(MATTHEW XVI. 18.)
THE Lord Jesus, on one occasion during the closing period of His public ministry, put the question to His disciples, “Who do men say that I, the Son of man, am?” Their answer was, “Some say that thou art John the Baptist; some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.” Such were the opinions of men in general regarding Jesus of Nazareth. They were all evidently impressed with the fact that He was no ordinary person, but a prophet, a great prophet sent by God, and they were ready even to conclude that John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the outstanding messengers of Jehovah under the previous dispensation, had risen from the dead. But although this idea was to a certain extent favourable to the claims of Christ as an eminent prophet, still it did not go far enough. It was seriously defective, for it failed to recognise that He was infinitely more than any of the prophets that preceded Him, though their message and His were in important respects substantially the same. They were mere men, but He was none other than the Divine Messiah, whose prospective coming was one of the chief themes of their discourse, the Son of God and the King of Israel. The people’s opinion of Him, therefore, fell fatally short of what was necessary for the due recognition of His essential glory as “the Word made flesh,” and for the securing of their own eternal salvation. Many of them afterwards joined in His rejection and crucifixion.
Jesus next asked His disciples themselves the same momentous question, “But whom say ye that I am?” “And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Peter here stood forth as the spokesman of the twelve, and bore witness in clear, unhesitating tones of faith and love to the precious truth that Jesus was the promised Messiah, and the Son of the living God in a peerless sense of equality with the Father. This confession then evoked from the lips of the adorable Redeemer words of confirmation and encouragement to Peter and all true
disciples: “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” He pronounces His apostle (who was the son of Jona according to natural birth) a blessed man, as he was the possessor of a knowledge and faith that human teaching had not given, but which had come from God, whom He appropriately speaks of in this connection as “my Father which is in heaven.” He then follows this up with a remarkable declaration in regard to the importance of the truth confessed as fundamental to the existence and security of His Church. “And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
We do not intend meantime to enlarge to any special extent on the fatal misuse of this passage, which Papal Rome has been guilty of for centuries. Rome has indulged in the extraordinary idea that Peter was the rock on which the Church of Christ was to be built. She has advanced the false history that Peter was the first Bishop at Rome, and asserted the baseless dogma that the Popes ever since have been his successors as the vicegerents of God upon earth. We do not enter into all these Romish views at present, but desire to direct the attention of our readers, for general spiritual edification, to the following important things: firstly, the Rock upon which the Church is to be built; secondly, the Church itself referred to; thirdly, the Builder; and fourthly, the Church’s safety.
I.—Let us observe the Rock: “Upon this rock,” saith Christ.
I. The Rock is not Peter. Jesus had just used the words, “Thou art Peter” (Greek, Petros), but when He proceeds, in the same breath, to speak of the foundation upon which He will build His Church, He uses another, though similar, word—Petra. If He really meant that the Rock was Peter, the peculiar change of word is inexplicable. Besides, we understand that petros and petra have distinct and important shades of meaning: petros means a piece of rock; petra, the solid rock itself. And there can be no doubt, to any careful, impartial student, that such is the distinction here. The meaning therefore clearly appears to be as follows: “Thou art Peter, a stone in the true Church, possessing, by grace, the same nature as the solid rock with which thou art vitally united; thou hast borne testimony, as such, to the fundamental fact of My Divine Sonship and Messiahship, and now I tell thee, for thy encouragement, that upon this rock of My Person and Office, confessed by thee, I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” There is a place or two in the New Testament where “the Apostles and Prophets” are apparently spoken of as “the foundation” upon which the saints are built; but this expression at least puts Peter on the same level with the other Apostles, and subverts Rome’s theory. The sense, however, in which “the Apostles and Prophets,” at most, may be so described is that of ministers or instruments who, under the direction of the
Holy Ghost, laid the foundation historically of the truth of Christ, in the preaching of the Word of the Gospel, and in writing the books of inspiration. In no place, however, in the Old Testament or the New, is the word “rock,” with all its suggestiveness of perfect solidity and unchangeable strength, applied to any mere man—prophet or apostle. The covenant God of Israel is often described in the Psalms as the Rock of salvation, and the Apostle Paul speaks explicitly of the Son of God (1 Cor. x. 4) under this term: “and that Rock was Christ.” This circumstance should settle the question.
- The Lord Jesus Christ in His Person and Offices is the Rock here stated.
