LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1977, Page 98

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ESSAY AND BIBLE STUDY 97

possess by virtue of their faith in Him (John 17:20-21).
St. Paul describes this unity most beautifully in his letter
to the Ephesians: “There is one body and one Spirit, just
as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one
Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all,
who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph. 4:44).

But it is important to note that St. Paul in his letter to
the Ephesians in the very same context with this
beautiful description of the unity of the church exhorts
his readers: “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat
you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with
which you have been called, with all humility and
gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one
another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:1-3). In these
verses Paul exhorts the Ephesians to strive to manifest
the unity which was already theirs by virtue of their
incorporation into the body of Christ in outward peace
and harmony.

It is at just this point that the distinction between the
Law and the Gospel is most helpful to us. The unity of
the church is a Gospel concept. It is a given with faith in
Jesus Christ. There is nothing we can do to achieve it or
bring it about. Concord in the church, on the other hand,
belongs in the area of sanctification. Because we are
already one in Christ in the holy Christian church, we
strive for peace and harmony in the church. The unity of
the church is the presupposition and the basis for
working for concordia in the church. St. Peter says it this
way: “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified
your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently
love one another from the heart, for you have been born
again, not of seed which is perishable but imperishable,
that is, through the living and abiding Word of God” (1
Peter 1:22-23).

The Scriptural distinction between the “unity of the
Spirit” and “the bond of peace” is preserved in the
Lutheran Confessions. As Dr. Arthur Carl Piepkorn has
pointed out, the Lutheran Confessions carefully dis-
tinguish the unity of the church (unitas ecclesiae in the
Latin and the genitive Einigheit der Kirche in the
German) from harmony in the Church (concordia,
caritas, tranquillitas in ecclesia in the Latin and the
prepositional phrase in der Kirche in the German) (A.C.
Piepkorn, “What the Symbols Have to Say About the
Church,” CTM, XXVI, p. 750). In this way the confessors
sought to preserve a clear distinction between what God
does and that which we do as a result of what has
already been accomplished.

It is important that the distinction between these two
concepts be maintained lest we, also in this area, confuse
Law and Gospel, thereby misrepresenting the pure Word
of God by introducing our work into the Gospel
promises. As in the area of pure doctrine and false
doctrine, also here two equally fatal errors threaten.

On the one hand there is the danger of confusing Law
and Gospel by holding that the “true spiritual unity” of
the church is something which we can and must strive
for and achieve. When we look about us and see division
and disharmony in the church, fallen reason can only
conclude that since the church is not outwardly one, we
must strive even harder to achieve the unity which the

Scriptures teach characterizes the church. But to hold
that the unity of the church is dependent on what we do
is to confuse the Gospel with the Law. The Gospel
promise is that all believers in Christ are already one by
virtue of what God has done for us in the merits of the
Son and through the work of the Spirit in the miracle of
faith. We are one in the body of Christ in a unity which
transcends space, time, and outward appearance in the
one, holy Christian, and apostolic church, and this unity
in which we participate is not something which we
ourselves have produced but something which is given
to us.

On the other hand, Law and Gospel are also confused
when the unity which we already share in Jesus Christ
is taught in such a way that the apostolic injunctions to
strive for concord in the church such as St. Peter makes
when he says,““Be harmonious, symphathetic, brotherly,
kindhearted, and humble in spirit” (1 Peter 3:8), is
excluded and ignored. To disregard this admonition is
also ultimately destructive of faith in the Gospel. When
the Gospel is preached to the exclusion of the Law,
inevitably a self-righteous smugness sets in which
makes the Gospel promises seem meaningless and of no
worth. If we hold that the God-given unity of the church
makes unnecessary the striving for concordia, we will
soon become content with the skandalon of division
which divided Christendom presents to the world. The
full council of God must be preached, and this includes
the injunction to “preserve the unity in the bond of
peace” (Eph. 4:3).

As we in the church, motivated by the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, go about striving to keep the apostolic injunction
that “there be no divisions among you” (1 Cor. 1:10), we
need to remember that the Scriptures offer us clear
guidance in our endeavors. What was said yesterday, for
example, with respect to Christ’s command to be on
guard against “false prophets who come in sheep’s
clothing” must not be forgotten.

With the Lutheran confessors we cannot regard
compromise as a God-pleasing way to solve doctrinal
disagreements. Rather as our Lutheran Confessions put
it, “in order to preserve the pure doctrine and to
maintain a thorough, lasting, and God-pleasing concord
within the church, it is essential not only to present the
true and wholesome doctrine correctly, but also to accuse
the adversaries who teach otherwise” (FC SD Rule and
Norm, 14). The primary requirement for basic and
permanent concord within the church, say the con-
fessors, is “a summary formula and pattern, un-
animously approved, in which the summarized doctrine
commonly confessed by the churches of the pure
Christian religion is drawn together out of the Word of
God” (FC SD Rule and Norm, 1).

Because the Law of God always accuses even as it
instructs,.also these Scriptural injunctions accuse us
even while they instruct. Our consciences are cut to the
quick when we observe the divisions in the church and
the lack of concern which we manifest for the purity of
God’s Word and for concordia in the church. How far
short of God’s expectations we come also in this area of
our lives! We do not measure up. But smitten by the Law,
in our despair we are led back to Christ and the rich