The Church And The Kingdom
THE CHURCH AND THE KINGDOM
“And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
“I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.”—S. Matt. 16:18, 19.
Creeds are the creation of experience. They are the expression of the truth that has been realised in the soul. A creed repeated on the mere authority of another is a meaningless form utterly without value as a saving power. The letter killeth. It is another man’s experience, without any answering note in our own, and truth can only quicken and save as it is experienced in the heart. However void and dead forms of truth may become, they were born of vital processes within the soul, and came into being throbbing with the life-blood of the man who had been stirred and thrilled by their power. That is why we find every development in the revelation of truth inseparably identified with some personality. The truth defined and proclaimed is the truth as it has been realised in the man to whom it was revealed. The man stands for the faith. The Gospel of each Apostle is the Gospel of the Christ as revealed in him. S. Francis of Assisi stands for brotherhood and voluntary poverty in the love of God and the service of man. Martin Luther stands for the Reformation with its Gospel of free access to the Father. Oliver Cromwell stands for the freedom of conscience in the worship and service of God. George Fox stands for the inward light in the person of the indwelling Spirit. John Wesley stands for the consuming passion of saving grace in Christ Jesus.
In the course of time it comes to pass that the person who first revealed the truth is so exalted as to obscure the very truth he once revealed. Instead of being the embodiment of the truth he becomes the substitute for it. Their followers range themselves under their names as leaders rather than receive their teaching. The creed becomes a standard of orthodoxy instead of the expression of a living faith. Then men fight for it and fight with it, instead of living it. Men shout the names of leaders but do not follow them. The name of the man counts for more than the truth, and when such is the case, it becomes necessary for the man to be eliminated that the truth may be saved. The personality has become a hindrance to the very truth to which it gave life and power.
That is exactly what has happened to the teaching of Jesus in this passage. It has been obscured by the very man who inspired it. Peter has to be eliminated from the passage before we can get at its real significance. He was essential to its expression, but he is not necessary to its interpretation. Having called it forth he is no longer an essential part of it, and may be removed without loss. He belongs to the occasion rather than to the substance of the truth. It is easy to understand the prominence given to his personality. He was the first to confess that Jesus was the Son of the Living God. The Christ welcomed his confession, and greeted Peter as the first of a great multitude who would receive the same revelation, and make the same confession. That multitude would constitute His Church. Peter was the first stone in the spiritual building laid upon the foundation-rock. He was the first, and in him stood represented at that moment the entire Church of Christ. In the birth-hour of His Church, and in the presence of its first member He defined its character, declared its mission, and spoke of both as represented in the person of the first confessor of His Name. It is not the personality of Peter that is of abiding and essential importance, but the confession he made and the declaration it called forth. This is proved by the rebuke which so soon followed the benediction. The very same Apostle is addressed as a messenger of Satan doing not the work of God but of the devil. Peter confessing is the rock. Peter rebuking is a stone of stumbling. It is the truth that is of eternal importance, not the man through whom it comes.
The passage sets forth—
I. The Character of Christ’s Church;
II. The Relation of the Church to the Kingdom;
III. The Condition of its Authority and Power.
I
Jesus did not say He would build a Church, or even the Church, but “I will build My Church.” It is not often He speaks of anything as His own. He speaks of “My Father,” and after that, nothing remains to Him but His people: “My Sheep,” “My brethren,” “My Church.” He spoke also of His life, His peace, and His joy, but these were phases of experience rather than actual possessions. In the great act of self-emptying He surrendered all but His Father and His Church. From the fact that His Church is retained with the Father, we may get some glimpse of the value He set, and still sets upon His people. They are His peculiar possession, His only wealth, and His eternal glory.
The Church is Christ’s by the gift of God. “Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in Heaven.” This is in harmony with all His references to His flock.
“No one knoweth the Son, save the Father.” The revelation of the Son is from the Father, even as the revelation of the Father is through the Son.
“All that which the Father giveth Me shall come unto Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” Speaking of the protection of His own, He said, “My Father, which hath given them unto Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” In the great intercessory prayer He speaks throughout of those who have received eternal life as the Father’s gift to Him. “I manifested Thy name unto the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world: Thine they were, and Thou gavest them to Me.” “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for those whom Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine: and all things that are Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine: and I am glorified in them.” “Holy Father, keep them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me.” “Father, that which Thou hast given Me, I will that, where I am, they also may be with Me; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me.” When the Father of glory raised Jesus Christ from the dead, He “made Him to sit at His right hand in the Heavenly places, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things to the Church which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.” The Church is the Father’s gift to His Son.
