The Real Jews
W. Carl Ketcherside
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There is a great difference in saying that the church is catholic and in saying or writing "The Catholic Church." The latter is a distinctive title and its very usage as such implies that there may be another church which is not regarded as "Catholic."' If there is, the first cannot be "catholic" either, for it will not comprehend the whole. The very adoption of this title gives the lie to that which it is intended to indicate. It is true there cannot be "two catholic churches" on earth at the same time, but it is equally true that no church can be catholic which recognizes the existence of another which it designates as non-Catholic. Of course there is no such thing as a church which is not catholic, because the body of Christ, which is the church, is all-embracing.
It is at this point that many of those who claim to be non-sectarian reveal their underlying sectarian attitude. Since the church of God is simply the body composed of all those who are joined to the head, and since the members of this body are sealed by the Holy Spirit, no man or group of men can number them today. "The foundation of God standeth firm, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his." No census bureau can enumerate them. In our distorted, disturbed and distressed state, commonly called Christendom, God's sheep have become scattered over the sectarian hills and have become entangled in strange thickets. But they are still his sheep and he loves them. I also love them and want to see them walk in togetherness.
Men who over-simplify the problem
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It is a common phenomenon of our day to see someone point to "The Church of Christ" in a list of "churches" published by the census bureau, and compare statistical gains. Occasionally some naive and partisan soul refers to "the Lord's church" as having some two million adherents in the United States, forgetting that the Lord's church cannot be numbered by man and anything that can be is probably not the Lord's church. Those who boast about their standing in a long line of rival denominations should remember that their very boast shows they are listed in the right category. There is no such thing as a Baptist Church, a Methodist Church, or a Presbyterian Church. Neither is there any such thing as The Church of God, The Christian Church or The Church of Christ. All of these are titles created and adopted by men as party labels in an exclusive sense. There is only one church now. There never was but one. There will never be another. One enters it by the new birth and every person on this whole wide earth who has been born again is a part of it, not through his action but by an act of God.
What we call "The Baptist Church" is not a church but a religious party that crystallized about certain principles of orthodoxy spelled out in the Philadelphia Confession of Faith. What we call "The Methodist Church" is not a church but a religious party that has crystallized about certain principles of orthodoxy enunciated by John and Charles Wesley, and finally embodied in the Book of Discipline. What we call "The Presbyterian Church" is not a church but a religious party which crystallized around the principles of orthodoxy set forth by John Calvin and others. There can be no such thing as rival churches. There are rival parties, many of them, and the partisan spirit which created them is always bitter and jealous. But the church is a creation of the Holy Spirit and in it is no work of the flesh.
The church is not composed of congregations joined together in an organization by subscription to certain orthodox views. It is a body, a divine organism, composed of individuals joined to Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. "Now you are together the body of Christ, and individually you are members of him." No man can attach another to Christ, no man can detach another from him. We are joined to each other only because we are joined to Christ. Our union is in him and through. him. The only way by which I can be separated from another who is in him is by severing myself from him. The very attempt to segregate myself from others in him by giving a special title to those who concur in certain orthodox views is sectarian. The church has no title or special name because it has no rivals. It does not need to be distinguished from anything else for there is nothing else in its category. It is the church of God because it belongs to God. It is not "The Church of God" as opposed to other churches, for there are no other churches. It is the church of Christ because of his lordship over it. It is not "The Church of Christ" as opposed to other "churches." The struggle to become non-sectarian by adoption of an exclusivist title is a symptom of ingrained sectarianism and demonstrates how subtly Satan works in the hearts of all of us.
The church is catholic because there is only one body, just as there is one God, one Lord and one Spirit. One might as logically talk about creating another God as another church. Jesus is a universal Savior and all who are saved are in his body, whether they be Jews, Greeks, slaves or free men. Every person on this earth in whom the Holy Spirit dwells is a member of one body. All of them are frail,
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The word is a combined form. The prefix "pro" means "to be for." We use it thus in the familiar phrase, "pro and con." The root word testis means "witness" and protest means "to be a witness for, or in behalf of." The primary definition as given in the English dictionary is "to assert; affirm; aver." To say that the church is protestant is simply to say that it is "a witnessing community." We grant that this original and divine concept has virtually become lost but we doubt not that it was a part of God's intent and purpose. It has been tragically obscured by the rise and adoption of a clergy-laity system which has made "witnessing" the special function of a limited and professional group and has thwarted the conversion of the world to Christ. One of the healthiest signs in our day is the renewed emphasis on the responsibility of all the people. This emphasis is now found in every religious party.
