One Body in Christ

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     To confess Jesus Christ is to affirm the abolition and end of division and hostility, the end of separation and segregation, the end of enmity and contempt, and the end of every sort of ghetto. Jesus Christ does not bring the victory to the man who is either on this side or that of the fence.--Markus Barth in The Broken Wall.

     The fourth chapter of Ephesians starts with our calling. That calling is our vocation. It is not how we make a living, but it is our life. And it is every facet of our daily life. Elton Trueblood in Your Other Vocation says that the exciting idea behind the New Testament use of "calling" is that our world is God's world. He adds "The way in which we grow potatoes is as much a matter of God's will as the way in which we pray or sing."

     What has happened, and it staggers imagination, is that God has called us to his side to work with him. We have heard the call and responded to it. So the life of God, eternal life, is now ours. It is not something in the "sweet by and by" but it is here in the "sweet now and now." The goal of God has become our goal. The purpose of God is now our purpose. We have been reconciled unto God, and now we are his reconciling community. We have made peace with God and now we are peacemakers. We are the children of God. This is our calling, living in Christ and with Christ, and we must walk worthy of it!

     But we simply cannot labor together with God in uniting all things in Christ, that is, things which are in heaven and things which are on earth, unless we recognize the unity of the Spirit. Unity is not a human attainment at all. It is a divine attribute. It is bestowed upon us as love is bestowed upon us. We do not achieve it. We accept it. We do not accomplish it. We acknowledge it. Unity in Christ Jesus is a condition created by the Spirit. It is not a state we sponsor or a position we project. It is sharing in the divine oneness.

     Unity is not subscription to a creed nor subservience to a concordat. It cannot be arranged or arrived at by an association nor created by a convention. Unity is life. It is the life of God, made available to us through our Lord, the Messiah Jesus. It is the life of the called ones, the new creation, the new humanity. Our task is to guard it and keep it in the bond of peace.

     The unity involves seven items. It is these which define and describe our calling, and which give it reality. We are called into one body. We are called by one Spirit. We are called unto one hope. It is actually designated "the hope of our calling." We are called to be slaves under one Lord. We are called by one faith, that which demands a supreme act of trust. We are called to obey in one baptism, the surrender of all that has been ours for all that is His in us. We are called to be children of one God and Father. He is superior to all, yet He shows His majesty through all and shares His glory in all!

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     The number seven is significant. It was the number for perfection in creation. It is the number for fullness or completeness in the new creation. The unity of the Spirit reaches its full complement in these seven. Not one can be slighted. Not one dare be left out. Any concept of unity which eliminates one of these is not the unity of the Spirit. Any concept which projects the idea of more than one in any of them is not the unity of the Spirit.

     I am going to consider them separately but with a full sense of their relationship. They are not separate entities but parts of a whole. They are seven ingredients which make up one loaf of fellowship with the divine. They are seven plies which make up one cord, seven strands woven into one rope binding us to God and to one another. Each contributes strength to the whole and each derives strength from the others. We may consider them individually but only as parts of that wonderful unity--the unity of the Spirit!

     To save my critics, of whom there are many, a great deal of trouble, allow me to acknowledge that I have changed my thinking about the one body since I was "a boy preacher." I no longer regard that body as a faction centering around a partisan point of emphasis, whether that point be right or wrong. I do not regard it as a denomination bearing a specific or official title and meeting behind recognized signs all stamped out with a metal "cookie cutter." I do not think of the one body as a sect existing to exploit some theological deduction or religious philosophy.

     I cannot be true to God and remain consistent with my own previous sectarian stance. I must choose between God and my own sectarian past. I have made the choice. I am going to be true to what I believe my Father would have me believe and write, just as I was true to what I thought when I was the leader of a factional school of thought that conditioned fellowship upon agreement with us.

     There is one body! It isn't that there ought to be one body. It isn't that we are striving toward one body. There is one body! There is one body exactly as there is one Spirit, or one Lord. And if that body is the called-out community, there is only one such community. There has never been another and there never will be another. All of the called are in that body. It is composed of all the elect of all the earth. The one body is a divine creation, not a human contrivance. Man can no more create another body than he can create another Spirit or another Lord. There will never be another body to siphon off some of the called-out ones. The community of the reconciled is one.

