or mystical body of the church (Eph. 4:4-6) has nothing to say to us as members
of visible, instituted churches. First, we must know, and think of, the glorious
unity of the whole company of those predestinated as the one church, body and
bride of Christ. Second, we must seek to manifest that unity as members of true,
instituted churches. Third, we must serve the church’s unity on a wider scale by
evangelising unbelievers to bring them to saving faith (DV), by spreading the
truth of the biblical and Reformed faith, and by maintaining and/or establishing
fellowship with like-minded believers and churches, as far as
possible.
The “one Spirit” (Eph. 4:4) is the Holy Ghost, the Third Person
of the Holy Trinity as sent by Jesus Christ. This “one Spirit” follows
immediately after, and is joined to, “one body” by the conjunction “and,”
indicating their intimate connection, for the Spirit is the life-principle which
animates the body of the church, giving it vitality and vigour. Without the
Spirit (to speak as a fool) the body of the church would be dead. The body only
thinks and wills, moves and acts, believes and obeys, and serves the Triune God
out of gratitude because of the inner, life-giving power of the Holy Ghost!
There is emphatically “one Spirit,” not two or more. The Holy Spirit
comes to us through the Word by faith; He alone glorifies Jesus Christ and
enables us to worship the Triune God. We need more of the Spirit in faithful,
instituted churches! Not the spirit of the world—a carnal, ungodly spirit. Not
the spirit of fear, bringing us into bondage. Not “another spirit,” bringing
“another Jesus” and “another gospel” (II Cor. 11:4).
“There is one body,
and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling” (Eph. 4:4).
There must be and is only one body and only one Spirit, because we have “one
hope.” To this one hope, we are effectually called by the gospel. Only as
animated by one Spirit has the body one hope (1:17-18). So it is entirely
fitting and appropriate that there is one body and one Spirit “even as” we have
one hope to which we are called.
The reference to “one hope” here
indicates that the elect church is an eschatological body. It is this because it
has one “blessed hope”—Christ’s “glorious appearing” (Titus 2:13)—and its unity
is only perfectly seen by us in the world to come. This truth that the church
only has one hope has something to say about having different eschatological
views (or views of the end times) in a congregation or denomination. We believe
biblical and Reformed amillennialism: there is one second coming of Christ, one
general resurrection and one final judgment. Christ’s return is preceded by the
salvation of all the elect church and the intensification of apostasy and
persecution, especially in the manifestation of the Man of Sin (cf. Dan.; Matt.
24-25; Mark 13; Luke 21; II Thess. 2; I Tim. 4; II Tim. 3; II Peter 3;
Rev.). But postmillennialism yearns for a coming golden age on earth in
which most people will be converted and the world will be Christianized. Jewish
premillennialism and dispensationalism look forward to an earthly, literal,
Jewish millennium which includes several second comings of Christ, resurrections
and judgments. How can a congregation or denomination, especially given 2,000
years of doctrinal development and the increasing nearness of the end, allow two
or three or more different views of the last times, when Ephesians 4:4 says that
there is “one hope”?
This one body animated by one Spirit, so that it has
one hope, is under “one Lord” (Eph. 4:5). This one Lord is the Lord Jesus Christ
who is God and man in one divine Person, who died on the cross for us and our
salvation. He is the Lord of the church because He bought and owns the church.
He bought the church at Calvary with the price of His own precious blood. The
church is His alone as His body—exclusively His. Christ is the Lord of the
church as its absolute sovereign who alone defends and preserves His church. He
alone governs and rules His church, so that it must submit to, and obey, only
Him. As Lord, He animates the body by the Spirit that He purchased for, and
gives to, the church. As Lord, He is the one hope of the church, for He is
coming back on the clouds of heaven to make all things new.
Christian
church, you have one Lord! He is not Caesar (the early church had to battle
against this). He is not Henry VIII or any other earthly monarch, contrary to
all Erastianism. Contemporary opinion is not lord of the church, nor are the
office-bearers. Christ alone is Lord, ruler and head of the church. His will,
set forth in Scripture, is law. This is the issue at stake, for instance, in the
clamour for women in church office or the acceptance of impenitent homosexuals
as members or office-bearers in the church.
The one church has “one
faith” (Eph. 4:5). This is increasingly attacked in our day. The church of the
saved includes those of many religions, according to leading Romish theologians.
The Archbishop of York, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury, stated
recently that the Church of England ought to be the church for people of many
faiths (i.e., pagans). The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of
Ireland adopted a paper which stated that it would be hard to deny that Jews and
Muslims worship the true God. What else does this mean but that these Christless
religions are pleasing to God? This is shocking apostasy (cf. John 14:6; Acts
4:12)! The “one faith” is the doctrine taught in God’s Word, the Bible,
which is summarised and systematised faithfully in the Reformed creeds. Liberals
attack the very idea of an objective faith, a uniform body of truth taught in
the Scriptures. They claim that there are various, competing theologies taught
in the Bible and that Scripture must be reinterpreted in the light of modern
culture!
Attacking the “one faith” (through false teaching or doctrinal
indifference) is rejecting the “one Lord” (who gives, and is the centre of, the
faith), denying the “one hope,” despising the “one Spirit” and assaulting the
“one body.” Teaching, confessing and spreading the one, true faith is obeying
the “one Lord” and promoting the unity and the hope of the body in the Spirit.
