OUR TRADITIONS, OR THE
SPIRIT’S GUIDANCE?
BRIAN MUSTAIN
In keeping with our basically unimaginative human
nature, we so often find ourselves as individuals falling into what
we call “ruts.” These are, from a more religious point of
view, merely clever traps which the devil sets for us; and we, of
course, are in no position to match wits with the Trickster. Many of
us are at least halfway aware of Satan’s tactics. Indeed, most
of the people who sympathize with this periodical are quite adept at
pointing out the lamentable but ironclad traditions into which the
restoration Christians have become trapped. It might behoove us,
however, to turn the big guns onto our own ranks; those who are
labeled “liberals” have some targets which need to be
exploded.
First of all, we are caught in a rut of criticism. If
Satan can get us to be obsessed with the evils of the brotherhood, he
will be happy indeed. Perhaps even Restoration
Review needs to be cautious. Not that the
criticisms are necessarily invalid; it is just that we can become so
negative that we will be as guilty of preaching anti-Church of Christ
as others are in preaching Church of Christ, while the primary aim of
all should be to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
A second rut into which many “liberals”
fall is an obsession for the Restoration Movement itself. We cannot
afford to limit our realm of inquiry to this movement. This in itself
is sectarianism. We need to extend our dialogue to other groups; and
yet we must beware of making an idol of dialogue, as some have done.
We think we have some insights of which the brotherhood
has been ignorant. But how do we go about promulgating these ideas?
We publish periodicals in which we make known our views. We hold
seminars on fellowship. Leaders of the “liberal” groups
speak whenever they can on current issues. But is it enough? We are
perhaps falling into the same error of which we accuse others. We are
putting too much emphasis on fellowship, and not enough trust in the
power of God in the matter. We can
convince very few people of the need to widen their views. When a
person begins to see the concept of grace, is it because of
intellectual persuasion or because God revealed it to him? Phil. 3:15
says, “Let those who are mature be thus minded; and if in
anything you are otherwise minded, God will
reveal that also to you.” I Cor. 2 says over and over again
that the deepest truths of Christianity are made known to the spiritual man, and
that only through the Holy Spirit can we understand these things.
Christianity is not communicated by exegesis and by
harassing people with the truth. It is revealed by God to the
individual. This is the main point of I Cor. 2; and Paul prayed that
God would “give (the
Ephesians) a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him,
having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is
the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his
glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable
greatness of his power in us who believe . . .”
All the blessings which we seek, and which our brothers
need, are centered around a spiritual (i.e., a super-natural, and not
an intellectual) realization of the love of
Christ, of His grace, and the personal relationship we can have with
Him. If an extremely legalistic brother were to grasp the full scope
of the love of Jesus, he would no longer believe that I am going to
hell for believing certain “heresies.” But can I teach
him this love? Can I convince him by my brilliant exegetical analyses
of the passages which deal with grace? No. Can I make him see these
things by any of my own doings? I cannot. For the love of Christ
surpasses knowledge. Is it a paradox that Paul prayed for the
Ephesians to know this unknowable love? No! The full knowledge of
love and of grace is spiritual, and supernatural. It
cannot be communicated,’ it can only be
granted as a gift of God.
Is this to say that we should give up all our efforts?
In a very real sense, yes! We
should give up all our efforts,
and personally apply God’s advice to Jehoshaphat in II Chron.
20. “You will not need to fight in this battle; take your
position, stand still, and
see the victory of the Lord on your behalf.” What we do is in
vain, unless it is Christ who is doing His work through us. He will
guide us, if we will let Him. William Bright, director of Campus
Crusade for Christ, has pointed out that the branch does not “try”
to bear fruit anymore than a light bulb “tries” to shine.
For too long, we have either been trying to bear fruit on our own, or
at the most asking God for help in our efforts to broaden people’s
views. But let us stop asking God to help us in our
efforts; let us rather say, “Lord, I do
not ask that You help me in what I do. I want You to tell me what to
do, and then to carry out that work Yourself through me; for I will
ruin Your plans if I try to carry them out my way.” Let us
yield ourselves to God, and let Him work
through us in His plans.
There is quite a difference!
Again, this is not to say that we should cease working
toward the goals of “restoring” the Restoration Movement, if this is what the
Spirit directs us to do. But I sense that there is not always an
attitude of love on our part, and that any of us are trying to spread
our ideas of the “truth” by our own efforts. One brother
has shown us a very important observation: In John 17, Jesus’
prayer for unity was addressed to God—not to us. If we long to
see that prayer answered, we should cease trying to answer it
ourselves; we must yield our hearts, our minds, our tongues, our pens
to God. Then our words will not be from our own minds; but
only to the extent that we let Him replace our minds with His spirit.
Then God will be speaking through us. Our
efforts will be so much easier and much more fruitful.
Our constant plea should not be for more dialogue and fellowship. We must rather write and preach about fellowship with Christ. If we ourselves do not have such a relationship with Christ that He guides us directly and unequivocally, and such that we actually have the mind of Christ, then we should seek this relationship with all our beings, instead of trying to instruct the brotherhood in matters of fellowship. When we all begin to know personally Him whom we have believed, then the fellowship and love will follow.—Brian Mustain is a student at Rice University