     The one body is not a sect. The very word sect implies more than one. No sect of believers in Christ is old enough to be the one body. No sect is large enough or comprehensive enough to be the one body. The Holy Spirit never created a sect and no one was ever baptized into a sect by the Spirit. "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body." This was written to a group of saints who were fractured by schism and separated by the sectarian spirit. They could not even eat the Lord's Supper. The Holy Spirit put them into one body. They separated themselves into parties. They were members of one body separated by schisms and rent by preju-

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dices. The apostle did not deny that they were members of one body. He simply condemned their partisan alignments which made it so difficult for the unity of the Spirit to shine through.

     Just as the one body is not a sect, so it is not a coalition of sects. All modern sects are post-apostolic. The one body preceded them so it could not have been composed of them. If all modern sects came together in a federation, that federation would not be the one body. It would simply be one society of many sects. Sects serve no purpose except to divide. They are demonstrations of a work of the flesh. We should not be laboring for their union but for their death. They are fungus-growths and parasites. They should be chloroformed, not combined. They claim to exalt Jesus but they exalt opinions and seek to parcel Jesus out. They confine consecration to creeds, and insist that everyone survey the wondrous cross through their theological knot-holes. Let creeds be cast to the moles and bats, and let the sects which have crystallized around them wither and die. The one body is the work of the Holy Spirit, sects are the fruit of the party spirit!

     The body of Christ is not a conglomerate of congregations, all of which are stereotypes and often sterile reproductions of one another. Congregations in apostolic days were not all alike. Their unity was in Christ. Jesus was their pattern. The seven congregations in Asia Minor were all different from one another. If they had not been one letter would have sufficed for the lot. They were different in problems if not otherwise.

     Some of them were pretty scroungy but they were all God had in a pagan culture, and although the light shone dimly Jesus did not snuff it out. These congregations did not constitute the body of Christ in Asia, because the one body is not composed of congregations. There were members of the body in every one of them and these were to walk with Jesus in white. You might as well try to unite all of the sects with a written creed as to try and unite all of the congregations with an unwritten one.

     God's temple is composed of stones. The only kind of house he has on earth is a rock house. It is built on a rock which he laid as a sure foundation. It is built out of rocks he has called to life with him. They are living stones. But the stones will differ from one part of the earth to another. God has to use the rocks that are at hand. A rock house in the Ozarks is likely to be made out of field stones. There are plenty of them. One in Indiana is likely to be made of Bedford limestone. But they are both stone houses.

     The living stones God employs in Africa will differ from those he uses in Asia or Australia. Their culture will be different. Some of the living stones in Africa may get up and stomp around and clap their hands while they praise God, while in Texas they may sit in the corner of the pews and doze while the preacher cranks away at "the five items of worship." But whether they wake or sleep, whether they jump or tiptoe, if they are living stones, they are builded together as a habitation of God for the Spirit!

     Even in the United States the congregations that are made up of "lively stones" are not all alike. Some are more lively than others. I know, because I visit them all. I go to some places where a lot of the stones have university degrees and sing the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah, or "O Sacred Head" from Bach's Passion According to Matthew. I also go where some folks, like myself, had a hard time getting through high school, and they sing "An Empty Mansion" from Joyful Songs, or "Farther Along" from Starlit Crown by the Stamps-Baxter Music Company. But I love them all, whether they are Johann Sebastian Bach or Albert Brumley types. They are my brothers and sisters. I'm thrilled they love my Father even if they are not all alike! I do not head for the door if some of them close their eyes and lift up holy hands while they are singing. They all sing what is meaningful to them whether its meaningful to anyone else or not.

     The body of Christ is not composed of movements in history, although it is affected by them, because it exists in the

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time-space spectrum in which historical movements operate. We are a pretty good example of what happens when you confuse a movement with the body of which Jesus is the head. Most of us are heirs of one of about sixteen restoration movements. A lot of them started about the same time, and all of them splintered and shivered into fragments. Many of them divided over the very same problems and at the same time in history. Some of them did not get to first base and others exploded on the way to second. When they came down they thought it was home plate and made the mistake of thinking they had arrived and everyone else had departed.

     The body never died and it did not have to be restored. Good Presbyterians like Thomas and Alexander Campbell, Barton Warren Stone and Walter Scott, thought there must be a better way to please God than by splitting a splinter off every time someone came up with a new theological slant, so they inaugurated "a project to unite the Christians in all of the sects." They failed to unite all of the Christians, because of what Alexander Campbell called "creed parties" in the sects. But we came along and argued that what they had done was to restore the church, and there were no Christians left in the sects to unite. Those who were Christians came with us, and those who did not come with us were not Christians. Thus, the restoration movement was transformed into "the Lord's church" by our semantics. We fooled ourselves into believing that. We did not fool the Lord. I doubt that we fooled the Baptists when the "Reformers" pulled out of the Mahoning Association, after having previously left the Redstone Baptist Association because of rejection of the plea!

