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Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:13-16; Gal. 1:23; 2 Tim. 4:7; 1 Tim. 6:12; Jude 3, 24; Acts 6:7; 13:8; 14:22; Gal. 3:25; 6:10; 1 Tim. 1:19; 3:9; 4:1, 6; 5:8; 6:10, 21; 2 Tim. 3:8; Titus 1:13; Rev. 14:12
In this book I have the burden to cover the speciality, generality, and practicality of the church life. In this chapter I will begin to cover the speciality of the church life. We all must know what it is in the church life that is so special.
The speciality of the church life is the faith. In the New Testament the word faith is used with two different meanings. First, it means the action of believing (Rom. 5:1; Eph. 2:8; Heb. 11:1). We have faith in the Lord Jesus, and this is the action of believing. This is the subjective meaning of the word faith. There is also the second meaning, that is, the objective meaning of the word faith. Faith used in this way refers to the things in which we believe, the object of our faith, our belief (Titus 1:4; Rev. 14:12; 2 Tim. 4:7). So when we say that the speciality of the church life is the faith, we mean the faith that is the object of our believing. This is what we call our Christian faith. As Christians we have a unique faith.
Paul said that he fought the good fight and kept the faith (v. 7), and he also charged Timothy to fight the good fight of the faith (1 Tim. 6:12). Jude told us to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3). The faith mentioned in these verses does not mean our believing action but refers to the things in which we believe for our salvation and for the church life. All the verses listed at the beginning of this chapter are related to this. Thus, the faith is something unique, something specific, something special. Therefore, in the church life we have only one thing that is specific or special. That is the faith, our Christian faith, which is composed of the beliefs concerning the Bible, God, Christ, the work of Christ, salvation, and the church.
The Bible is the Word of God. We believe that the Bible, word by word, is divinely inspired by God (2 Pet. 1:21), as the breath of God (2 Tim. 3:16). The genuine Christians do not have any doubt about this point. We must believe that the Bible is God’s infallible Word.
God is uniquely one but triune, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Matt. 3:16-17; 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 2:18; 3:14-17; Rev. 1:4-5). The Godhead is distinctively three, but They are not three Gods separately. In the Old Testament and in the New Testament, the Bible tells us definitely that God is one (Deut. 4:35, 39; Psa. 86:10; 1 Cor. 8:4; 1 Tim. 2:5).
Among the Christians there are some who believe that the Father is one person and the Son is another person, but the Spirit is just a power. Others believe that the three of the Godhead—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—are three separate Gods. These concepts, strictly speaking, are heretical. We all have to believe that, according to the divine revelation of the holy Word, our God is uniquely one.
We have only one God, who is triune. Yet we are unable to define Him thoroughly because our mentality is so limited. Actually, we cannot even define ourselves very well. We know that we have a spirit, a soul, and a heart, but it is hard to define them. How then could we define the Triune God so thoroughly? We could only believe what is clearly revealed in the holy Word; that is, God is one but triune. This is the second item of our Christian faith.
Christ was the very God in eternity (John 1:1) and became a man in time (v. 14). His deity is complete, and His humanity is perfect. Hence, He is both God and man (20:28; Rom. 9:5; John 19:5; 1 Tim. 2:5), possessing both divinity and humanity.
As a man He was anointed by God with the Spirit (Matt. 3:16; John 1:32-33; Luke 4:18-19) to accomplish God’s eternal purpose. Hence, He is the Christ, the anointed One (Matt. 16:16; John 20:31).
He is the Son of God (v. 31), who is the image of God (Col. 1:15), the effulgence of God’s glory and the impress of His substance (Heb. 1:3), existing in the form of God and equal with God (Phil. 2:6; John 5:18); all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily (Col. 2:9). Thus, He is God Himself (Heb. 1:8).