The Church is Christ’s also by purchase and by conquest. How can a gift be by purchase, and how can a purchase be by conquest? There is no confusion in the paradox. It needs all the terms of Scripture to set forth the whole truth, and where they seem to conflict there is deepest harmony. We are His by conquest, and we are His by the will of the Father. He redeemed us with His own blood. “Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself up for it; that He might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present the Church to Himself, a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” In the Apocalypse Jesus is declared to be in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, the seven stars are in His right hand, and the doxologies of the redeemed are, “Unto Him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by His blood; and He made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the dominion for ever and ever, Amen.”
It is manifest that the Church is very precious to Jesus its Head and Lord. It is His Bride. As the bridegroom rejoices over his bride so does Christ rejoice over His Church. For Her He surrendered all, giving even His life for Her possession. Upon Her He has centred His heart with all the ardour of a lover’s passion. To Her He has devoted all the resources of His nature, all the wealth of His glory, and all the glory of His triumph. The Bride is the hope and joy of His heart as well as His glory, in the presence of the Father and His holy angels.
The Church is His Body. All that the body is to man the Church is to Jesus Christ. A man’s body is the home in which he dwells, the medium of his manifestation, and the instrument of his will. The Church is the Body of Christ. In it He dwells, through it He is revealed, by it He works. No man can despise the Church who understands its preciousness and value to Jesus Christ. It is impossible to conceive an intimacy more sacred or a value more rare. To despise the Church is to wound its Lord. The Bridegroom is jealous for the honour of His Bride, and His Body is vital to all His saving purpose in the world. He is the Head of His Church. He keeps the Roll. Each member is known by name to Him, and each is to Him a priceless possession, begotten of the travail of His own soul. “My Church”—Mine! My very own! The gift of the Father, the fruit of His own passion, the purchase of His own blood, loved from the foundation of the world.
The Church is a spiritual order
Its character is revealed in Christ’s interpretation of its first Christian confession. Peter had made confession that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus declared that confession to have come, not by observation, not by tradition, not by any process of man’s reason, but by direct revelation of the Father. The knowledge of the Son of God comes only through revelation. That revelation received in the heart and confessed before men, was the qualification for fellowship in His Church. All such should be added to, and built upon this rock. Peter is Petros, a piece of rock, and upon this Petra the rock, Christ will build His Church. The Church of Christ is a community of people of like faith with Peter, who know Christ as he had come to know Him, and who confess Christ as he confessed Him. The same confession dictated by authority or received by tradition avails nothing. To call Jesus Lord can never save. The second-hand repetition of another man’s experience is useless. Inspired truth stereotypes into formula. That which was the expression of life then continues as a custom with all the rigid correctness of death. It is not enough to receive the testimony from flesh and blood, by the traditions, customs, fashions, and authority of man. It must come by immediate and personal revelation.
Every member of the Living Church is a Divine creation, enlightened by the revelation of the Father, energised by the Divine Spirit, and builded of God into the community of Heaven-born souls. Nothing else can constitute a claim to membership. There must be in each, an inward witness and an open confession. This can be accomplished by nothing less than the direct work of God upon the soul. It is not by rites of baptism, or of any ecclesiastical power; neither is it by education and refinement. The only entrance is by the New Birth. Only the converted have a right to membership in the Church of Christ. It is a living Temple into which only living stones can be built. It is not of man’s building; its Maker and Builder is God.
This community of heaven-born witnesses is essentially Christian. It centres in Christ. It radiates from Him. Its life is in Him. Its energies are directed by Him. He is its Head and its Lord. Admission is conditioned upon knowledge of His Person and confession of His Name. It follows, therefore, that the Church of Christ exists for Christ. Its first function is to fulfil His purpose, and it must always be at the disposal of His will. It must be true to His principles, manifest His Spirit, and be governed by His purpose. The Church can never be warranted in any departure from His principles in the interests of policy. The New Testament knows nothing of policy as a motive of conduct. Christ is Lord. The Church exists to represent and obey Him.