     The one body is not the restoration movement and the restoration movement is not the one body. The body is bigger than any movement. It is greater than all of them put together. God knows how great it is, but no one on earth does. You can number the Disciples of Christ party, the Christian Church party and the Church of Christ party. You can compare figures and even gleefully juggle them in a kind of suppressed hostile rivalry, but you can no more count the redeemed on earth while they are scattered than you can in heaven when they are all together. John said, "After these things I looked, and behold, a great crowd! And no one was able to count it--out of every nation and of all tribes and peoples and tongues!"

     It doesn't bother me that I cannot count that high. I do not need to know who they all are. The Lord knoweth them that are his! Once I knew all who were saved. It wasn't a big job back in those days. The kingdom of heaven wasn't very large. It centered mainly in the midwestern part of the United States. That was because that section of the world was fortunate enough to have us in it. I even helped put out a directory of "faithful churches." It was one of about a dozen such directories and there were no duplications in them. Ours was always being "gummed up" by congregations being persuaded to "leave the faith" and "apostatize," which meant going over with some of the others. Of course, we captured our share and messed their directories up also. Being faithful had nothing to do with really pleasing Jesus. It was parroting the party line!

     What a relief it is now to be free from all of that and to belong only to Jesus. What a privilege it is to be allowed to stand or fall to your own master and to let everyone else do the same. I grew up in a factional world where preachers of the word were constantly being called to referee congregational dog-fights, or com-

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ing from far and near to examine, catechize or tighten the screws upon someone who had learned better and was changing his mind. I was a part of such inquisitions and I am ashamed of it. I know now that the party always skims off the brains from the top. Only the thinkers are driven out! The bland conformists who either do not reason, or play politics and keep their mouths closed, stay in and become the party greats! Actually, it has come to the point in a lot of places where the best recommendation you can have is that the local congregation has excluded you!

     Jesus did not die to purchase a party to oppose support of the Herald of Truth. He did not die to purchase one to promote it either. He did not shed his blood for an instrument party or a non-instrument party, for an "organic" faction or an "inorganic" faction. Jesus did not suffer and bleed for a Sunday School faction or an anti-Sunday School faction. All parties which are exclusivistic are cooked up by men. They are brewed from unwritten creeds and simmered in opinions. All of them put together would not constitute the one body. That body has many parts, but no parties. And I am no longer interested in any party, promotion, schism or sect. I am interested in Jesus and I am willing to share that interest and my life (which is his) with anyone who exalts his lordship!

     The body is God at work in the world, in space and time, as he was at work in Christ. As the living word became flesh then, so now the revealed word becomes our flesh, and God is now in us reconciling the world unto himself. We are his reconciling agents, his earthen vessels, filled with his fullness, and serving the divine purpose for the divine end. I am an organ of God. My fleshly body is an arm of God, or a leg of God, or a tongue for God.

     Every child of God in the world, every son and daughter of the Lord Almighty, is in the one body, and is my brother or sister. I am one with all of them. But I am only one with them through Him. Our unity is in Christ. Even though others who are in Him do not recognize their oneness with me, I recognize it with them. I did not arrange it. I simply accept it. When God received them I received them. If he took them in with their hostility toward me I will take them the same way. It is not necessary that they recognize me. It is only necessary that they accept him. If they do that we stand together in him whether we stand together on things or not.

     I am not so concerned with what they have in their minds as I am concerned with who they have in their hearts. The Holy Spirit can dwell in some pretty ignorant people. If He cannot it will be "Katy, bar the door" for a lot of us, and we will be standing outside in our ignorance looking in, instead of standing inside in our ignorance looking out. None of us know too much, and if we brag about what we do know, we prove it! "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. But if anyone thinks he knows anything, he has not known anything as he ought to know it" (1 Cor. 8:1, 2).

     The apostle adds to that, "But if anyone loves God, he is known by him." Praise the Lord! The one body is not composed of those who have scored a passing grade on a theological comprehension test. It is not made up of those who have attained a certain intellectual status. It is not how much you know but who you know. "And this is life everlasting, that they should know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Everlasting life is a personal relationship. It is not a memory feat. You can be a member of the body and not know one letter of the alphabet from another. You can be a member of it and not be able to write

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your own name. Cheer up! If you know him like I know him your name will be written down in glory where the Lamb keeps his book of life.

