One Faith

W. Carl Ketcherside

[Page 129]

     I believe that each one of us must eventually face the real issue, which is quite simply: do I believe after adult examination of the evidence that Jesus Christ was what he claimed to be, or am I prepared to assert quite definitely that he was wrong in his major claims, and that, though much of his teaching is beautiful, he himself was a self-deceived fanatic? --J. B. Phillips in "God Our Contemporary."

     The life in Christ is a life of crisis. It is so by its very nature. The Christian has enlisted as a soldier, and a man in God's army should not expect to be free from conflict. Sometimes the areas of conflict are without, but because we are in the flesh they are sometimes within. The primitive saints were called "The Gamblers" by the pagans, because they risked everything including earthly life itself. Crises are good. They add zest to living but they also inspire confidence when they are met victoriously.

     In spite of all this I should like to avoid what I am going to write today. It is not that I have a doubt about its validity, for I have none. It is rather that I would prefer not to disturb some of my friends. But I cannot evade the task I have set for myself and be honest before God. So I shall write my sincere convictions and say, as I have often said before, that if you cannot concur I shall love you just the same. I cannot forget how perturbed I would have been a few years ago if someone I respected would have written these things.

     What is the one faith which is intended to secure the unity of the Spirit, to be maintained in the bond of peace? Let me first tell you what it is not! As shocking as it will be to my many dear friends in the Roman Catholic tradition, it is not Catholicism. Modern Catholicism is that synthesis called Thomism, worked out by Thomas Aquinas as an amalgamation of Aristotelianism, Judaism and Christianity. This is not the one faith. It can never be that faith.

     The one faith is not Lutheranism. It is not Calvinism or Methodism. It is not an "ism" at all, and for that reason, it is not Church of Christism. This is a grievous expression to the sensitive ears of my brethren. They deny there is such a thing but their denials are born of wishful thinking. They are pipe dreams. Church of Christism is that bundle of views, explanations, and traditions which have been moulded into a set of beliefs, to which all must subscribe in order to be received into and recognized as communicants in "The Church of Christ." It is the unwritten creed of "The Church of Christ." It is the exclusivistic set of teachings alleged to be the exact meaning of divine revelation. It is the criterion by which loyalty to the party is measured.

     Church of Christism is not the one faith. It can never keep the unity of the Spirit. Its real basis is not the indwell-

[Page 130]

ing Spirit at all, but a compilation of judgments, decisions and verdicts handed down by men as precedents. It is as one of our widely advertised books blatantly admits, "The Voice of the Pioneers." The gradually accumulating unwritten creed must be acknowledged as valid and official even in violation of personal integrity. One who no longer accepts that creed is a heretic, an apostate, a liberal.

     Church of Christism can never preserve the bond of peace. The best proof of this is the divided state of the Church of Christ. It is fragmented and splintered into more factions than any other contemporary movement. Its adherents engage in debates and carnal strivings with one another more than do those in any other religious group in our generation. They assail each other via the communications media, and there are more than two dozen parties, each of which claims to be the one holy, catholic and apostolic church of God upon earth. It is absurd to expect Church of Christism to keep the bond of peace. The members cannot even call upon their brethren to pray to God.

     Let me go a step further. The one faith is not composed of twenty-seven books. It is not that magnificent compilation of biography, letters, history and prophecy, which we mistakenly call the new testament, or new covenant. Let me be quite clear. These documents contain the revelation of the divine mind. They were composed by men under the direction and motivation of the Holy Spirit. They contain God's will for my life. I love, respect and cherish every word of them. I intend to be guided and governed by their disclosures. I read them hungrily and avidly. I study them diligently and fervently.

     But the one faith was here and embraced by the called-out ones long before one word of the new covenant scriptures ever flowed from the reed pen of an apostle. Of course, we read about that faith in the scriptures since both that faith and the scriptures came from God. We also read about the one body and one hope in the scriptures, but the body and the hope are not the scriptures.

     Certainly the letter addressed to the saints in Ephesus and to all the faithful in Christ Jesus is not identical with the one faith. The apostle wrote that letter to identify that faith as one of the essentials to the unity of the Spirit. They already had it and were exhorted to keep it. The one faith was in possession of the Ephesians before they ever received the letter. It was not their understanding of the letter which produced in them the one faith, but it was a need for understanding the one faith which produced the letter. The one faith would have been there if the apostle had never written. That faith existed in many hearts which never saw an apostolic letter and did not know there would ever be a collection of such letters.

     Few other errors have worked the mischief that has resulted from confusing the faith with the letters of instruction, admonition and exhortation to the people of God who had embraced the one faith. It was that which made them the people of God. Because of this error there has grown up that curious postulate which makes a specific degree of knowledge of doctrinal deductions essential for acceptance into "the fellowship." All sorts of creeds, both written and unwritten, have thus been devised, and are now expounded as if creed-making was the will of God for preachers and elders.

