THE NEXT PASSAGE throws a flood of light on a very controversial subject: “Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord” (1 Cor. 9:1–2).
There are two ways to try to prove your being in succession to the apostles: one is to trace back, if possible, an unbroken line of succession by the laying on of hands to the original apostles. This is apostolic succession. It points backward. The other is to point to lives changed by you: “for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.” This is apostolic succession based on apostolic success. This points to the present.
The attempt to trace apostolic succession by an unbroken line of laying on of hands is futile. It can’t be proved—claimed, yes, but not proved. If it could be proved, it would pervert the very thing it tried to prove. The idea that Jesus, who got His credentials straight from the Father and was not ordained by any laying on of hands, would establish a rigid system of apostolic authority by the laying on of hands through which grace is mediated is so contradictory to the spirit of Jesus as to be unrecognizable. It is unthinkable. It would insert into the Christian faith another mediator—a system of bishops, mediating grace by the laying on of hands. That would substitute mechanics for morality, for grace is supposedly inherent in the office of bishop and is mediated apart from the character of the person mediating it. This is totally foreign to the Christian faith and a perversion of it. In the Christian faith, you get grace immediately and directly through the living Jesus Christ alone. There is one Mediator and only One.
O Savior Divine, I need no one between Thee and me. I have access to Thee so immediately and intimately that any other mediation is unthinkable. In Thee I find the Father—and everything. I thank Thee. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Anything that comes between Jesus and me and makes itself indispensable is idolatry.