     I refuse to allow any sectarian wall to debar me from any of my brethren. Such walls are not real. God did not construct a one of them. They are monuments to human pride and arrogance. They stand because of vain traditions which love the praise of men more than the praise of God. They are all artificial. They are all superficial. But they are not there for one who ignores them. There are no sectarian walls except in human hearts and my heart has been purged from the party spirit by the crimson stream flowing from Immanuel's veins.

     God does not want great lawyers, but grace-filled lovers. "The law came by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." If I follow Jesus my task is not to lay down the law but to take grace and truth to men. My only principle of action is the Spirit of life. To take that spirit to men I must leave my comfortable little heaven and make myself vulnerable. I must go where I would rather not go because that is where he leads. I must drink of a cup which I would rather have pass away, because that is what he did. I cannot wait until men see things as I do or agree with me. On that basis he would never have left heaven and come to earth. I must go among my brethren, all of them, for if I refuse to do that I will be guilty of the works of the flesh, and the fruit of the Spirit will wither and die. I want my watchword to be, "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and tumult and evil-speaking be put away from you, along with all evil-hearted feelings, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, even as God forgave you in Christ."

     I think that when one changes his view of the one body as I have changed mine, he ought to be frank, open and explicit. He should be willing to bear the brunt of attack which will be directed toward him. He should steel himself inwardly for false accusation and expect his motives to be maligned. Satan does not easily surrender one who has been steeped in the party spirit. Freedom is never cheap and liberty has its price. But I want to be understood. I have no desire to equivocate, no intention of concealing my views.

     There is one body! It is composed of every sincere immersed believer on earth. Every person who believes with all of his heart that Jesus is the Messiah, and God's Son, and is immersed because of that faith has been baptized into Christ. His sins are forgiven and he receives the Holy Spirit as God's gift. Every such person is a member of the one body by an act of God. If he suffers I suffer with him. If he rejoices I rejoice with him. The one body is not circumscribed by the limits of the non-instrument Church of Christ. It is not restricted to any one of its two dozen parties, nor to all of them put together. The body of Christ does not appear in the list of religious organizations in the United States Census Bureau report. It will never appear there!

     I believe in the restoration principle and ideal. I am convinced that renewal must come as it has come in other periods of history. It can only come through recovery of the apostolic proclamation, purpose and power. The position held by the twelve apostles was unique. They still hold it. They have no successors to their office. They were envoys of the King and their writings are authoritative in my life. God set them in the church first. The foundation they laid is the one upon which I shall continue to build. I have neither time nor respect for any theory which sets aside the new covenant scriptures as the basis for my whole life. But I know the difference between the restoration movement started by good men and the one body created by the living God.

     For me the revelation of God is complete. I hold no brief for modern prophetic utterances, whether given by Joseph Smith or my own brethren. The new covenant scriptures are perfect for their purpose and their purpose is to make us perfect--unto every good work. They are not a written code of legal requirements, but a collection of love letters for believers. They do not so much represent the

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will of God imposed as the heart of God exposed. They are not an indication of the Father cracking a whip but extending His hand to help in time of need. Reading the apostolic letters I am able to think God's thoughts after him. I can draw nigh to him so that he can draw nigh to me. And he never fails to do so!

     Yes, there is one body, and there is only one! God is its creator, Jesus is its head, the Holy Spirit is its life, and all who are sanctified and justified are its members, its organs in the world. Jerusalem which is above is free and she is the mother of us all. We are children of promise and not of a slavewoman. We are all the sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. As many! Every person on this earth who was baptized into Christ Jesus has put him on! The extent of the body is determined by the number of those who have put on Christ Jesus by being baptized into him. I am convinced there are multiplied thousands of them of whom I have never heard. But I will see them in the grand reunion, the great festival of the home-going! What a gathering from every nation, clime and tongue!

     The saints have put on the new man that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created that new man. They are the elect of God and they are complete in the fullness of him who is the head of all rule and authority. I am one of that number, a sinner saved by grace which is so startling that I have not begun to understand it. I want to be found in him, not knowing my own righteousness, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God which is by faith. I want to know him and the power of his resurrection.

     It still seems almost unbelievable that He stooped down and took me up in the everlasting arms along with all the rest of you who have set to your seal that God is true. But I thank him and praise him, that unworthy as I was, he came looking for me and did not stop calling until I answered and he found me. There is room in the body for all of us who love him. It is the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, the community of the reconciled ones, and may all of us who are in it be reconciled to one another as we have to Him. Let us be drawn closer by the atoning blood which flowed for all!