Church of the Firstborn
W. Carl Ketcherside
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The writer of the Hebrews informs those with whom God deals as with sons (12:7) that they have come "to the general assembly and church of the firstborn which are written in heaven" (12:23). In my simpler days when I had only the King James Version I misunderstood and misapplied that statement. That was at the time when we indulged in the mistaken notion that the saints of God had to have a corporate title by which the Lord would be able to recognize those who were His, and we were anxious above all else, to justify our signboards.
It was easy to prove that Jesus was "the firstborn." All one had to do was to flip the Bible open to Colossians 1:18, and read, "And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead." Since Christ was the firstborn, the church of the firstborn was "the Church of Christ." I suppose I ought to have been a little suspicious because of the word are--"the firstborn which are written in heaven." But we were more concerned about being right than about being grammatical, and nothing was said about this in the sermon outline book we had. I probably did not get beyond the word "firstborn" since the rest of it was not essential to my argument. Back in those days we were always "presenting an argument."
I admit to being a little ashamed of my former ignorance, but I am thankful that I have lived long enough to correct some of my errors. It helped a lot when I learned that "Christ" was not the name of the incarnate Son, but his "office." He is Jesus the Christ! So to "name the church after Him" you'd at least have to call it the "Church of Jesus." You wouldn't call the bride of Mr. Jones the butcher, "Mrs. Butcher."
It also helped when I learned that "the firstborn which are written in heaven" are the saints whose names are enrolled, registered and inscribed in the throne city of the Great King. The Authentic Version reads, "the gathering of the firstborn who are registered in heaven." The New English Version reads, "the assembly of the firstborn citizens of heaven." The Concordant Literal Version says, "the ecclesia of the firstborn, registered in the heavens."
The firstborn are God's children. They are so designated because God claimed the firstborn of Israel as His own. They were His by right of adoption. He sanctified them unto Himself (Numbers 8:17). The Hebrews understood this so the writer had to make no explanation. The firstborn consisted of the sanctified ones, the heirs of God. The names of all of these are found in the Lamb's book of life. They are written down in glory!
All of that is interesting but it is not what I want to discuss here. The church consists of all those whom God has called and who have responded unto that call. Only God can call men out of sin and
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When the word "church" is used in a universal sense, if used properly and scripturally, it must embrace every saved person in the universe. Every man on earth who has been born again, who has been washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God, is a part of the church. To use such terms as "the Lord's church," with a view to excluding many (or any) of the Lord's people, is to speak unadvisedly with the lips and those who do it "understand neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm."
When the word "church" is employed to designate the saints in a given city area it must include every saint of God in that geographical division. The church of God in Saint Louis includes every individual in that metropolitan complex who has been called into his kingdom and glory and who has the seal of God in his forehead. This is true in spite of division, schism, ignorance, race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Regardless of what men may call them, or of what (in their ignorance) they may designate themselves, if they have thrown themselves upon the mercy of God, fled to Jesus for rest, washed their garments in the crimson flood that flowed from Immanuel's veins and received the adoption of sons, they are in the church which God purchased with the blood of His own (Son).
This is very difficult for most of us to realize and even more difficult for many to openly affirm. In our sectarian attitudes with their creedal barriers and legalistic lines, carefully drawn and meticulously defined, it is easy to equate the limits of God's grace with the boundaries of our acceptance. But God is not obligated to welcome only those we receive; instead, we are obligated to welcome all whom He receives. That He is willing to receive some rather pitiable and unworthy characters most of us are living testimony. The quality of grace in rescuing unwholesome personalities should never be doubted by those of us who have mirrors and can glance into them.
We are always in danger of assuming that the party, faction or sect, with which we are affiliated is "the church." I am not sure just how the angels regard the antics of the heirs of salvation to whom they minister. It could be that they get quite a "kick" out of some of the things we say with such seriousness, and they must smile frequently at how little we think the church is, as compared to how big and majestic they know it really is. It's a good thing our brethren do not travel around with the angels and visit some of the saints with whom the angels visit. If they did there would be a lot of angels haled up before the elders and "withdrawn from" for fraternizing with folks who are not members of the loyal church.
Every party, with few exceptions, has its membership rosters, and the sum total of these rosters of "faithful congregations" in each instance, constitutes "the brotherhood." A good many factions also have directories of "loyal congregations" where "the Lord's church" meets, so that those on vacation will not be misled by a signboard and get into a meeting of "apostates." The peculiar thing is that no two directories have "the Lord's church" meeting at the same places, and if you happen to get the wrong directory you are liable to spend your entire vacation "worshiping with false brethren" and never know it until you get back home and invite the preacher who is holding your fall meeting out to dinner. The safest thing to do is to write to the party headquarters before you start and the editor there can check your itinerary and cross off all of the doubtful points. One such headquarters has recently announced, "When a request is made for free information or assistance, please enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope." Remember that!
About the only time all of the congregations are counted worthy and lumped off together is when we want to leave the impression on our religious neighbors that we are growing like weeds in the
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It was affirmed that our membership now stands at 2,350,000. Brethren of reputation hang their heads when this figure is given. They are afraid it is padded like a company expense account. Of course, no one knows how many people there are enrolled with congregations which make a test of fellowship out of the use of instrumental music. That is about the only common denominator of the two dozen kinds of baptized believers in "the fastest growing religious group." It is astonishing that those who cannot sit together at the Lord's table can meet together in an estimated census table.
One Texas Christian University professor thinks the number was arrived at by an editor in the southland who multiplied his subscription list by the size of his hat, and multiplied the total received by the number of divisions within our ranks. I think he was being a little facetious, because some of the professors at Texas Christian should not be taken too seriously!
I just do not think that any person on earth can number the Lord's people. He knows who they are and that is enough for me. "God has laid a foundation, and it stands firm with this inscription: 'The Lord knows his own.'" I do not doubt that a sect or faction can number its adherents and tell who is "on the books." But no party contains all of God's beloved--no party! That includes the one I am in! Jesus did not suffer to become the chief of a clan nor die to become the prince of a party. He is the head of the whole body and Lord of the whole church!
When the venerable envoy, John, was in exile upon Patmos he looked over and saw a vast throng, which no one could count, from every nation, of all tribes, peoples and languages. They were identified by a member of the heavenly presbytery as "the men who have passed through the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." All of these were from the earth and if no man could count them in heaven after they arrived, there is no use of any one trying it here before they leave. I don't think one's mathematical powers are any greater in Tennessee than they will be in heaven. The truth of it is that the wonderful family of God is greater than any faction on earth, and mightier than all of them put together.
The brotherhood of which I am a part is as vast as God's redemptive love reaching down and receiving helpless humanity unto himself. The church of my allegiance is as great as the citizenry of the kingdom of God. I am a kindred soul with every consecrated believer whose name is enrolled in heaven. There is only one body and it embraces every precious soul linked to the head by the Holy Spirit, and by that same Spirit I am joined to all who are in him--and I do mean all! You can no more confine the church of the firstborn ones to party-structures, programs, houses and signboards than you can capture the Holy Spirit in a box and slam the lid shut.