     Almost every point of scriptural instruction has been debated and elevated as the center around which a new faction has crystallized. Issues have separated brethren from one another, which have no relationship, either pro or con, to our unity in Christ. The one faith is not and never can be conformity to a legalistic formula which gives kingdom caste or status to twentieth century "Gnostics" who boast of a superior knowledge, or whose power of deductive reasoning lifts them above their more humble fellows.

     It is not heavenly, but diabolical, to take the one faith which was intended to draw men together and interpret it

[Page 131]

in such a manner as to drive them apart if they refuse to be intellectual robots. That faith was intended to bring out the best that is in men. As it is often interpreted it brings out the worst. It substitutes coldness for charity, callousness for concern, and cavilling for candor. It becomes a religion of the hot head and the cold heart, rather than of the cool head and warm heart. It makes men carry a chip on the shoulder instead of a real burden for the lost.

     When I seek to define the one faith I bow before the eternal throne and confess my inadequacy. The thoughts which flood my soul seem woefully lacking for the task. The words which flow from my pen inhibit rather than enhance. Yet I must testify to my conviction in spite of my ineptitude and incompetence.

     The one faith is acceptance of the reality of the divine crashing of the prison gates of sin by the One from outside. It is the human response to the heavenly strategy for setting the captives free. It is unqualified trust in the fullest implications of the statement, "But as it is, he has appeared once and for all at the climax of history to abolish sin by the sacrifice of himself." It is accepting with joy the fact of delivery.

     Trust is not just an element of faith. Faith is elemental trust. It is positive trust that in death and by death, Jesus opened up a new and living way through the curtain of his own flesh. He opened it for us. We can make our approach to the God of the universe, the Lord of the cosmos, in sincerity of heart and in full assurance of faith. Our guilty hearts have been sprinkled clean. Our bodies have been washed with pure water. Our faith is a firm confidence. It is an unswerving conviction.

     The faith is pinpointed in history. The record specifically says "Before faith came" and "After faith came" (Gal. 3:23, 25). Man had faith before this. The father of the faithful lived long before this. A great list of men of faith is given in Hebrews 11. The writer did not exhaust the list. He said time was too short to detail the faith of others. But there is a difference between men of faith coming to God and the faith of God coming to men.

     "Before this faith came we were close prisoners in the custody of law." We were shut up and fenced in. We were kept in confinement. All we could do was pace the length of our cellblock. The sign at each end read, "This far and no farther shalt thou go." All we had for comfort was a promise of God. It was a promise that the seed of Abraham would come. Blessing would attend his coming. It would free us from the curse of the law. The promise of God alone sustained mankind. It was a star of hope in the darkness of a night of sin.

     There was no life in law. "If a law had been given which had power to bestow life, then indeed righteousness would have come from keeping the law." If righteousness comes by law, then Christ died for nothing. Paul wrote that and he should know. No one can be justified on the basis of keeping law. One who expects to make it by perfect performance of precepts pronounces his own doom. He signs his own death warrant. He builds his own scaffold.

     The law was a custodian to bring us to Christ in whom we are justified by faith. Now that faith has come we are no longer under a custodian. Most of our brethren do not really accept that statement. But we must make our decision. It is either justification on the basis of faith in Jesus or upon the basis of law. You cannot have both. I have made my choice. I am no longer under law but under grace. My brothers are not "brothers-in-law" but brothers in love. What a difference!

     Law says, "Do this and you will live!" Grace says, "You live, so do this." Don't be silly. They are not the same. There is all the difference there is between the world since He came, and the world before He came. In the first, you start with law and try to achieve life. You are whipped before you begin. You have lost the race before you hear the starter's gun. If God could have given a law, a written code, which could bestow life it

[Page 132]

was an act of monstrous iniquity to send Jesus to die.

     Since faith came we start with life, not with law. He that hath the Son hath life. You even start with eternal life, the life of God. As John wrote, "This letter is to assure you that you have eternal life. It is addressed to those who give their allegiance to the Son of God." That's wonderful! Forget all the silly twaddle about people in Jesus not keeping his commands. One who gives his allegiance to Jesus, and who has the life of God throbbing inside of him, is going to do always those things that please Jesus. He will not have to have a heavenly motorcycle policeman--an elder or preacher--riding around issuing him a ticket.

     Let's get right down to the nitty-gritty of the matter. When you have skimmed off all the theological wranglings and interpretations, and strained out all of the gnats, the opinions and deductions of men, the one faith is Jesus. He is the center of it. He is also the circumference of it And that goes for the gospel as well. Jesus is the gospel personified. The faith for which we are to contend is the faith of the gospel (Phil. 1:27). The gospel is good news and faith is trust But the good news is news of what God has done for us in Jesus. Our faith is the response to the news in absolute surrender and unreserved trust.

     The gospel consists of seven facts about a person. Those facts are the life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, coronation and glorification of Jesus. Three of these are saving facts. These seven constitute the one faith. They are summed up in the grandest proposition of the ages, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah of the prophets and the Son of God. When these facts are announced and the human heart accepts them in joyous acclamation, that heart lays hold upon the one faith. It is this one faith which, through its implementation or expression in one inductive act brings us into the glory of a relationship which will culminate in a relationship of glory.

