THE CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT is essentially a lay movement. Jesus Himself was not ordained in the modern sense of having hands laid on Him in ordination. His ordination was a choice:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.”
(Luke 4:18)
By the fact of the coming of the Holy Spirit, He was set aside to preach the good news. The coming of the Holy Spirit was the ordination—the choice.
A high churchman was asked in India if he would allow Jesus to preach in his pulpit if He should come, and the reply was: “No, I’m sorry I couldn’t, for He wasn’t ordained.” He was right, if ordination is by laying on of hands; he was wrong if real ordination is the divine choice. A definition of ordination that would rule out the Founder of the faith shows how far we have wandered from that faith.
Jesus was not ordained by the laying on of hands, nor were His disciples. The laying on of hands is apostolic, but not Christian—it has its fountain-head in the apostles, not in Christ. Hence “apostolic succession” claims it is “apostolic”; it does not and cannot claim it is Christian. But our faith terminates in Jesus Christ, not in His apostles. It is valid because it is in Him, not in them. If the claims of apostolic succession could be proved they would prove too much—they would prove that our faith terminates in men, not in the Divine Redeemer. I’m not interested in apostolic succession—only in Christian succession. To be in the apostles is not the issue; to be in Jesus Christ is—and the only issue. Everything else is irrelevant. The missing link in apostolic succession is the link between Christ and the apostles, for there is no link of laying on of His hands. That is fatal to the theory. It is stranded—this side of Christ.
O Lord Jesus, Thou art the Founder and the foundation of my faith. Give me touch with Thee and nothing else matters, for to belong to Thee is to belong to God and to the ages. I draw from Thee my all— all else is beside the point. I thank Thee. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I belong not to an apostolic faith, but to a Christian faith—let me live as one who glances at the apostles and gazes at Christ.
