RESTORATION OF SPIRITUAL CHRISTIANITY
by Robert L. Duncan

Historically, one of the fundamental concerns of the religious groups associated with the Restoration Movement has been the reproduction of the primitive church. This interest is of course reflected in the title of the movement itself. It would seem, however, that this interest has in too many cases related to the patterns of work and worship manifested by the first-century church to the exclusion or neglect of the inner life of the early worshiping community. The restoration of the early church includes far more than the legalistic imitation of its patterns of work and worship. Concern for restoration degenerates into a lawyer-like search of the Scriptures for precedents, which in turn leads to a legalistic attitude toward the Christian life, unless it is tempered by the spiritual attitudes manifested in the apostolic church. What has happened to the Restoration Movement since its inception is an adequate illustration of this affirmation. A multiplicity of sects has grown out of this movement, sects that have resulted from a legalistic ransacking of the Scriptures for what have been taken for principles to be reproduced in the life of the present-day church. In many if not most cases, these sects have obtained and retained their identity by distortion out of all due proportion of one or more Biblical passages. Yet, it is often quite apparent that there is a gross inconsistency between the profession of earnest concern for the reproduction of these Biblical (?) forms and what may be observed in the lives of those who lay claim to this concern. It may easily be seen that there is frequently a far more vital relationship with Christ in the lives of some who have had no connection with the Restoration Movement. The traditional answer to this situation, of course, is that the latter are possessed of a zeal without knowledge—but knowledge of what or whom? Is it better to know Christ, or the shibboleths of the proponents of a new type of legalism which has replaced that of the Pharisees, and in some respects is even more binding? Just what must one “know” in order to please God? From the standpoint of my interpretation of the New Testament scriptures, it is not so much a question of “what” one knows about the legalisms that have developed out of the Restoration effort, but rather a matter of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ in one’s personal life. This is not to say that Christianity is irrational, or that it has no intellectual value, but it is to say that being in Christ has become too much a matter of accepting the party line in the thinking of some modern-day proponents of the Restoration, and not enough a matter of personal devotion to the One who “loved us and gave Himself for us.” (Gal. 2:20) This kind of devotion will of course lead one to wholehearted obedience to the commands of God, but it will preclude the possibility of one’s seeking acceptance before God on the basis of his adherence to the “rules” of a sect.

It is thus apparent that if there is to be a valid restoration of New Testament Christianity, it must be based upon a genuine concern for the spiritual values of the early church as well as its doctrinal forms. What then would be the prerequisites for such a spiritual restoration? In answer to this question I present the following considerations.

THE INDWELLING HOLY SPIRIT

It has been suggested by one writer that the Acts of the Apostles might also be appropriately called the “acts of the Holy Spirit.” In this, the earliest history of the church, we find the Holy Spirit manifesting His life-giving presence in the life of the Christian community, in accord with the promise of Christ, “. . . you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) In this power then they conquered “the world, the flesh and the devil” One of the most apparent characteristics in the epistles of Paul is his stress upon the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. For example, he says, “. . . . if by the Spirit you put a stop to the doings of your lower nature, you will live.” (Rom 8:13, William trans.) Thus it becomes clear that the ability of the Christian to live for Christ is not self-contained and self-generated, but is the result of the lifegiving Spirit Who takes up His abode in the body of the Christian at his obedience to the Gospel. (Acts 2:38; 1 Cor. 6:19, 20; Acts 5:32) “This is not conquest by the clenched fist but by the clinging hand. It is not victory by flogging yourself into trying harder but by trusting yourself to the One who has already conquered in our behalf and for our sake.”1

Extremes beget extremes, however; and in part because of the excesses of some religious groups with regard to the work of the Holy Spirit, there has been a tendency among some advocates of the Restoration to play down or neglect the vital functions of the Holy Spirit. This is perhaps in large measure the explanation for the spiritual deadness and dryness that sometimes exists in churches of this persuasion. One cannot withdraw the power of the Holy Spirit from the life of the individual Christian and the church without both suffering from a spiritual dearth. A restoration of the spirituality of the primitive church must of necessity begin with a new consciousness of the work of the Spirit in the life of the church and the individual believer. We must be brought to the realization that the explanation of the work of the spirit by which He (the Spirit) is identified with His product (the Word) is totally inadequate for our needs. If the work of the Spirit is nothing more than a matter of revealing the will of God through the written Word, we are hopelessly lost! For it is in our ability to do what we know that we are largely deficient. It is one thing to be told what to do, and another thing to be taken by the hand and helped in doing it. The former is the work of the Word, the latter is the work of the Spirit. Of course, the Spirit operates in both functions, but He does not stop short with simply revealing the will of Christ through the Word. “. . . if by the Spirit you put a stop to the doings of your lower nature, you will live.”