As the Son of God He came in the flesh with (Gk., para, “from with”) the Father (John 6:46) and in the name of the Father (5:43); hence, He is called the Father (Isa. 9:6). He was with God, and He was God in eternity past (John 1:1-2), not only coexisting but also coinhering with the Father all the time (14:10a, 11a; 17:21). Even while He was in the flesh on the earth, the Father was with Him (16:32). Hence, He and the Father were one (10:30), working in the Father’s name and with the Father (v. 25; 14:10b), doing the Father’s will (6:38; 5:30), speaking the Father’s word (3:34a; 14:24), seeking the Father’s glory (7:18), and expressing the Father (14:7-9).
As the eternal God He is the Creator of all things (Heb. 1:10; John 1:3; Col. 1:16); and as man who came in the flesh (1 John 4:2) with the physical blood and flesh (Heb. 2:14), He is a creature, the Firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15b). Hence, He is both the Creator and the creature.
As the Sender and the Giver of the Spirit (John 15:26; 16:7; 3:34b), whom the Father sent in His (the Son’s) name (14:26), the Son, being the last Adam in the flesh, became the life-giving Spirit through death and resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45b; John 14:16-20), who received all that is of the Son (16:14-15) to testify concerning the Son and glorify the Son (15:26; 16:14) and who is the breath of the Son (20:22). Hence, He is also the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17) to abide coexistingly and coinheringly with the Son and the Father in the believers (John 14:17, 23; Rom. 8:9-11) to be the Triune God who is Spirit (John 4:24) mingled with the believers as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17) in their spirit (Rom. 8:16; 2 Tim. 4:22). Eventually, He became the seven Spirits of God (Rev. 1:4; 4:5), who are the seven eyes of the Son, the Lamb (5:6).
As God becoming man, He is our Savior (Luke 2:11; John 4:42) by the name of Jesus—Jehovah our Savior, our salvation (Matt. 1:21). As the Lamb of God slain on the cross and shedding His physical blood for our sin and sins, He is our Redeemer (John 1:29; 1 Pet. 2:24; Heb. 9:26, 28; 1 Pet. 1:18-19). As the ascended Christ He is the Lord of all (Acts 2:36; 10:36), the Head over all things (Eph. 1:22), the Head of the church (Col. 1:18), and the Lord of lords and King of kings (Rev. 19:16).
In resurrection He is our life (Col. 3:4), the One who lives in us (Gal. 2:20), and God’s power and wisdom to us to be our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor. 1:24, 30). Thus, in Him all the attributes of God become our virtues, and He is the contents, the all in all, of the new man (Col. 3:11).
Thus, we see that Christ is all: God, man, the Creator, the creature, the Father, the Son, the Spirit, the Savior, the Redeemer, the Lord, the Head over all, the Head of the church, the Lord of lords, and the King of kings. As such a One He is our life, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, and all in all. Praise Him!
Christ first became a man in incarnation (John 1:14) and died on the cross for our redemption (1 Pet. 2:24; Rev. 5:9). Then He rose from the dead for our regeneration (1 Pet. 1:3), ascended to the heavens to be the Lord of all (Acts 2:33, 36; 10:36), and will come back as the Bridegroom to the church (John 3:29; Rev. 19:7) and the King of kings to all the nations (v. 16). These are the main aspects of the work of Christ. These aspects include His incarnation, His crucifixion, His resurrection, His ascension, and His coming back. No genuine Christian has any argument about these aspects of the work of Christ.
A sinner must repent to God (Acts 2:38; 26:20) and believe in Christ (John 3:16; Acts 16:31) for forgiveness of sins (10:43), for redemption (Rom. 3:24), for justification (Acts 13:39), and for regeneration (John 3:6) in order that he may have the eternal life (v. 36) to become a child of God (1:12) and a member of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27). This is our salvation by God through faith (Eph. 2:4-9).
The church, composed of all the genuine believers in Christ, as the Body of Christ (1:22-23; Col. 1:24), is universally one (Eph. 4:4), and a local church as the expression of the Body of Christ is locally one—one city, one church (Rev. 1:11).
These are the six main items of the proper Christian faith. All real Christians do not have any disputations about these items. Some may disagree with the point concerning one city, one church, but as a proper Christian we have to believe that the church is both universally one and locally one. As the Body of Christ, the church is universally one; as the expression of the Body of Christ, a local church is locally one. This does not mean, however, that a real believer in Christ who does not agree with one city, one church is not saved. He or she is saved, but there is something lacking, not for salvation but for the proper church life.
