The Authority of the Cross and Fellowship (Part 1)

What is the basis of our fellowship with God – our right standing with Him?  In what is our conviction grounded:

1. Because we are good enough morally?
2. Because we have the right grasp of all points of doctrine? Or at least, all the important ones?
3. Because we are affiliated with the right type of congregation?
4. Because we are purchased with Christ’s blood to be part of the new creation, His new covenant people, the new humanity?

For any sincere Christian and honest student of his word, to ask this question is to answer it.  We DO want to be doctrinally correct, and morally upright, and it IS an important consideration what type of congregation we affiliate with in the working out of our calling in our worship and mission.  But none of these things form the basis of our fellowship with the Father.  Rather, they are the result of it.  For the man/woman whose confidence lies in one or more of the first three, we are doomed to be torn between two poles:  on the one end, we might be arrogant beyond all decency, seeing ourselves as having “arrived” at moral excellence, doctrinal correctness, selection of the right church, etc.; on the other end, we might despair in hopelessness of ever achieving any such.  And in between there is mostly uncertainty – wavering between some wishful thinking that we are generally right on most points or morally decent, but in our moments of honesty, there is the growing realization that often we just do not measure up.  “Wretched man that I am!  Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?” 

Now it is important to realize that in “Church of Christ” circles, a great many have been led pall-mall toward an almost exclusive practical emphasis on #2 or #3 as the key determinants of our “soundness” or faithfulness to God.   There have been at least three devastating consequences:

1. By and large, we are individuals concerned about religion but lacking in spiritual joy and peace and confidence in God.  Too many have raging – or at least smoldering - conflicts within: shame, guilt, fear, or at least serious doubt.
2. We are plagued with doctrinal disputes and divisions over every conceivable issue.  It is a natural consequence.  If we believe that our own fellowship with God depends on being right on all major doctrinal issues, then we must believe that the ones who disagree with us on those issues are NOT in fellowship with God.  This leads to division and the unending search to find a “sound” congregation that agrees with me.
3. As a result of one or both of the above, many churches have seen discouragement, distraction, despair, spiritual decay, and a slow and certain death.

[I am thinking of churches who see striving for doctrinal purity as desirable, and leave out of consideration altogether those progressive churches who have “matured” to the point where doctrinal issues are no longer important to them.  Such churches, by and large, see themselves as just another choice among denominations, and division in those churches will generally come because of money and politics, not over doctrinal disagreements.]

But the glorious news of the gospel is that the ground of our reconciliation to God is the cross of Christ! It is the power of God and the wisdom of God (I Cor. 1:18, 23, 24).  HE is the propitiation, through faith, by his blood (Rom. 3:25).  This is our “righteousness” squarely based on faith in Christ.  By Him, through him, by his blood, we are joined to him by faith, we are born again into the new creation (II Cor. 5:17).  This is not just “belief” and not “faith plus” obedience in the sense of achievement, but rather humble, trusting submission to the will of God.  In baptism we are born of water and the Spirit (Jn. 3), and we are united with him in his death so we can be raised to walk in newness of life (Rom. 6). 

If we are asked the basis of our confidence in our relationship to God, the ground of certainty we carry in our hearts, we must point to the authority of the cross!  There is none other.  This is what the scriptures teach.  Our fellowship with God is not grounded in our doctrinal correctness, moral excellence, or right standing with the right congregation or the right network of congregations.  On the conviction that we are sinners, we submit to Him as Lord and to the washing of his blood!  If we don't, we are without hope. We belong to Him by His purchase and we have no other authority on which to relate to each other in the spiritual realm.   When Paul was beginning his discussion in 1 Corinthians, aimed at healing the underlying problems of that fractured fellowship, he said something that we can easily overlook.  It is striking in its simplicity, and yet shocking in its power:  “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1 Cor. 2:2).  Of course, Paul did not mean that he didn't speak about any other topic.  But he DID mean that the crucified Christ was the fundamental point on which his gospel was hinged.  The cross and its implications formed the central point on which everything else must be interpreted, the basis on which all religious problems must be solved!  This principle formed the basis of his appeal to them for unity, stretching over the first four or five chapters of the letter, perhaps more.  More on this in the next article.