(1) The divine foundation upon which the Church is said to be laid, may be considered as one, and yet manifold. For example, we may think of the absolute foundation as the perfections of God, the decretive foundation as the eternal purpose of the Father, the mediatorial foundation as the Person and Office of the Son, the powerful foundation as the energy of the Holy Ghost, and the declarative foundation as the word of the truth of the Gospel.
(2) It is plainly the mediatorial foundation that is spoken of in our text. The Lord Jesus is here describing Himself in His capacity of mediator between God and sinful men, as the solid and invincible Rock upon which He will build His Church. The Church is to be viewed here from two aspects, as invisible and visible. He is the Rock of the invisible Church—the whole company His elect ones, and of the visible Church the whole company of those who profess His name according to the Scriptures.
(3) Christ therefore, in His actual person and offices, is the mediatorial foundation of His elect Church. In order to be such a Rock for His people, who were all members of the fallen, condemned race of Adam, He became man, and assumed into personal union with Himself a real, though holy, humanity. As Son of God and Son of man in one person, He laid a foundation in righteousness for the pardon of His people’s sins and for the acceptance of their persons. He obeyed the precept of the law which they had broken, and endured the penalty of death which they had justly incurred. He “suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God.” Thus it is that “Jesus Christ and him crucified” is the one meritorious foundation on the basis of which sinful men are justified and accepted in the sight of a holy and righteous God. This is the work of Christ in the exercise of His priestly office, which may be said to be the fundamental layer in the mediatorial ground-work of the salvation of His elect. If it were not for His priestly work it would not be consistent with righteousness that He should exercise His other offices—as prophet and king—upon His guilty people. As a prophet He is qualified to teach and to enlighten, and as a king He is qualified to subdue, renew, and perfectly sanctify. Thus He has an infinite
sufficiency in Himself to supply a solid foundation for His Church in wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification before God. “Christ is all and in all.”
(4) Christ in His person and offices, as set forth in the Gospel, is the declarative foundation of the visible Church. In other words, He is the rock of revealed truth upon which the visible House of God is to be built. “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. iii. 11). Any other foundation is sinking sand, and will bring to ruin the house that is erected upon it. The truth concerning the Lord Jesus as the eternal Son in human nature, and His relations with the other glorious persons—the Father and the Holy Ghost—in the ineffable Godhead; the truth concerning the offices of prophet, priest, and King, which He sustains as Mediator of the new and everlasting covenant; and the truth concerning all that is made known by means of these offices and formulated in the Holy Scriptures, must be received by us and regarded as the foundation of faith and life in the visible Church. As this is the foundation which the Father hath provided for Zion, we are not at liberty to cut and carve the same according to carnal wisdom, but must receive it in its divine completeness (1 Peter ii. 6).
At the same time we have to recognise it as a matter of fact that though all truth made known to us is to be held fast, as a precious treasure given by the Lord—not to be surrendered at any cost—yet He has not made every truth equally necessary for salvation. For example, the Presbyterian form of Church government is something that we believe to be divinely set forth in the Scriptures, yet nowhere is it written, “He that believeth in Presbyterianism shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be lost.” Many of the elect have been eminent epistles of Christ on earth, and have entered into heaven at death without understanding the right form of Church government, while many people who were correct in their knowledge and practice of everything of this kind, but were destitute of the new birth, died in their sins and went to hell. We make not this solemn statement in the interests of laxity—which is too common in our day—but as a caveat against giving too exalted place in the visible Church to points that are not essential to salvation, though to be reverently received as valuable features of revealed truth—useful for the comfort of the Church. While we believe that the treasure of all truth is hid in the Rock, Christ, yet it seems plain from the passage before us that it is those truths which centre more immediately around the person and offices of the Redeemer that are to be regarded as pre-eminently the foundation of the visible Church.
II.—We now pass on to observe briefly the Church of which He speaks: “My Church.” We have already anticipated somewhat of what falls to be stated here, and have pointed out that Christ is speaking of the invisible Church of His elect, and the visible Church of His professed followers. The invisible Church becomes visible in a profession and walk, according to the truth.
