Viewpoint Brief Bible Study #76 |
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JESUS calls US to be |
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The Christian religion is the worship and service of Jesus Christ. It’s not Mary we worship, but her Son. We worship neither saints, angels, a law code, nor even God’s Spirit. It’s JESUS who is to be honored. The Bible is our guide. |
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More About Legalists
Stanley, It's appropriate that each of us should realize that Jesus wants us who belong to Him to love ALL who belong to Him. I think you are right that in matters essential to the Christian faith, we must be of one mind (one spirit). In all things we must love one another, each regarding the other better than himself. You well say,
"But please don't think that there aren't legalists among those who are progressive. They are so very quick to tell me where I am wrong and thousands of others. Who made them priests and lords over me and the body of Christ?"
One reason Cecil Hook is so well liked by so many is because he is NOT quick to scold and nag others who don't see things exactly as he does. I admit that I am less kind and loving in speaking of my ideas which, as any honest man will, I think (at the time) are very right and also should be seen immediately by everyone exactly as I see them. In fact, I sometimes later see that I was NOT right, but of course it's too late then to correct myself! I'm sorry if I fail, or any brother in fact fails, to properly respect your right to not see things exactly as I (they) do. In our hearts we know you DO have the right to disagree. And we know that we ALL can learn and should do so. So please forgive us if we seem to think we know it all and seem to feel that anyone who disagrees is ignorant or else just misinformed. Try to love us anyway. Thanks!
I'm troubled by the wording you've chosen (quoted below) that the only ones saved will be in "the body known as the church of Christ." If you mean the brotherhood which has pre-empted that name as their denominational identification, that's bad. If you mean the church Jesus actually built, which includes all who are reborn and who are scattered abroad in hills and valleys we seldom or never traverse, then of course you're right.
Most Christians are NOT in our "brotherhood." All Christians are in the REAL assembly which was founded and which belongs to the Christ. We don't own the name, "Church of Christ." I hope I'm just misunderstanding the implications of your statement, so that we both already see this matter exactly alike.
For no one is saved outside the church of God which is the Lord's church and which is the body of Christ and will be the bride of Christ. Many are saved outside the "church of Christ" or "Church of Christ" which identifies itself as such here on earth.
For in a real sense we are not saved by the church, or by our knowledge of the church. We're saved by Jesus. We're saved by a new birth of water and spirit. After we're saved, the church can bless us and strengthen us. That's why God planned and built it. But in the episode of the conversion and baptism of the Ethiopian we surely can see that in God's providence, the man was saved and "the church" had nothing to do with it, and Luke doesn't mention that "the church" ever did have anything to do with it.
We infer that when the man got home he would tell others about Jesus, baptize them, and then they would meet together as the body of Christ. But nothing is said about the apostles sending an organizer there to "set the church in order." Not then, and at no time. It was many months after churches were begun by Paul that he instructed his follow-up crew to set apart in those young churches men to become their leaders.
Nowhere in the Bible is there record of any prescribed or required "order of worship" by Christians. We do infer from what is said about their meetings that they met to edify and encourage one another and to pray to and worship our God. But we have no scriptural warrant for insisting that another group do exactly the same things in the same way that WE choose to do them. And if we harmoniously decide to do next year something we didn't do last year, or to omit something that was done, we surely have that right.
By which I mean -- if one congregation has the servers and leaders march in procession from the back to begin the service time, they have the right to do so. One church I attended for a time in Kansas City liked it that way. I felt no call to tell them they couldn't do it that way and please God. They weren't trying to please ME, and were trying to please God and conform to the expectations of the majority of their own congregation.
Some congregations pass the emblems, then partake together. They have the right to do it that way now, and later change and eat as the emblems are passed. Or vice versa. Some share one cup. We are not required to have individual cups. We're not condemned if we do.
In some congregations there is a dress code. All servers must wear a tie. Sometimes a suit coat. But the Bible doesn't set up the code. Men do, and what men do can be redone or undone. And we've no proof that God will be displeased if we don't follow any code set up by men.
Many Christians are serving God the best way they know, and are sincere in loving Jesus, yet they don't know anything about Campbell or Lipscomb or Ketcherside or Hook. Or you or me. It's Jesus who is their Lord. Many do NOT know some things we think are important to know about the church and about the Way of salvation. They can be saved without much that WE think is very important.