The faith is the speciality of the church life. This is something very specific, very special. Concerning these points of our Christian faith there should be no argument. If we are going to fight for something, we have to fight for this. There is no need for us to fight for other things. We have to fight the good fight of such a faith (1 Tim. 6:12). We have to contend for such a faith (Jude 3). We have to teach and preach such a faith.
When Paul, who was then called Saul, was persecuting the church, he was attempting to destroy this faith. However, the Lord caught him, and he then became a preacher of the faith which formerly he ravaged (Gal. 1:23). Our fighting must be for this faith. We have to differentiate this faith from other kinds of teaching. Ephesians 4:13 says, “Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith,” and then in verse 14 there is the wind of teaching. In these two verses there is the faith, and there is teaching. The keeping of the Sabbath and circumcision are teachings. Head covering is a certain kind of teaching. Foot-washing is another kind of teaching. Sprinkling or immersion is also another kind of teaching. There is also the eating and drinking of Christ, pray-reading, tongue-speaking, and divine healing, as well as other kinds of teachings and practices. We should not think that any of these teachings or practices are included in the speciality of the church life.
What time should we have the Lord’s table, morning or evening? This is a kind of teaching. How many times should we have the Lord’s table, once a week or every day? This is also a kind of teaching. Should we use leavened bread or unleavened bread? This is another kind of teaching. When one prays, should he shut his eyes, or should he lift up his eyes toward the heavens? This also is a type of teaching. All these are teachings and have much disputation.
During the last five centuries, since the time of Martin Luther and the Reformation, Christians have been divided by all kinds of teaching. The divisions have resulted almost totally from the overemphasis of the teachings. For example, John Nelson Darby took the lead to say that all the miraculous, supernatural gifts are dispensationally over, but the so-called Pentecostal people and today’s charismatic people believe that they are still here. Even among these Christians there are different beliefs. Some say that a person may be regenerated, but he could never be baptized in the Holy Spirit without speaking in tongues. Others even say that one cannot be regenerated without speaking in tongues.
With the matter of divine healing, there are schools of opinion. Some, like George Müller, believe in divine healing, not in the way of the gifts but in the way of grace. In his autobiography he told us that when he was young, he was very weak, yet he lived for ninety-three years. He experienced the Lord’s healing by grace, but the charismatic or Pentecostal believers say that healing is by the gifts.
Just the matter of what name to baptize people in has schools of opinion. Some say that we must baptize people in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Others say that we should baptize people in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Concerning the rapture, there are different schools of teaching, such as pretribulation rapture, posttribulation rapture, and partial rapture. These are teachings. Not one of them is an item of the faith.
There have been teachings upon teachings, and all the Christians have been divided and are still being divided by the differing teachings. Among the Brethren today there are hundreds of divisions. They began from 1828 or 1829, and by 1919, according to a record that we read at that time, the statistics showed that within those ninety years the Brethren were divided into one hundred fifty divisions, mainly because of so many different teachings.
All Christians are the same in the faith, but we may be very, very different in the teachings. Do you believe that we all will be the same in the teachings? When will that time be? I can hardly believe that any two of us could ever be absolutely the same in teaching. Then what shall we emphasize? Shall we emphasize the teachings? If so, we will become divisive and eventually will be divided. We should not emphasize the teachings but only our Christian faith. We can emphasize this because with the faith there is no argument. In the faith we have no problems. We all are the same.
However, we all have been infected, influenced, damaged, distracted, and even divided by all kinds of teachings. Therefore, we need to grow, and as we grow, we will arrive at the oneness of the faith (Eph. 4:13). The more we grow, the less we emphasize the teachings. All the teachings are like toys. The more childish we are, the more we like to play with the toys of teaching. A full-grown man, especially a grandfather, has no interest in toys. The more mature we are, the less toys we have. So we all need to grow until we arrive at the unique oneness of the faith.