W. E. Sangster of London has written a significant pamphlet called “A Spiritual Check-Up” which illustrates the vital place of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. It is largely a series of probing questions with regard to the spirituality of the Christian. Because of its importance, part of it is herein reproduced.²

Where I work:

“Am I known as a Christian where I work?”

By the power of the Holy Spirit you can be so known!

“Is Christ more loved or, at least, more respected at my business place because of the way I live?”

By the power of the Holy Spirit in you, He should be.

In the Home:

“Do those who know me best, believe in me most?”

By the power of the Holy Spirit in you, they should!

“Do I criticize the church and other Christians in front of the children?—heedless or careless that it is nearly the most damning thing I could do for them..”

By the power of the Holy Spirit I could refrain from such folly!

Concerning the Tongue:

“Do people know me as one whose conversation is constantly censorious?”

By the power of the Holy Spirit I could have a very different reputation.

“Is it possible that I claim to be a Christian and nurse revenge?”

By the power of the Holy Spirit I could be released from it and kept released!

At the Altar:

“Do I find time early in every day for

Bible Study?

Unhurried prayer?

Quiet listening to God?

By the power of the Holy Spirit I could do it!

With Fellow-workers for Christ:

“Can I work with other people?—and can others work with me?”

By the power of the Holy Spirit it should be so!

“Have I secret longing to be first?—or can I truly say that I don’t care who is second, or third, or fourth, so long as Jesus is first?”

By the power of the Holy Spirit this can be my attitude!

The Passing Years:

“What can I do now that I could not do five years ago?

Lead another person to Christ?

Distinguish guidance from my own desires?

Look death in the face and be unafraid?

Really enjoy an hour of prayer?

By the power of the Holy Spirit it should be possible to register actual growth!

To sum it up, can I say:

Ready for all Thy perfect will,

My acts of faith and love repeat,

Till death Thy endless mercies seal,

And make the sacrifice complete.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, YES!

KNOWING CHRIST

“For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse in order . . . that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. . . .” (Phil. 3:8, 10) At the time that Paul wrote these words he had been serving Christ for many years and was a mature Christian, yet he spoke of a purpose to “know” Christ. Of what sort of knowledge was he speaking? It is apparent that he was not speaking of a merely intellectual knowledge of his Lord. —for he had possessed this for many years. No, Paul was seeking for a more intimate spiritual communion with Christ. He “. . . desires a deeply experienced knowledge of the living and life-giving Christ.”³ (Cp. John 17:3) Such knowledge of our Lord is another absolute essential if there is to be a spiritual restoration among Christians.

The knowledge that some church members possess of Christ is largely of the “book” variety. That is, they think of Jesus as a character in a book, in the way that they might consider some other historical figure who was revealed to them through reading. We must, however, become supremely conscious of the fact that he is “the living and life-giving Christ” if we are to live vital Christian lives. He is not simply someone we read about in a book, but the living Lord who lives within us, loves us, and saves us. We must be able to say, in the flaming words of Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20) For Paul, Christ was a living person with whom he had daily fellowship and who strengthened him for the battles of life (Phil. 4:13), and our Lord is willing to come into our hearts to share with us in the sorrows and joys that are endemic to human experience.

The living Christ living within us—this is the secret of the overcoming life. Note once again Paul’s words in Philippians 3:8, 10; he wanted to share in the power of the resurrection of Christ. “By ‘the power of His resurrection’ is meant the living power which proceeds from the risen Saviour and reveals itself in the believer by working a total renewal of life in him.”⁴ This phrase (“the power of his resurrection”) does not mean “the power revealed in the historic resurrection of Christ . . . , nor the power of Christ by which Paul also would experience a resurrection after death, but it refers to the power of the resurrected Christ which forms the principle of the new life in the regenerate and works towards the complete renewal of man.”⁵ Ralph A. Herring has given a very interesting explanation of how Christians share in the life of Christ in a small volume on Philippians titled, To Live is Christ.

By his incarnation the Son of God entered the life-stream of the human race. There, as a man, he translated God’s quality of life into human experience. In him eternal life found human expression. When Jesus ascended, he took with him something that had never been in heaven before. He carried this human expression of the divine nature as a trophy back to the Father’s right hand, whence it could be communicated by his indwelling Spirit to all who believe. That is how the believer shares in the life of the Son of God.⁶

Thus, laying hold by faith upon this marvelous truth that the living Christ does live within us, we shall be able to say with Paul, “I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:13) . Furthermore, if we seek to “know Christ” in this personal and intimate sense, we, again with Paul, will find our experience with Him constantly growing in richness and variety.

