Church Unity and Christian Unity

IN dealing with our Lord’s prayer for unity it is evident from the statements made by leading ecclesiastical leaders that they regard His petitions for unity in His great intercessory prayer as petitions for the unity of the professing Church as it exists in the world in larger or smaller units as denominations. That this is the view held by the leading advocates of Union in Scotland is manifest from their speeches, in which they unhesitatingly declare that in their efforts to bring the Established and United Free Churches together they are doing so with Christ’s prayer before their minds. This misapplication and misinterpretation of the Saviour’s words arise from confusion of thought in not distinguishing (1) between Church or denominational unity and Christian unity, or unity of believers; (2) and secondly, in overlooking the guidance we have in the Saviour’s own words to their correct interpretation.

1. That there is a distinction between church or denominational unity and Christian unity or unity of believers is manifest from the fact that we may have church unity without Christian unity and Christian unity without church unity. In the Church of Rome there is outward unity—at least of a kind—but we have no hesitation in saying that it is not the unity Christ prayed for. Protestants, on the other hand, are divided into various denominations, such as Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists. And while there is a common outward unity among them as opposed to Roman Catholicism, yet because of their separate existences as denominations it has been argued that they are thus going in the direct teeth of the petitions for unity in Christ’s intercessory prayer. It is not so, for the Lord’s people among Episcopalians (such as Bishops Ridley and Latimer, to name only a few), Congregationalists (such as Owen and Edwards), Baptists (such as Bunyan and Spurgeon), Presbyterians (such as John Knox and Andrew Melville), are one in the sense that Christ prayed they should be one, viz., as believers, but they are far from being one denominationally. Denominational unity is based on the agreement of certain articles of belief and acceptance of certain principles, and the more scriptural these are the more strenuously ought the denominational status to be maintained. The fact that some of the articles or principles maintained by a denomination are not regarded as of much importance by another denomination seeking union with it is no valid reason

either on Scriptural or rational grounds that they should be given up. And while a denomination holds by doctrines or principles which it regarded as scriptural and which brought it into existence, it cannot without the betrayal of its trust enter into any denominational union that requires the renunciation or even the neglect of these. But supposing there was a case in which the above conditions were fulfilled, he would be a bold man, in view of what Christ said, who would assert that in this denominational union Christ’s prayer was fulfilled, for then all in the uniting denominations, as we shall see, would require to be believers. But as our main purpose is not so much the subject of church or denominational unity as Christian unity, we proceed to notice that the application of Christ’s words to church unity arises from a misinterpretation of His words.

1. The Redeemer’s words are as follows:—”Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are” (John xvii. 11), and again—”Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one—even as we are one: I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me” (John xvii. 20-23). He first prays for His disciples that they may be one (verse 11). Then He prays for those who through their word would believe on Him. The prayer then is on behalf of those who believed, but lest it should be said this would include professed believers as well as real believers, we call attention to the following points:—

(1) He tells us plainly that He is praying for those who were given to Him by the Father—”I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me: for they are thine” (verse 9); and they are again described as “those whom thou hast given me” (verse 11), and again as those in whom Christ is—”I in them” (verse 23). This surely settles the point that they are real believers, not simply in name. And he who would take upon himself to say that all in the Established Church and the United Free Church are true believers is audacious enough for anything.

(2) The Redeemer makes it plain what kind of unity He is praying for—”That they may be one, as we

are.” That is, it is a unity analogous to the unity subsisting between the Father and the Son. He does not pray that they might be one in the sense that the human race is one, nor in the sense that nations are one, nor even in the sense that His divine and human natures are one in the Eternal Person of the Son. The mystery of the incarnation is that we have two distinct but not separate natures in the one person. The mystery of the Trinity is that we have three distinct Persons of one essence. As we approach this great theme we do so with the consciousness that it becomes us to put our shoes from off our feet, for we are on holy ground, but in stating the following points we believe we have Scriptural authority for what we say. In the unity subsisting between Father and Son we have (a) the same divine nature; (b) the same divine life — there is but one fountain of never-ending life in the Trinity; (c) the divine love is common to Father and Son; (d) a common aim characterises all the operations of the Father and Son, viz., the glory of God; (e) the unity subsisting between Father and Son shall have no end. Now, unless these points at least are realised in any unity, whatever kind of unity it may be called, it is not the unity that Christ prayed for in His intercessory prayer. In believers we find that (a) they are partakers of a divine nature; (b) their new life is a divine life; (c) the love they have to Christ is common to them all, for it was out of the fulness of His love that they received; (d) a common aim characterises them when under the influence of God’s Spirit, viz., seeking the glory of God in all they do and say; (e) the unity of God’s people is not to come to an end at death; it is to go on for ever. If it were a mere outward union it would come to an end at death. And if Christ prayed for the union of denominations in which, at their purest, there may be believers and unbelievers, it would mean that when death came Christ would break that unity, for unbelievers shall not be one with His people in Eternity nor on earth for that matter of it in the sense in which He prayed that His people might be one. Whatever arguments may, therefore, be brought forward by the Union leaders of the Scottish Churches for the union of the Established and United Free Churches, we feel fully convinced that our Lord’s prayer for unity is not one of them, and the sooner they give it up the better it will be for all concerned, for a position built on bad exegesis and glaring misinterpretation is bound to do injury to any cause.