The requirement is first outlined in John 3:3-5, then clarified in Acts 2:38. What brings us INTO CHRIST is hearing the good news that we CAN be saved despite our sin, then choosing to turn away from sin in order to let Jesus be our Lord, and confessing this by tongue and by that action designed to show forth not just OUR death to sin but also HIS death and resurrection. We are not saved by the one who baptizes us, or by the words that person uses, or by the church which pays his salary and which accepts us into its fellowship.
We're saved by Jesus. At the baptism of a penitent sinner who now believes that Jesus is the Christ, a new Christian is created. The Bible sets up no "pattern" of worship or dress or work by which we have the right to judge any brother or sister in Christ. If he in good conscience serves Christ in ways which we think are not appropriate, we can share our thought with him, but we dare not JUDGE him to not be a Christian if he disagrees with us.
I thought from your comments that possibly you were really thinking that folks had to be "of us" in order to be saved. If so, I have to disagree -- vigorously, as you noted! Paul makes a definite contrast between those who see we are saved by grace and those who, on the other hand, pay only lip service to grace while believing that we are saved by works.
"Legalist" is what we call the extremists who demand obedience to a law code they create. Legalists earn the right to their title by setting up unscriptural requirements and refusing fellowship to any who won't accept their right to make laws in God's name. I wonder who in the ranks of "progressives" has done this so as to earn the right to be called a legalist. Perhaps you'd want to name one and the extra-scriptural law they want us to accept.
Cecil Hook is free in Christ. So am I. I hope you are as well. The worst enemies Paul faced in doing the work of the Lord were legalists. Those who may destroy the church which belongs to Jesus today are those who today earn the title of legalist. I personally know no legalists in the ranks of those who recognize that we ARE saved by grace. You say you do. Perhaps we don't really understand the terms alike.
I very much like what is said in my study #1 copied from the ENSIGN magazine of some years back, written by a California brother. I hope you've read that study or will do so. And I'll appreciate any additional comments you feel led to share!
That's what I wrote in reply to this note. Reading it will help you
to learn to like its author, who feels we should
love and serve Jesus faithfully!Date sent: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 23:17 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Stanley Adams" <Stanley.Adams@MCI.com>
To: "Ray Downen" <outreach@dogbert.sofnet.com>
Subject: Re: In ONE SpiritJust a couple of thoughts Ray...
A legalist has nothing to do with being conservative (traditional) or modern (progressive). It has to do with having a mind set. In much of the current writings about "the new church of Christ" I have come to the conclusion that there is a tremendous amount of legalism in the ranks of those who consider themselves as being progressive. Being legalistic in this sense is having an almost arrogant attitude of superiority over other Christians. This attitude lends itself to "church of Christ" bashing.
That bashing means bashing every and anything that the church has stood for in the past and then proclaiming that we suddenly found the "grace of God". I mean, give me a break! Who among us is so arrogant to say that those who lived in the past never knew about the grace of God. What a legalistic attitude!
There has never been a perfect generation, never will be and all of us will stand before the great judgment seat some day as an individual. Let us not presume to down grade all of those in the past who have made our standing possible.
I am a Christian who is a 5th generation member of the group we know as the church of Christ. I and my past kin-folk have always trusted in the grace of God and we have also known that there must be that prayerful and humble attitude of obedience to God. I and all faithful gospel preachers and elders that I have known have been cognizant of the fact that we will all stand before that throne someday. It will be by the grace of God and our faithfulness to the grace (which is required--even though imperfectly) that we will be judged.
There may not be a church of Christ as we know it in the future millennium and that will be due to the fact that brothers and sisters of both extremes in the brotherhood have driven the church into factions and schisms. Those divisions have been done in the name of any and all things all the while the heart of Christ has been full of sorrow.
I have no regrets being known as a member of that body and am a believer that only those that will be saved in the new testament age will be those who God added to the body known as the church of Christ. Any other answer to this is just unscriptural and in fact, unfair to any true believer who trusted in the fact that God is the savior of the body of Christ.
The way to unity to Christ can only be based upon unity in matters of basic belief. Of course there are liberties and there are opinions, and of those things we should continue to talk, debate and pray over. The scriptures tell us to "prove all things", that means being like the Bereans of Acts. Ever in the study in the word.
But please don't think that there aren't legalists among those who are progressive. They are so very quick to tell me where I am wrong, and thousands of others. Who made them priests and lords over me and the body of Christ?
With kind regards.... Stanley Adams
Brief Bible Study #76 from Ray Downen. To go back to Viewpoint's first page, click < here. Consider a 1998 writing on the subject. Or go on to Viewpoint Study #77. For Ray's concluding remarks, click HERE.
