# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1969_S539 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 528 THEOLOGY OF FELLOWSHIP C. GOD HAS RESTORED THE FELLOWSHIP IN CHRIST 1. As Promised Under the Old Covenant As God established fellowship in the beginning, so He also took the initiative in restoring it after the Fall. When man hid himself from the presence of God, it was the Lord God Himself who sought man (Gen. 3:8, 9) and called man to account (Gen.3:16-19) and gave man the first promise of redemption (Gen.3:15). The Old Testament is the record of the continuing fellowship-initiative of God. God, in choosing Abraham and the nation descended from him for a life in cove- nant relation with Himself, wrote large in history His will to have communion with men (Gen. 12: 2-3; 17:7). This covenant is the order established by God in which man is privileged to live under the promise of God and is at the same time called upon to live under His Law. The Law calls man to that communion which God willed as the normal structure of creation and judges him for his failure to live in that structure ac- cording to the divine will. The promise points man beyond divine judgment to the redemptive act of God which is to restore Israel and all men to the unbroken communion with God and with one another according to His gracious will (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 34: 22-25; 34:30 to 31; 37:26: 2 Sam. 7:12-17: Is. 9:2: 11:1, 4, 6, 12; 54:10. Cp. Is., chapters 42 and 49). 2. As Fulfilled in the New Covenant THE NEW COVENANT of fellowship between God and man which God promised in the Old Testament (Jer. 31:31), He established in the sending of His Son Jesus Christ into the world. The purpose of God in the In- carnation was not only to redeem man but also to bring man into fellowship with Himself (Gal. 4:4, 5: 1 Cor. 1:9). The Word, the Eternal Son of God, was made flesh, and thus God Himself tented among us (John 1:14). In the words of institution of the Lord’s Supper, Christ interprets His whole mission as the establish- ment of the promised covenant (Matt. 26:28: 1 Cor. 11: 25). By His sacrificial atoning death and victorious resurrection Christ consummated and fulfilled the old covenant, making good that which the perpetual failure of man had destroyed (Jer. 31:32). Our Lord has thus designated His life. death, and resurrection as that great reconciling act of God which Paul describes in his Epistle to the Corinthians (2 Cor. 5:19). II. God in Creating Faith Bestows the Blessing of Fellowship A. FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD IN CHRIST When Christ had completed His work upon the cross and had reconciled all mankind to God, He committed to His church the Word of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:19), with the command that they should preach it to all the world (Acts 1:8: Luke 24:46-48; ep. Acts 2:4-12). Through this Word men are summoned tc faith, and faith is created in them (1 Peter 1:23-25; Rom, 10:17; Rom. 1:16, 17: James 1:18). The call to faith is simultaneously the call into fel- lowship (1 Cor. 1:9). In the Gospel God effectively calls man into fellowship; in Baptism God initiates man into fellowship (Gal. 3:26-29): in the Lord’s Supper God strengthens and confirms man in the fellowship into which He Himself has called and placed him (1 Cor. 10:16, 17). This fellowship, created and sus- tained by the Holy Spirit, makes the Christian a par- taker in Christ, a child of God, and therefore also an heir of God in time and in eternity (Rom. 8:16, 17; Gal. 3: 26-29: Rom. 10:9-13). B. FELLOWSHIP WITH ALL BELIEVERS IN CHRIST Those who have fellowship with God through faith n Christ are also in fellowship with one another (1 John 1:3). As faith makes all men children of God, so it also makes them all brethren in Christ (Gal. 3:26 and 27). This fellowship transcends every barrier cre- ated by God or set up by man and brings about the highest unity possible among men, the unity in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:28). This transcending of all barriers is beautifully described in Eph. 2:11-22. III. In Bestowing This Fellowship God Claims for It the Whole Life of Man A. IN THE EXERCISING OF THIS FELLOWSHIP The life of the apostolic church is a striking exem- plification of the fact that God is claiming the whole life of man for fellowship when He bestows the gift of fellowship with Himself in His Son Jesus Christ. Hardly had the day of Pentecost fully passed and the church been founded, when a very active exercise of fellowship developed within the congregation. Of the church, in the period immediately after Pentecost, we read, “And they continued steadfastly in the ... fellowship.” As Acts further indicates, this exercise of fellowship, like the fellowship itself, is always mediated by Christ as He is present and active in the apostolic Word and in the sacraments (Acts 2:42: 6:2, 4: 8:14: 9:10-19: 15:36: 20: 7-12). Thus the exercise of fellowship consists in an activity dominated by the Word, an activity involving the total personality. For example, the men of the first church act with and for one another in worship (Acts 2:42); in prayer and intercession (Acts 4:24-31: 12:5; 1:12 to 14): in rebuke and correction (Acts 15:5, 6, 22-29; Gal, 2:11-14: 1 Cor. 5:1-5: 2 Cor. 2:5-11); in instruction (Acts 2:42; 3:41, 42: 18:24-26): in social intercourse (Acts 2:46); in removing unfounded suspicions (Acts 9:26, 27): and in an economic aid which comprehends with a ready and active sympathy the needy brethren both at home and abroad (Acts 4:32, 34-37: 6:1-6; 11: 27-30). This activity is faith acting through love (Gal. 5:6).