Some Churches have not the Christ. They are named by His Name, but they have thrust Him to the door. It was at the door of a Church that Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” Churches that misrepresent His Spirit and despise His conditions; Churches that are directed by human energy and controlled by human desire; Churches that turn the House of God into a play-house, a place of merchandise, and a den of thieves; Churches that admit unspiritual men to their communion and unchristian men to the service of the sanctuary; such places have ceased to be Churches of Jesus Christ. They may be useful centres of social life, associations for mutual gratification, organisations for the display of vanity, or at best a basis for educational and philanthropic enterprise; but they are not Christian Churches. The Churches need to come back to the recognition of this simple truth, that the Church of Christ must first be Christian.
The impregnable rock of the Church is its spiritual character. “The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” But they will try. The only thing the devil hates is a living witness to the Son of God. All the forces of evil are hurled against this centre of Divine energy and power in the soul. Whatever is of the flesh is to his mind, but that which is of the Spirit is fatal to his power. The Church is always assailed for its testimony. The reality of its revelation is challenged, and the truth of its witness denied. So long as the Church is content to be one of many useful institutions, to take its place among the world’s systems of religion and philosophy, and to claim nothing for its Lord that may not be claimed by others, the world will not only tolerate, but patronise, fraternise, and co-operate. But when Heaven is claimed for its authority, Divinity for its Lord, and a personal revelation for its testimony, Hell is let loose. Wherever there is a Spirit-born witnessing for Christ, there the forces of evil gather. The Living Christ realised in the soul is the defence of His Church. Not the Church of tradition, but the Christ directly revealed of the Spirit, dwelling in the heart, witnessed by the lips, and demonstrated in the life. That is the impregnable rock.
It is by the omnipotence of unquenchable life that God always prevails. In the eighteenth century Deism held the Churches of England in its paralysing grip and godlessness covered the land. Bishop Butler routed the Deists, and influential societies were formed for the reformation of the people, but it was the Evangelical Revival that rescued the Churches, and saved the nation. In the early seventies of the last century infidelity of the most blatant type was rampant. The supposed conclusions of science gave apparent authority to their assumptions, and with open mouth they poured out blasphemies. Ministers of religion and others of the Christian faith answered them in open debate, and in the press; but it was the Great Revival that turned their halls of science into houses of prayer, where the Lord they denied demonstrated Himself in the deliverance of men from the captivity of sin and death. God’s unanswerable argument is life. “Ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, and caused you to come up out of your graves.” The defence of the Church is its life which is the gift of God. The best evidence of Christianity is a Christian. The all-prevailing power is the power of the Resurrection. Against that, the gates of Hades cannot prevail.
II
The Church holds the keys of the Kingdom
“I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.” The hope of the Kingdom is greater than that of the Church. It was for the Kingdom the prophets looked, and it was for the Kingdom John the Baptist called men to prepare. The Kingdom was the theme and promise of Christ. It was of the Kingdom He taught continually, and now that the time of His departure is at hand, He commits to His Church the keys of His Kingdom. To the Jew the Kingdom of God meant a political and social order of righteousness, prosperity, and peace. To Jesus it meant the unification of Heaven and earth: the will of God realised on earth as in Heaven. When He says His Kingdom is not of this world He does not mean it is not for it. The “world” with which the Kingdom is ever at war is not the world which is the sphere and object of redeeming grace, but the world-spirit, which seeks its gratification within the bounds of the present. The world He came to destroy is the rule of life by the baser instincts of the earthly and immediate; the world He came to save is the sum total of humanity, the material which is to be transformed by the energy of a new indwelling. “The field is the world,” and the world is to become the Kingdom of God, governed by His will; the Kingdom of Heaven realising Heaven’s life and blessedness; the Kingdom of Christ, saved, renewed, and inspired by His Spirit. It means the redemption of the world from sin, and fear and strife, and its restoration to righteousness, love, and peace. This is the work Jesus Christ seeks to accomplish in the world, and for which His Church is trusted with the keys of the Kingdom.
The Keys have been the subject of endless controversy. Their significance, their power, and the right to their possession have agitated the Church for centuries. It is certain, however, that the right to admit and exclude in the Church of Christ was not in the Master’s thoughts. They are not the Keys of the Church but the Keys of the Kingdom. Their bestowal defines the relation of the Church to the Kingdom, and the kind of power it exercises in the Kingdom. The possession of the Keys of the Kingdom cannot mean less than the power to open the doors of the Kingdom to the people for whom it is established. This is what Peter did on the day of Pentecost and in the house of Cornelius. Others also used the Keys. Philip opened the door at Samaria, unknown Christians exercised the same power at Antioch, and Paul carried the Keys into many lands.