The church can never be truly a protestant community until it recaptures in its fullest import the significance of "the priesthood of all believers." It was re-affirmation of this vital truth which really sparked the reformation called "Protestant" and it was abandonment of it which kept that movement from being truly a reformation and caused it to founder on the reefs and rocks of sectarianism. Almost universal lip-service is paid to the principle at the same time that universal disregard is shown for it in practice.
Because of the enunciation by Jesus of the truth of the universal brotherhood of discipleship free from the entangling and degrading influence of human lordship and mastership, we will never bring mankind into a brotherhood until we abandon that system which keeps them apart. We can never have one world as long as we have more than one Lord or Master. The true ecumenical movement is not one which provides for an association of sectarian groups each of which pays homage to the orthodoxy prescribed by its own exalted clerics, but a brotherhood composed of those who are free men in Christ. "Call no man father...call no man lord...call no man master...you have but one Lord and one Master, and all of you are brethren." There is a grave difference between a brotherhood of men and a coalition of religious parties.
It was Peter who demonstrated conclusively that all of God's priests are laity, and all of God's laity are priests. It is not a mere accident that in connection therewith he also affirmed the divine purpose of this arrangement and demonstrated that the people of God constituted a protestant (witnessing) community. That Peter should be the one to do this through the Spirit is of the greatest significance seeing that men would use him as the basis for creating a false system diametrically opposed to that which he so faithfully portrayed. It is not an exaggeration to say that the full implication of 1 Peter 2:5-10 has never fully burst upon our consciousness since it was written.
The royal priesthood of verse 9 is composed of the people of God in verse 10. The word for "people" is laos. The priests of God are the laity, or, perhaps we should say it in reverse. The expression "people of God" shows relationship; the
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God has never created "a clergyman" and by the same token has never created "a layman." Men elevate one of their number as a clergyman and he, in turn, makes laymen out of the rest of them. The clergymen of today are the "fathers, lords and masters" whom the Lord forbade us to create. So long as they continue we cannot reach the state where "all of you are brothers." God has a clergy but no clergymen; he has a laity but no laymen. It is unfortunate that an archaic rendering of one word in connection with God's laity has created a misapprehension of the divine program. It is stated in the King James Version that the royal priesthood constitutes a "peculiar people." The Greek word for peculiar is one which refers to securing a possession, generally by purchase. It relates to that which belongs to one as distinct from that which belongs to society in general, or that which is held in common. This will explain the contextual statement, "Which in times past were not a people, but are now the people of God." They are his by right of purchase, they are God's people because they have been bought with a price. They were people before, but not a people in the sense of a distinctive community belonging to a common Master.
That which makes the people of God a protestant community is the divine purpose in constituting them as a distinctive possession. "You are...God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (RSV). Vocation has to do with calling. The laity of God constitute and comprise a royal priesthood made up of a purchased people who are a witnessing community. Their very existence is proof of the majesty and greatness of the power of God. They are an ekklesia, a community of the called ones, to witness to his wonderful deeds. The church of Christ is intended to be a protestant community--to witness to the world and not to be witnessed to.
As the men of Judah in the flesh once gathered around their ensign with its figure of the lion, so now the Israel of God (Gal. 6:16) gather around the real Lion of Judah. The apostle declares, "For he is not a real Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and physical. He is a Jew who is one
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The word "real" does not mean that there were no physical Jews. It is not used for existence as opposed to non-existence. Rather it has to do with conformity to the design and purpose of God. The Jews regarded themselves as "the chosen race." But the ultimate purpose of God was to base his election not on physical circumstances but upon spiritual. Those who relied upon their fleshly descent from Abraham as grounds of acceptability with the Lion of Judah completely missed the essence of God's design. John the Baptist sounded the warning to them as he prepared the way, "And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' "
The rite of circumcision was first announced to Abraham and it became both a sign and a seal. Those who were fleshly descendants of this man bore the outward mark as a visible token of their convenantal relationship unto God. Anyone who was not circumcised was to be "cut off from among the people." The fellowship and participation in the observances and ceremonies of the original covenant were conditioned upon submission to circumcision.