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The word “Church” corresponds to the word “ecclesia” in the original, and the meaning is “the called out.” It was a practice among the ancient Greeks to call all the citizens of a town on certain occasions to a public deliberative assembly, and it was those who obeyed the call and formed the assembly who were described as the “ecclesia.” In like manner, the Church is those who by grace, obey the Gospel call and constitute the assembly of God’s living people. They are the effectually called, “the called out.”
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Christ thus speaks of the invisible number of the elect as His “Church” under the view that they were “the called out” according to the divine purpose. He says, “my Church.” They were His natural property, to begin with, as the Creator and Proprietor of heaven and earth (John i. 3), but they became His gracious property as fallen sinners with a view to salvation, by the gift of the Father as the representative of the Godhead in the covenant of grace. “Thine they were, and thou gavest them me.” “And all mine are thine, and thine are mine” (John xvii.) Every member of this Church will be vitally united to the Rock of salvation.
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Christ also speaks in this place of the Church under its visible aspect. The Church invisible is only absolutely so prior to regeneration or effectually calling. No sooner do the elect members of Christ’s mystical body become the subjects of saving grace (if they are not in infancy) than they show themselves—they become the visible Church. Their new nature becomes manifest; their faith and practice appear to view. It is only in a comparative sense that any of them can be spoken of at any time as the Lord’s hidden ones. Hidden some of them may be from the assured recognition of the officers of Christ’s Church, or of the majority of its members, but they are not hidden from the actual view of those with whom they come immediately in contact. There is a difference discernible between them and the world lying in wickedness. They cannot but love God’s Word and walk in His ways, and thus be distinguished from their godless neighbours.
We can see that the early disciples visibly gathered themselves together around Christ, and followed Him in faith and obedience. After He ascended on high, they were known as His Church by their declared attachment to His person, word, and example. Not all, no doubt, who thus declared themselves were vital members—some were members in profession who were not so in possession. But this did not alter the character of the Church as Christ’s. He gave His disciples to understand that such persons would be in the visible Church to the end of time. The parable of the wise and foolish virgins, and many other parts of Scripture, teach this solemn truth. There is, therefore, such a thing recognised by Christ as a visible Church in faith and practice, though some of its members are only nominal.
Since the days of the Apostles there have been great departures from the purity of the early Church, and it is difficult to decide whether certain bodies of professing Christians are branches of the visible Church at all. In fact, it may be confidently asserted that some are not so in any proper sense. They may be within the bounds of what is known as Christendom as they make mention of the name of Christ and profess allegiance to Him, but in faith and works they deny Him. Such are the Roman, the Greek, and the Unitarian communions. Again, there are bodies nearer us in profession who are going far to forfeit the right to be considered as Churches in any Scriptural sense. People who set aside the Bible as the infallible Word of God, or deny, implicitly if not explicitly, the Godhead of Christ are not to be regarded as true Christians, and therefore those bodies, where such infidelity is predominant and deliberately countenanced, are not real branches of the visible Church. We may term them “Churches” in common speech, as a matter of convenient expression, but they are not Churches in a Bible sense, albeit a few of God’s people may be “hid among the stuff” that is in them.
On the other hand, we are safe in asserting that wherever a body of professing Christians is found that adheres to the whole counsel of God set forth in the Scriptures, there is a branch of the visible Church. Such a body may be in some cases very dead spiritually, but still on the ground stated, it is to be recognised as part of the Church visible, built upon the Rock of Christ’s truth. Now, we have no hesitation in maintaining, in view of all that has been presently considered, that the body which is represented in this Magazine is, in the mercy of God, a living branch of Christ’s visible Church, and takes its stand upon the solid foundation of the Rock, Jesus Christ. We affirm this in all humility, conscious of the need of a day of quickening and reviving power, when the wilderness places shall blossom as the rose, but also (we hope) in all Christian sincerity; not fearing the charges of those who condemn us, and who would like to see our people scattered and our testimony for the truth laid level with the dust. May the Lord, in His abundant grace, enable us to stand fast in the faith, to quit us like men and be strong! “Upon this rock,” saith Christ, “I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
We must reserve (God willing) the conclusion of this article for another issue.
Deputy to Canada.—The Canadian Mission Committee have appointed the Rev. John R. Mackay, M.A., Inverness, as our Mission deputy to Canada for this summer. Mr. Mackay expects (God willing) to leave Glasgow by the S.S. “Cameronia” on the 17th May. He earnestly desires the prayers of the Lord’s people on behalf of himself and the work which has been given him to do.