TOTAL COMMITMENT

But the power of the Spirit-filled life and the blessed privilege of truly knowing our Lord are reserved for those whose lives are unreservedly surrendered to the purposes of God. Too much of what passes off for modern Christianity is superficial and lacking in real spiritual content, largely because there are so few who have genuinely committed themselves to Christ. The basic problem of mankind is the clash between the human, self-centered will, and the will of God. Not until self is dethroned and Christ has been enthroned in our hearts will it be possible for God’s work to come to fulfillment in our lives. It has been affirmed, and rightly so, that the blight of Christian discipleship is half-way surrender. “God is asking for all, and we want to ‘buy’ Him off with something less.”⁷ But He will not be bought off for “something less.” Nothing—neither baptism, the Lord’s Supper, church attendance, membership in the “right” church, acceptance of the party creed—absolutely nothing, can take the place of a heart that is fully surrendered. That which makes our acts of obedience, such as baptism, the Lord’s Supper, etc., acceptable is the committed heart and life; and apart from this, legalistic adherence to a set of religious rules has no real value or spiritual significance.

Jesus said, “. . . if any man’s will is to do his will, he shall know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.” (John 7:17) Again he said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Mt. 5:6) On our part then, there must be the intense yearning and hungering that lead to the wholehearted search into God’s will for our lives. During this search—which is a life-long process—we must be willing at all costs to accept whatever God may reveal to us, in the realization that in His will lies our salvation. One of the most thrilling aspects of the Christian life, to my way of thinking, is the fact that it is an adventure with our Lord who leads us on from victory to victory and from understanding to more understanding.

But in this life-long search our souls must be nourished, by the bread of God’s truth, or else the search degenerates into a self-centered endeavor to find confirmation of what we have already chosen to do. For, as the prophet observed so trenchantly, “I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. Correct me, O Lord, but in just measure; not in thy anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.” (Jer. 10:3,24) In our search for the ways of the Lord we are all in need of the correction that comes from the rod of God’s truth, prayer, and meditation.

One of the fundamental reasons for the shallowness of much that is proclaimed as Christianity among us is the neglect of the quiet time with God in our daily lives. Our spiritual temperature can in large part be gauged by our habits of study, prayer, and meditation. Or to put it another way, study, prayer, and meditation constitute the thermostat by which we can regulate the spiritual temperature of our Christian lives. This is a truth that has become very apparent to me in my efforts to serve the Lord. The times when I have felt closest to Christ have been precisely those times when I have taken time out for personal devotions. And let no one complain that there isn’t sufficient time in his schedule for such things. There must be time, it cannot be otherwise, if we are to be the fruitful Christians that God wishes us to be. Let us take time for that without which our souls shall shrivel away and perish for want of nourishment.

Many modern-day Christians are proceeding on the basis that one’s relationship with the Lord can be accurately determined by the amount of dust that is raised as the result of furious activity. This attitude actually reaches the point whereby it is felt that one in some sense is wasting time as he kneels in prayer. Almost unconsciously there is the feeling as one prays that this thing must be gotten out of the way in order that the business of the day might be undertaken. But we must realize that prayer is not simply preparation for Christian service, but it is Christian service. It is also extremely important that we leave space in our lives for meditation as well as for prayer, for God can speak to our hearts in such moments of quiet listening. In one sense prayer is a friendship with God, and what kind of a friendship can be founded upon one-way communication!

As we study the Scriptures in our devotions, we must do so with an intense desire to find the will of God for our lives. This should be the primary motivation of our hearts as we meditate upon the truths of God’s Word. Study of the Word which is largely motivated by a desire to find proof texts, which is undertaken with the purpose of preparing oneself to argue successfully with one’s religious neighbors, is not calculated to nourish the soul. We should cultivate the habit of feeding upon the Word of God in order that the hunger of our souls for the things of God might be satisfied. Those who truly “hunger and thirst after righteousness” find satisfaction in feeding their souls upon the Bread of Life (John 6:48) Who is revealed to us in the written Word.

