Posted by
ValiantForTruth on Tuesday, April 08, 2008 11:36:13 AM
‘I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all’ [Ephesians 4:1-6].
Unity among Christians must be based on truth. In Ephesians 4 the apostle introduces the subject of unity with the word ‘therefore’ to refer back to the doctrinal truth given in the first 3 chapters of his letter to the church.
"Unity is itself inevitable among all those who have been quickened by the Holy Spirit out of spiritual death, and given new life in Christ Jesus. What they have to be careful about is that they don't allow anything to disrupt it or in any way to interfere with it. The emphasis is entirely upon the word 'keep'. In order that this may be abundantly clear the apostle again reminds us that it is 'the unity of the Spirit' [Ephesians 4:3]. In other words, it is a unity which is produced by the Holy Spirit and by him alone. Man cannot produce this, try as he may. Because of the nature of this unity, because it is a spiritual unity, it can be brought into being only as a result of the operation of the Holy Spirit. The apostle rejoices in this staggering fact, that these people who were once Jews and Gentiles are now one in Christ Jesus. They not only share the same life, they are agreed about their doctrine. They believe the same things, they are trusting to the same person, and they know that he has saved them all in the same way. The middle wall of partition has gone. The Jews no longer pride themselves that they are Jews and that they had the law given to them, whereas the Gentiles were ignorant and were not in the unique position of being the people of God. All these differences have gone, and they are one in seeing their lost estate and condition, their utter hopelessness and helplessness. They are united in their common trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who has purchased them at the cost of his own precious blood. So they are ready to listen to this exhortation which urges them to maintain with great diligence, to preserve and to guard, the unity into which they have been brought by the operation of the Holy Spirit of God." [D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, "The Basis of Christian Unity," Banner of Truth]
Is there some other basis for unity in the New Testament?
“It is being said that the chief need of the Church today is to repent because of its ‘lack of unity’… we would suggest that before she repents of her disunity, she must repent of her apostasy. She must repent of her perversion of, and substitutes for, ‘the faith once delivered to the saints.’ She must repent of setting up her own thinking and methods over against the divine revelation in Holy Scripture. Here lies the reason for her lack of spiritual power and inability to deliver a living message in the power of the Holy Ghost to a world ready to perish.” [Martin Lloyd Jones, given at the annual meeting of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship in 1954]
These words were addressed to the Protestant churches. Now 5 decades later the advocates of ecumenicalism are gaining a foot-hold. Lloyd Jones declared the truth as a man who fears God rather than men.
What would the Reformers have to say about ecumenicalism? What did the apostle say to the Galatian church when she would return to Phariseeism?
I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. [Gal 1:6-7] Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth? [Gal 3:1] Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free. [Gal 4:28-31] Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. [Gal 5:1]