LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1967, Page 59

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

THE DOCTRINAL ESSAY 59

separated from the world (v.9), taken out of it; now
they are distinguished from it. Indeed, it is only for
them that He prays (v.19). Nowhere in this whole
chapter is there an appeal for unity on the part of those
who follow Christ. They follow Christ that they may
be one in distinction from all others, since they have
believed the truth concerning the Lord and His work.
The Lord prayed as He was about to leave the world,
that His Father would keep in unity — unity that al-
ready exists — those whom the Father has given Him.
Theirs is a unity comparable to the unity which exists
between the Father and the Son. It is a unity between
the Son and the people for whom He prayed. They obey
Him. They dwell in Him. (John 14:23)

Unity of Essence

There is a union between the believer and his Lord,
between the church and its Head. There is a distinction
of persons, of course, like that between the Father and
the Son. But there is unity nevertheless, a unity of es-
sence, of very being.

Those united with Christ are born again of the
Spirit, partakers of Christ’s own divine nature. There
is no unity with Christ at all in the larger sense apart
from this fundamental operation of the Holy Spirit of
God, which creates within believers a new nature
through acceptance of the truth about the Lord. The
unity exists among those who are born again.

There is no talk in our Lord’s language about some-
one’s deciding to “go in for unity” any more than there
is about someone’s deciding to be born again. This unity
is deeper than friendship. It is voluntary on the part
of the believer, the result of being born again by the
Spirit’s power into the Lord’s own family.

The unity of the believer and of the church with
Christ is spiritual, but that does not make it any less
real. It is produced by the operation of the Spirit in the
act of regeneration, showing itself in a common trust in
Christ and reception of the teaching regarding our
Lord’s person and His work.

Life in Christ

In Eph. 4:1 St. Paul urges his people: “Walk worthy
of the vocation in which you are called.” You know
what the doctrine is, he says; balance it with practice
and conduct. As they had been showing diligence in
practical works of helping one another, now they should
show the same diligence when it came to their hope
of the end.

Let your conversation, said St. Paul, be something
that becomes Christ. Life in Christ is not separate from
your belief in Christ, for belief in Christ can never be
Separated from the life in Christ.

Living in Christ is described by Paul in Eph. 4:4-6:
“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were
called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one
Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us
all, who is above all and through all and in all.” What
the apostle is saying is that God has adopted these people

as children in Christ. Verse 11 of chapter 1 expresses
the same thought. People enter into this unity by hear-
ing the Word and following Christ: “We should be to
the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ, in
whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the Word of
truth, the Gospel of your salvation; in whom also, after
that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until
the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the
praise of His glory.” (1:12-14)

Who?

Who are the people that enjoy this unity? They are
those who were dead in trespasses and sins but now
are men of faith, quickened by the Spirit: “But God,
who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He
loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quick-
ened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved)
and hath raised us up together and made us sit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to
come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace
in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Eph.
2:4-7). These are the people justified by grace through
faith, not by their own deeds: “For by grace are ye
saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is
the gift of God; not of works lest any man should
boast.” (2:8)

The people of God are people of faith who live by
faith: “We are His workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them.” (Eph. 2:10)

The people of Christ’s church must understand who
they were and who they are now; what they would be
without Christ and what they are with Christ. A man
in Christ does not just think he is a Christian; he knows
he is a Christian. A man in Christ does not suddenly
decide to become a Christian; he is called by the Spirit
of God. A man in Christ called by the Spirit of God
does not go on living as if he did not know Christ, but
Christ lives in him and he lives in Christ. In unity with
Christ he enjoys fellowship with the Father and with
all those who have that same fellowship with the Father
in Jesus Christ.

Keep the Unity

St. Paul does not stop there. He urges Christians to
maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,
with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering,
forbearing one another in love. Why should they do
this? Not to produce unity, not to create unity, not to
try to arrive at unity, but to “keep the unity of the
Spirit.”

In John 17 our Lord predicted that people would
believe the message of the apostles whom He was send-
ing out. In Paul we have an apostle writing to people
who have believed. Because of that belief, that faith,
that confidence in Christ, they are in that body which
is the body of Christ. They are one with all others
who believe the same message. St.Paul has one word
for them: Keep that unity in Christ which is yours in
the bond of peace.