But the promise of God to Abraham reached far beyond the limitations of a physical nation which came from his loins. Just as in his immediate domestic relations Abraham sired two sons, one by a mere physical alliance, Ishmael; the other in conformity to promise, Isaac; so in the divine arrangement he was to become the father of a fleshly seed and of a spiritual progeny. The first was created simply to make possible the second. Abraham was called of God originally that the call of God might be universal through his spiritual seed. In view of this it is the spiritual ones, not the fleshly, who constitute the real people of God--the true Jews.
No circumstance of physical birth, no mark in the physical body, no earthly family relationship, constitutes the claim of acceptability with God. Every child of God is the seed of Abraham and is, therefore, circumcised, but the circumcision is of the heart. It is "not literal but spiritual." The apostle puts it this way, "In him also you were circumcised, not in a physical sense, but by being divested of the lower nature; this is Christ's way of circumcision. For in baptism you were buried with him, in baptism also you were raised with him through your faith in the active power of God who raised him from the dead" (Col. 2:11, 12). Only those who divested themselves of the lower nature are truly partakers of the higher nature. This divesting is "Christ's way of circumcision."
Abraham is the father of all who walk by faith and who repose confidence in faith rather than in their deeds as a means of justification. In commenting upon the fact that Abraham's faith was counted for righteousness before he was circumcised, the apostle declares, "He was not yet circumcised, but uncircumcised...Consequently, he is the father of all who have faith when uncircumcised, so that righteousness is 'counted' to them; and at the same time he is the father of such of the circumcised as do not rely upon their circumcision alone, but also walk in the footprints of the faith which our father Abraham had while he was yet uncircumcised."
In the same context Paul reasons, "The promise was made on the ground of faith, in order that it might be a matter of sheer grace, and that it might be valid for all Abraham's posterity, not only for those who hold by the law, but for those who have the faith of Abraham. For he is the father of us all, as Scripture says, 'I have appointed you to be father of many nations.'" The expressions "all Abraham's posterity," and "the father of us all," indicate that all who are in Jesus are Abraham's seed. This is actually affirmed in Galatians 4:29, "If you are in Christ, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." Or, as the apostle states it in Galatians 4:7, "You
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The first occurrence of the word "believe" in any of its forms in the holy scripture, is in Genesis 15:6, in connection with God's revelation to Abraham, "And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness." From Hebrews 11 we learn that there were those who existed before Abraham who acted by faith, but the account in Genesis does not the use the word "believe" in describing their action. We hold that this fact is another undesigned proof of the divine authorship of the sacred scriptures. If it had been alleged that either Abel or Noah had been justified by faith, the critics would have ridiculed the contention of Paul that Abraham was the father of the faithful. As it is, nothing is more clearly taught than the fact that all who are in Christ Jesus are children of Abraham, and all who sustain the covenant relationship are circumcised with that circumcision made without hands. "We are the circumcised, we whose worship is spiritual, whose pride is in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in anything external" (Phil. 3:3).
It becomes necessary for us to define the quality of the faith which justified Abraham, for it is not just those who have faith or believe in something who will be justified. The record specifically states that the promise is valid "for those who have the faith of Abraham." It is especially required that we be precise and definitive because we live in a generation which is developing a cult of belief. The last decade has seen a rash of books and articles affirming that power, pelf and personality are instantaneously available to one who pushes the button marked "faith." These books become best sellers only because of their appeal to a society which is empty and aimless. They do not point out the real solution but their popularity points up a real problem.