In our study of the Scriptures there is a time for the rapid reading and general coverage which provides us with an overall survey of the Bible. Various methods may be employed in order that one might obtain this general knowledge. It must be remembered, however, that this type of approach is no substitute for that careful meditation upon the Word which truly nourishes our souls. In the latter instance the Christian should make use of what might be termed the “lozenge” method. That is, a brief passage should be read very carefully and meditatively, then applied to the life of the reader. It may be an admonition, a message of hope and courage, a doctrine, or have anyone of a number of applications. Let each individual derive his own good from the passage he studies, as long as his application is not a violation of the principles taught in God’s Truth and the passage under consideration. As one writer has put it with regard to such devotional reading, “. . . the ‘infant crying for the light’ has nothing to do with more than just humbly finding, and then using, the little light that it requires.”⁸ The passage is thus allowed to “dissolve” into the soul of the reader, becoming thereby a part of his Christian armour and sustaining him in his moments of spiritual crisis, as well as providing joy in all the moments of his Christian experience.

There is also a definite place in our devotions for the reading of religious material of a non-Biblical nature. Anyone of a number of the many fine books available may be employed. For example, at the present time I am making use of an excellent selection of devotional readings edited by John Baillie and titled, A Diary of Readings. To quote from the dust jacket, “These (readings) are chosen for their value in stimulating serious thought and contemplation and are not the trite, familiar sayings that one usually associates with anthologies.” In some instances these selections make for difficult reading but I have found them to be truly bread for my soul. This book is a companion volume to, A Diary of Private Prayer, which is also a valuable help in the Christian’s private devotions. It should be pointed out, however, that not all Christians derive their nourishment from precisely the same sources. Thus a book of readings or prayers may be extremely helpful to one Christian and of little value to another. One factor which is of great importance in determining our level of appreciation is our stage of Christian growth. And thus, “What repels or confuses us now may be the very food of angels; it may even still become the light to our own poor souls in this world’s dimness.”⁹

In our devotional reading it is not necessary to spend a great deal of time at anyone sitting. In fact too lengthy a period may actually be detrimental. One spiritual adviser has suggested, “I need not say that I would not restrict you to only one quarter of an hour a day. You might find two such helpful. But I would not exceed the fifteen minutes at anyone time; you would sink to ordinary reading, if you did.”¹⁰

This period spent in quiet reading, prayer, and meditation can make all the difference in the world in our relationship with the Lord as we pursue our daily tasks. Baron F. Von Hugel, the writer just quoted, affirmed, “That daily quarter of an hour, for now forty years or more, I am sure has been one of the greatest sustenances and sources of calm for my life.¹¹

CONCLUSION

The previous discussion has grown out of the conviction that the really great need among the churches of the Restoration persuasion lies in the realm of personal devotion to the Son of God. It is not written in the belief that doctrines are of no importance; for after all, our relationship with the Lord is based in large part upon a right understanding of His revelation of himself in the written word. It is very apparent that doctrinal norms are of vital importance if we are to retain the reality of the primitive church. However doctrines have been multiplied, at the same time being made tests of fellowship, till there is absolutely no possibility of Christian fellowship, except upon a very limited scale. I cannot believe that this is God’s concept of fellowship. At the same time it is my conviction that true devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ will be of great value in producing a broader concept of fellowship and a more genuine manifestation of the true nature of Christianity. For after all, it is our mutual relationship with Christ that provides the basis for our fellowship with one another. And where there is devotion to the Lord in the heart of another believer, there will be an echoing response of fellowship in our hearts, if they also are fully attuned to the purposes of Christ. And this devotion to our Lord can, in my estimation, be developed and enhanced by application of the principles that I have attempted to set forth in this brief essay.

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Robert L. Duncan, a Ph. D. candidate at the University of Indiana, is one of the promising young scholars of the Restoration Movement. We can take courage when historians like himself express such interest in a spiritual interpretation of man.

Freedom from uneasiness is the end of all our science. Pleasure is that satisfaction which arises in the mind upon, and is caused by, the accomplishment of our desires, and by no other means at all; and those desires being above shown to be caused by our pains or uneasiness, it follows that pleasure is wholly caused by pain and by no other thing at all.—Benjamin Franklin

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God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take which you please—you can never have both. Between these as a pendulum, man oscillates. He in whom the love of repose predominates will accept the first creed, the first philosophy, the first political parry he meets—most likely his father’s. He gets rest, commodity and reputation; but he shuts the door of truth. He in whom the love of truth predominates will keep himself aloof from all moorings, and afloat, He will abstain from dogmatism, and recognize all the opposite negations between which, as walls, his being is swung. He submits to the inconvenience of suspense and imperfect opinion, but he is a candidate for truth, as the other is not, and respects the highest law of his being.—Ralph Waldo Emerson