We must “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the
saints” (Jude 3). This is our calling—for church unity too!
Rev.
Stewart
“What
about being angry without a cause (Matt. 5:22)? Why should it lead to hell?” a
reader asks. Matthew 5:22 reads, “But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry
with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and
whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but
whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.”
We
ought to be sure that we understand the context of this important passage. Two
points have to be made. The first is that this word of our Lord is part of the
so-called Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount has been rightly called,
“The Constitution of the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Those who distort the
gospel with their views of social action to make this world a better place in
which to live, and teach that ultimately the kingdom of Christ is to be realized
here on earth, use these words of Christ to guide us in understanding what the
goal of our life ought to be as we do our part to establish this earthly
kingdom. Violence must be repeatedly done to the entire passage if such exegesis
is imposed on this sermon of our Lord. For example, Jesus’ injunction to enter
at the narrow gate (7:13-14) can in no way be applied to the calling to seek the
kingdom of Christ here in the world. And this is only one example.
Jesus
is giving instruction in the fundamental precepts of life in the kingdom of
heaven. That kingdom is invisible, not visible; it is heavenly, not earthly. It
is established by God’s power through the cross, not man’s might. It has its
foundation in the righteousness of God revealed at Calvary, not in the present
earthly structures of society, governed by man’s moral precepts. It comes not
with observation (Luke 17:20), but by the work of the Spirit in the hearts of
God’s people. It is realized fully only at the time of the second coming of
Christ when, in His fierce wrath, He shall smash all the kingdoms of this
world.
But the citizens of the kingdom are called to stay in this world
until Christ calls them home through death. While they are here, citizens of an
earthly kingdom, they are nevertheless to walk as citizens of the kingdom of
heaven in all the relationships of life. This walk of the citizens of the
kingdom of heaven is governed by the perfect law of God as fulfilled in Christ’s
atoning sacrifice.
That is a crucial element in the context, which we
cannot ignore. The admonitions and principles of Christ’s sermon are meant for
citizens of the kingdom only, not for all men.
The second element in the
context arises out of the fact that Jesus is setting forth the principles of
law-keeping within the kingdom—in distinction from the teaching of the
Pharisees. They too claimed they were citizens of the kingdom of God, but never
wanted anything to do with Christ, who had come to establish the kingdom. They
interpreted God’s law as being a set of external precepts, which they, in turn,
explained to their own advantage. This is the reason why Jesus repeatedly says,
“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time ... but I say unto you
...”
In the verse we consider, Jesus is talking about the sixth
commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.” The Pharisees had applied that commandment
exclusively to outer conduct. Murder is wrong! But Jesus points out that there
is more to the law than its outward injunction. After all, it was revealed
already in the Old Testament that the law was a matter of the heart and,
therefore, of inward perfection. Did not the law demand that Israel love God?
And that the people love their neighbour as themselves? And so Jesus teaches
that in the kingdom of heaven, the inner perfection of the law is as important,
if not more important, than outward observance of the commandment.
Some
interpreters have said that the sins described in Matthew 5:22 have a rising
scale of importance. To say to a brother “Raca” is worse than to be angry with
him, and to call a brother a fool is worse than saying “Raca.” In harmony with
that, these same commentators (including Calvin) say that the judgment described
is worse in each instance. It is worse to be brought before the council or
Sanhedrin than to be judged in a lower court, and it is obviously worse to go to
hel l than to be judged by the Sanhedrin.
The difficulty with this
explanation is that the first two judgments are, apparently, references to
earthly courts, while hell is God’s judgment upon the sinner.
Therefore,
I personally would prefer the interpretation suggested by Lenski, that all three
of the sins described here are equally serious; and the references to the
judgments described are intended to remind one of the judgment of God that ends
in hell.
Jesus is referring here to the commandment, “Thou shalt not
kill.” And He is saying that for citizens of the kingdom that commandment refers
not only to the outward observance, but to the inner attitude of the heart. All
three sins of which Jesus speaks imply a lack of love. To be angry with a fellow
citizen of the kingdom without a cause is to fail to love him. To call a fellow
citizen “Raca,” a word that means something like “empty-head,” is not loving our
neighbour. To say to him that he is a fool is a gesture of disdain, contempt and
hatred; it is surely not an expression of love.
We are to love our
neighbour, and those who are our neighbours are more numerous than the citizens
of the kingdom of heaven. Here the reference is to our fellow citizens in the
kingdom of heaven. If we cannot love them, there is no hope of our getting
around to loving our neighbour. The “easier” of the two is to love our neighbour
who is a brother; the hard part is to love our neighbour who persecutes
us.
But in any case, the end of sinfully angry people is hell.
Prof.
Hanko
Check out
www.cprf.co.uk/articles/building.htm
for progress on our church building, including photos of the steel structure and
the laying of blocks, etc.
Covenant Protestant Reformed
ChurchLord’s Day services at 11 am & 6 pm • Ballymena
Protestant Hall, Galgorm Road
Pastor: Angus Stewart, 7 Lislunnan Road,
Kells, Ballymena, N. Ireland, BT42 3NR
Phone: (028) 25 891 851 • E-mail:
pastor@cprc.co.uk • Website:
www.cprc.co.uk