- In the Early Christian Church
James Buchanan^1
Amidst the general defection of the Jewish Church and nation, there were some hidden ones who cherished a sincere piety and waited for the hope and consolation of Israel. They were revived and refreshed by the ministry of John the Baptist, and still more by the manifestation of the Son of God. Careless sinners were converted and, although it might have seemed that the work was suspended by the crucifixion of the Lord of glory, that event only prepared the way for a more remarkable outpouring of the Spirit of God and a more general awakening among the nations. Jews and Gentiles – people of all nations and of various languages – were suddenly arrested, convinced, converted and became Christian missionaries to spread the glorious gospel over the whole world.
No sooner had the Spirit of God descended in His miraculous gifts on the Apostles than He descended also in His saving grace on their hearers – so that, on the Day of Pentecost, 3000 souls were converted by a single sermon. Let those who doubt the power of God’s Word and Spirit, or are conscious of a latent distrust of any remarkable, sudden work of conversion, consider that case recorded in the Word of God. Let them listen to the Prophet’s question, “O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?” “The Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear.”
Nor is the great work of conversion on the Day of Pentecost a solitary instance in the New Testament. Great multitudes believed in other places – “the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved”. And in Athens, Rome, Corinth and Galatia; in Asia, Cappadocia and Bithynia; in places the most primitive and the most refined, the preaching of the Apostles was mighty through God and was felt to be the power of God and the wisdom of God unto salvation. Follow one of the Apostles through the various scenes of his labours; trace his course on the deep and his journeys by land. Suppose yourself a companion of Paul, a witness of the scenes he saw, of the converts he gathered, and the churches which he founded and which long existed as memorials of his successful labours. Could you then doubt that the preaching of the gospel, accompanied by the power of the Spirit, is sufficient to revolutionise the world, to overturn the kingdom of darkness, and to erect on its ruins the kingdom of God, which consists in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost?
While such was the experience of the Church of God, both under the Old and the New Testament dispensations, we must now inquire how far we are entitled to expect the same, or similar, results from the preaching of the gospel in modern times. We are far removed from the age of miracles and are left to depend, for means, on the mere preaching of the Word. It might then seem unreasonable in us, if not presumptuous, to anticipate any such remarkable success as attended the preaching of the Apostles on the Day of Pentecost. Yet some weighty considerations, applicable to this question, may help to abate the supposed improbability of such an expectation.
In the first place, many prophecies predict, and many promises ensure, the progressive advancement and the ultimate universality of the gospel. “Ask of Me,” says the Father to His beloved Son, “and I will give Thee the heathen for Thine heritage and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession.” “In thee, and in thy seed,” said God to Abraham, “shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” “There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth. His name shall endure for ever: His name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed.” “The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.”
These passages, which declare the progressive advancement and ensure the ultimate universality of the gospel, imply that the work of conversion is to be carried on in the Church of Christ – a work which is to be accomplished instrumentally by the preaching of the gospel, applied with power to the heart and conscience by the direct operation of the Holy Ghost. Everyone who shall be saved and added to the Church must be enlightened, convinced, subdued and converted by precisely the same agency as was put forth on the Day of Pentecost. Then the gospel depended, for its converting power and its saving efficacy, on the grace of that divine Spirit who “divideth to every man severally as He will” – even when it was declared by inspired men, and accompanied with the signs of God’s miraculous interposition; how much more now is the Spirit necessary when the gospel is proclaimed by men destitute of both the light of inspiration and the power of miracles?
Both the predictions and promises of Scripture asserted that the gracious operation of the Spirit of God was to be continued into the Christian Church, and to be effectual for the conversion of sinners and the sanctification of His people till the end of time. Many are apt to suppose, because the miraculous gifts of tongues and healing and prophecy have long since ceased in the Christian Church, that the agency of the Spirit of God has been discontinued. They forget that what is really the most valuable part of the Spirit’s work is permanent and will be carried on till the end of time. The work of conversion, by which sinners are turned from darkness to light, and the work of sanctification, by which they are gradually prepared for glory, are as much the fruit of the Spirit as was the inspiration of the Apostles. And these must be continued until the whole company of the redeemed shall be gathered in from among all peoples and tongues and nations.
So far from having discontinued His gracious agency, the Spirit of God is at work in every congregation and in every soul that is deriving spiritual benefit from His Word. We live in these latter times under a dispensation which is emphatically “the ministration of the Spirit”. Before the miraculous gifts of the Spirit were bestowed on the Day of Pentecost, His agency as the Sanctifier of God’s people was felt in the Church, and acknowledged by the writers of the Old Testament. And surely, if He was known in His enlightening and sanctifying influence by the Old Testament Church, we must conclude that the Church cannot be deprived of His gracious presence under a new and better dispensation, especially when we find that one of the greatest blessings promised to the Church in later times was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Referring to New Testament times, Isaiah says, “The palaces shall be forsaken . . . until the Spirit be poured out upon us from on high”. And Joel says, “I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh” – which is expressly applied to the New Testament Church in the Acts of the Apostles. Accordingly all the Epistles refer to the ordinary gracious work of the Spirit as a matter of experience for every true believer, even those who had no miraculous gifts. Their prayer for all believers was that “the communion of the Holy Ghost”, not less than “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God”, should be with them all.
Indeed it is solemnly declared that everyone that will be converted till the end of time must be converted by the Spirit – that every soul that will be born again must be born of the Spirit. To say that the gracious operations of the Spirit of God have ceased in the Christian Church is virtually to declare that the work of conversion is finished, that the gate of heaven is now closed, that not one soul can now be added to the Church of such as shall be saved – for it is clear that “except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”. And it is equally clear that if he is born again, he must be “born of the Spirit”.
Thus the renewing and sanctifying agency of the Spirit of God has not ceased in the Christian Church; nor will it ever cease until the last convert has been won – the last penitent restored. The continued agency of the Spirit of God in the Church, under the present dispensation, which is emphatically called “the ministration of the Spirit”, is a doctrine which teaches us to expect great results from the faithful preaching of the gospel. It is, in fact, the sheet anchor of the gospel ministry – their one encouragement to persevere in the otherwise-hopeless effort to evangelise and regenerate the world.