     The gospel is not the collation of apostolic writings forming the new covenant scriptures. The gospel is the glad news about a person, while the apostolic letters are composed of commendations, exhortations, warnings and criticism, sent to those who have accepted that person as Lord. The gospel is to be proclaimed to every person in the world. The apostolic letters are written to those in Christ. Certainly those who are in the one faith will read, study and obey the injunctions of the scriptures, not as a source of life, but because they have life. One does not eat bread to obtain life but to maintain it.

     When Jesus was upon earth there were those who thought that eternal life was contained in the scriptures. They thought it was something to dig out rather than something to be handed out as a gift. But Jesus said, "You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, but they are they which testify of me. And you will not come unto me that you may have life." Jesus did not condemn searching the scriptures. He revered them and frequently quoted them. He recognized their authority. But he knew that life was a relationship with him. It is a gift of the Son and not a result of research. The faith is not Jesus pointing us to a book, but a book pointing us to Jesus.

     Life comes not from giving assent to what the Book says, although that is very important. It comes from believing into Him who is the object of the testimony and of our faith. He is the pioneer and perfecter, the author and finisher, of

[Page 133]

our faith. The record is not written to give us eternal life but to tell us we have it. The life is in the Son.

     But does not man live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God? Of course he does. Jesus said so when tempted to command stones to be transformed into bread to allay the pangs of hunger. One lives by eating bread but bread is not the source of life. The word sustains the same relationship to the spirit as does bread to the body. Neither of them gives life. One is begotten by a person, not by a bagel. He eats bread to sustain life and he studies the revealed word for the same reason. If life came from a book there was no use of Jesus dying that we might have life. God could simply have sent us a book.

     It is the gospel by which one is begotten. This is the primal message. It is the incorruptible seed, the proclamation of heaven, the kerygma. It is the word of God about the living Word of God, who is the Word of life, the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifest in the flesh. When one is begotten and born into the family of God he must feed upon the word. If he does not do so he will starve and die. One who comes into him who is the truth obligates himself to accept all of the truth as he learns it but he has life and is as much a child of God from the day he is born as he will ever be.

     While on this theme I should like to clear up a general misunderstanding of Romans 10:17, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

     I once quoted this as if Paul referred to the whole of the new covenant scriptures, the completed textual canon. I freely used it in debate to challenge brethren who supported colleges and other institutions to point to such things in the word of God or admit they were accepted without faith. I then lifted another passage completely out of context and concluded that because these were not mentioned they were sin. "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." I was wrong in my understanding of both.

     A careful study has convinced me that Romans 10:17 is talking about the gospel proclamation. It is true that all of the scriptures are a word from God and are the word of God. It is also true that they should be believed and accepted. But Paul is writing of the good news of Jesus. It is difficult for those of us who have a copy of the collected epistles bound under one leather cover to realize that Paul did not. There is no indication he even knew that some of his writings would be collected later on and compiled. We tend to read back into what he wrote our own experience, knowledge and understanding based upon a perfected revelation which has undergone nineteen centuries of research and investigation. We forget that the Romans to whom this was written had neither a copy of the scriptures, nor a Cruden's Concordance or Clarke's Commentary.

     The theme of Romans 10 is that Christ ended the law as a means of attempting to arrive at justification. This brought to an end a futile struggle, for "by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." Righteousness is now by faith in Christ Jesus. It requires no one to ascend into heaven or descend into the abyss to make Jesus available. We do not need to see him. The word of faith, that is, the announcement of justification by faith is near. It is as near as our hearts and our ears. It requires no remote journey. Men have been commissioned to bring it. Their sound has gone throughout the Roman Empire. Their words have gone out to all the world.

     "How welcome are the feet of the messengers of good news." These were the words of the evangelical prophet. Paul borrows them for this great occasion. "But not all have responded to the good news" (New English Bible). "But they did not all hearken to the glad tidings" (W. E. Vine). The King James Version reads, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." With a completed Bible in their hands, my brethren have concluded that the faith which justifies is a correct

[Page 134]

understanding and interpretation of the new covenant scriptures. And a correct interpretation is the authorized and orthodox one projected by the particular party. Paul certainly had no such idea. The new covenant scriptures were not yet written.

     The faith which justifies is faith in the proclamation about Jesus. The message is the gospel. The New English Version reads, "We conclude that faith is awakened by the message, and the message that awakens it comes through the word of Christ." W. E. Vine renders it, "So belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." He aptly adds, "The phrase 'the word of Christ,' which is supported by the majority of MSS., signifies 'the word concerning Christ.'"

     The one faith has nothing to do with being either right or wrong about instrumental music in the public praise of God; the millennial question; the charismatic movement; classes or colleges. People in the one faith are on all sides of these issues and many others. These may or may not affect their final destiny depending upon how they treat their brethren because of them. None of them are as important to God as they are to us.

     The one faith is the human response from the depth of an anguished heart to the greatest news ever announced on this planet. "Jesus has come and calleth for thee!" Jesus has come! This earth will never be the same again. This is the visited planet, and the one faith is acknowledgment of that supreme fact! It is the ground of hope.