The Church holds the Keys. Its work is to be accomplished not by carnal weapons but by spiritual power. The Church carries not a sword but a bunch of keys. Its messengers are not warriors but preachers of the Word and missionaries of the Cross. The Kingdom waits for the Church. Doors remain closed till the Church brings the Key. Jesus Christ cannot extend His Kingdom faster than His Church is prepared to go. Christianity is not a rule that can be imposed; it is a life that must be propagated. It is useless simply to tell men Jesus is the Christ. There must be a work of God in the soul, which is the work of the Spirit. When the vitality of the Church is low the power of the Spirit is restrained and the Kingdom halts. When the Church is revived the Kingdom extends. The evangelisation of the world is in the hands of Christ’s Church, and proceeds according to the measure of the faith, zeal, and sacrifice of them that believe. To the Church is entrusted the knowledge of Christ’s Name, the glad teachings of His grace, and the conversion of the world; and the Christ cannot come to the possession of His own except as the Church opens the door.
III
The authority of the Church is based upon experience
The Keys were given to the Apostle who had come to the knowledge of Christ by the revelation of the Father. He spoke for the rest and received the Keys as their representative. They still accompany the revelation, and are continued only to those who abide in the fellowship and harmony of Heaven. The power of the Keys is not official, but experimental. The actions and judgements of the Church on earth are ratified in Heaven only when they are the exercise of Heaven’s will. The works of Christ’s Body are the manifestation of Christ’s mind and will. The discernment of the moral quality of things to be bound and loosed demands a moral faculty possible only to those in harmony with the Divine nature, and instructed of the Divine Spirit. To represent Heaven upon earth requires the life of Heaven within the soul. It is as the Church represents Christ that its voice and judgements are endorsed by Him.
That the authority of the Church is thus conditioned upon the Living Christ indwelling and directing its counsels and labours is evident from the Master’s stern rebuke of Peter. The same Apostle He had blessed with such distinction He flung from Him with reproach. Why? Because he was no longer acting as the God-taught apostle, but as the messenger of Satan. Peter is as representative in the second scene as in the first. The Church needs to carefully study them both. When the Divine testimony is the revelation of God in the soul, the Church has the benediction of Heaven, but when the things of men displace the things of God, the Church ceases to be Christ’s representative, and becomes the servant of the devil. Worldliness unchurches the Church. Then the power of the Keys is lost, and the judgements are not of God but of men. Minding the things of men and not the things of God; putting the human before the Divine, the earthly before the heavenly; that is the curse and condemnation of the Church. Such a Church shirks the Cross. It shrinks from crucifixion, and cries even to the Christ: Spare Thyself! Self-sparing leads to self-seeking, self-indulgence, self-glorification. Saving ourselves we lose the power to save. Confession is the starting-point for the Cross. “From that time,” Jesus began to teach His disciples that the Cross was the badge of discipleship, and crucifixion the way of conquest.
The Church exists for the Kingdom. Some day they will be one, but at present they do not coincide. The Kingdom of God is larger than the Christian Church, for the Church spiritual is not identical with the boundaries of the organised Churches, and the Kingdom of God includes all who love righteousness and practise charity, many of whom have never heard of Christ, but are accepted of God. The Kingdom is not the Church; the Church is the means for realising the Kingdom. The Church is not an end but an agent and an instrument. What a glorious mission to open the prison doors to them that are bound, and the way of life to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death! The work of the Church is at the gates of Hell, not one of which can prevail against its power. What a terrible responsibility to leave men in the agonies of Hell when we have the Keys of deliverance! Unclaimed continents wait for the man with the Keys. Sin-bound souls at our doors are perishing for the Gospel of the Son of God. The Saviour travails for the salvation of those for whom He died. In the Church lies the power to save the sinner, bring in the Kingdom, and satisfy the heart of Christ. The Keys of the Kingdom of righteousness and peace and joy are with you; in your hand and in your heart. For the sake of the perishing millions and for the sake of Christ who died for our salvation, may God revive His Church, and hasten the coming of His Kingdom.