This is an age of ready-mixed cake flour, instant coffee, and pre-cooked meals. It is also the era of the pat solution and the ready answer. In such a time men allow themselves to be exploited by "get rich quick" schemes which do not always operate merely in the realm of finance or economics. When such schemes are given the benediction of a scriptural quotation wrested from its proper setting their appeal is made greater because of the natural desire to have the sanction of heaven. But the justifying force is not faith as such for under such circumstances men preach faith as a law--the law of success. It is not faith in belief nor belief in faith that saves. In the final analysis a faith in personal belief is faith in oneself and the end is always disillusionment. This is the hope that disappoints. Such faith pampers the ego and appeals to pride but it does not lead to that full and unrestricted surrender which alone guarantees salvation from self as well as Satan. The world is full of men who proclaim justification by faith and whose attitudes demonstrate it is faith in their own mental capabilities and interpretations about which they speak.
Fortunately, in the same chapter (Romans 4) in which the apostle makes his brilliant and incisive argument related to the faith of Abraham, he defines the nature and content of that faith. An analysis of this passage may be one of the most important areas of scriptural research open unto us this day. It embraces but five verses (18-22) with the last one a statement of conclusions, "And that is why Abraham's faith was counted to him for righteousness." The foundation of this faith was the revelation of God. God made a statement of truth to Abraham, "Thus shall your posterity be." It was not a mere intellectual assent to this statement as a truth, nor recognition of it as a divine utterance which constituted faith, for the faith which is counted for righteousness is eminently more than this.
The faith of Abraham was actually transcendent over certain finite rational processes. This does not mean that faith is irrational as skeptics would urge in attempting to prove that it is the resort of the credulous and superstitious. Indeed it is only rational beings who can manifest faith. We tend to define "rational" in such a manner as to limit and
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To thus believe is not to act irrationally because rationality is not simply reasoning or understanding, but the power to reason, and it is the exercise of this power which produces faith. No man can prove that faith in God is irrational or contrary to reason until the consummation of all things. If it then is demonstrated that there is no God and the promises in which we trusted were but vain delusions conjured up in our own minds, it will be apparent that what we now call faith was fallacious and irrational. But if there is no God all life and mentality will have become extinct and there will be no rational beings to judge our irrational assumptions. On the other hand, if there is a God and his promises are fulfilled those who have not exercised faith in him will be proven to have been irrational during their whole lifetime on earth. I deplore that type of misplaced arrogance which spells rationalist with a capital "R" and equates it with skepticism as if those who believe are not rational.
Paul writes, "When hope seemed hopeless, his faith was such that he became 'father of many nations,' in agreement with the words which had been spoken to him, 'Thus shall your posterity be.'" Almost every word in this brief sentence is filled with meaning for men of faith. Hope is a combination of desire and expectation in equal proportions. Although the desire of Abraham was great he had no reasonable grounds for expectation. Sarah's womb was dead and his own body was as good as dead. In spite of this "his faith was such" that his response was equal to God's revelation. This indicates that one who hears the word of God may have faith but not the faith that is such to make the response required. When God extended the life line, Abraham was willing to take hold of it though it meant laying his life on the line.
Abraham was aware of the obstacles to such faith but he wholly discounted and disregarded them as if they were nonexistent. To him the promises of God were greater than the premises of men. "Without any weakening of faith he contemplated his own body, as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb, and never doubted God's promise, but, strong in faith, gave honor to God, in the firm conviction of his power to do what he promised." This is the faith which justifies. This is what we must have if we "walk in the footprints of the faith which our father Abraham had." This faith is not conditioned upon a trust in our own power or ability. It is a "firm conviction of his power" which enables us wholly and unreservedly to commit ourselves to him and be utterly oblivious of the consequences. In such faith our own achievements do not count. They are not even a part of the consideration.
Every person who is in Christ is a son of Abraham by faith, and therefore, a son of God. He is in covenant relationship with God. As many as have been spiritually circumcised are in the family, not by the blood of Abraham, but by the blood of Christ. In order to enter this relationship, belief of one supreme fact and obedience of one simple act expressive of it are all that is required. Every person who believes in Jesus as the Christ and God's Son, and who is immersed because of that faith, enters the covenant relationship. He may be ignorant of what is entailed in his new-found relationship, knowing little of his responsibilities or the blessings that will accrue, but when he manifests "the firm conviction in God's power to do what he promised," which prompts him to die to his past evil nature and give himself in glad abandon unto God, he has all of the faith that is essential to be reckoned for righteousness or justification. He has the faith of our father Abraham.
Such a man may grow very rapidly in
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