MYTHS OF THE RESTORATION MOVEMENT (6)
W Carl Ketcherside

One of the most unscholarly bits of fiction current among preachers of “The Church of Christ” in our day, is that there is no difference between the gospel of Christ and the apostolic doctrine. This leads to a kind of reasoning which often borders on the ridiculous. And it crops up in the most unexpected places. Before me, as I write, lies a sermon outline of a fairly well-known preacher, a graduate of Abilene Christian University. He was attempting to prove that the term “perfect” in 1 Corinthians 13:10 referred to the completion of the sacred canon of the new covenant scriptures. This was his answer to those who believe in miraculous demonstrations and phenomena in our day. He said, “We must not forget that the gospel had not been completed yet.”

Unless we want to be caught up in grave error we had better forget it. The gospel is the good news of what God has done for sinful man that man could not do for himself. It is the account of a person who emptied himself, took the form of a servant, and was born in the likeness of man. It is the story of one whom God made “our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification and redemption.” Christ is the gospel, and the gospel is Christ. The news about Jesus is the good news. And it was fully, completely, and perfectly proclaimed upon the first Pentecost after His resurrection. It was perfectly accepted on that day also. Not another word has been added to the gospel since that day.

The gospel consists of facts about Jesus. There are seven of these. They are His life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, coronation and glorification. All these were made credible by acts of divine power which made them believable. The response to them is faith. Together they merge into the greatest proposition of truth ever to challenge finite minds—that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Anyone who heralds these facts has announced the gospel, anyone who accepts them without quibble has believed the gospel.

The gospel is God’s message to the world. It is to be preached to all the world, to all nations. It was for those who were aliens. It was to enlist them as citizens. It was for enemies. It was to enroll them as friends of God. It was not for those who were disciples. It was to make disciples. Nowhere was the gospel ever preached to a congregation of saints. They had already heard and accepted it. That’s what made them saints. The gospel was the seed, or sperm, from which we were begotten (1 Peter 1:23). The doctrine is the bread upon which the children feed. Response to the gospel is a one-time experience. It is like begettal or conception. Obedience to the doctrine is a progressive situation. It lasts a lifetime and will be going on when death occurs.

Two centuries ago this seems to have been more clearly understood than it is now. Dr. George Campbell, of Aberdeen, wrote about it in his Dissertations on the Gospels in 1788. Dr. James Macknight wrote about it in his Commentary on the Epistles in 1795. Alexander Campbell saw the distinction between the gospel and doctrine and repeatedly stated it in his journals. Indeed, he said that until this difference was clearly understood there could never be a reformation worth the name. He knew that we could never unite all of the Christians on their varied opinions of the doctrine. Why, then, do preachers of our day scoff at the distinction, ridicule it, and often even label it as heresy?

With no intent of seeking to accuse unjustly, I would like to suggest that it is because they have something to defend. Let us face the fact. “The Church of Christ” has become a legalistic institution. In this they share honors with the Roman Catholic Church. The plain truth is that they believe in a humanly devised system of salvation by works. They actually make faith a work. And when one calls attention to the fact that “By grace are you saved through faith,” they quickly, adroitly and cleverly manipulate the scriptures until they make the grace of God merely another way of saying we are saved by what we do, rather than by what is done for us or to us.

To justify such a “scheme of redemption” they must confuse gospel and doctrine. It is in response to the gospel we are saved. If the gospel includes everything in the new covenant scriptures, we must know it all and respond in obedience to it all, or be cast into the lake of fire. Such a written code of laws has no power to save if that result is achieved by acceptance of a person. Obedience grows out of such acceptance, rather than acceptance growing out of such obedience. Our lifestyle is changed because of a completely new relationship to one who knew no sin. It is love for Him that makes us want to imitate Him as our pattern. We are not saved because we work, we work because we are saved. This places the merit upon the atoning blood of one we love, rather than upon our deeds done by law.

It is not gaining recognition that counts. It is gaining Christ. “For his sake I have thrown everything away; I consider it all as mere garbage, so that I may gain Christ and be completely united with him. I no longer have a righteousness of my own, the kind that is gained by obeying the Law. I now have the righteousness that is given through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is based on faith.” We must choose between throwing everything away or keeping some of our antiques. We must realize that we cannot throw ourselves at his feet with our arms laden with garbage. We must early on determine whether we will be governed by the law of love or by our love of law. We cannot cling to both.

It is really sectarian pride, coupled with the tradition of the elders, which makes a people perpetuate an idea with no scriptural warrant. The basis of all sectarianism is fear. There never was a separate party erected except on that foundation, or motivated except by that feeling. We are frightened by the very thought of turning loose of a dogma which has become hallowed by long years. We are fearful of the consequences upon our partisan principles. But the real lover of truth will hold to nothing which does not commend itself to his integrity or veracity. In full dependence upon God, he cuts himself loose from all moorings contrived by man and sets himself free in Christ to be led of the Spirit. That is what faith and trust are all about.

One who has embraced Him whose person is “the way, the truth, and the life,” by that initial step makes a covenant that He will accept all truth as it becomes known and available unto him. The word of truth has been given by God, the truth of that word can be received with assurance. But the truths of that word are not all known to any of us. He who will be true to God will embrace each of them as he learns them. Before learning them he cannot be expected to do so. And even after learning them he must be given time to absorb and assimilate them. Involuntary ignorance may be a handicap, but it is no sin. Voluntary ignorance always is. What one could learn and refuses to will haunt him.

If the religious world can capture the concept of the gospel as the news about a person and see in that person the bridge between earth and heaven, there is hope in our generation for the beginning of that unity for which Jesus prayed. Our hope does not lie in our conformity to a code, our perception of precepts or in our loyalty to laws. It centers in our vital relationship to the Christ in whom all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell. It is in Him we live and move and have our being. Unlearned peasants, illiterate barbarians and ignorant tribesmen can, on this ground, be received. We can welcome them as brothers. They can never find their way if it requires a knowledge of all the subtleties of doctors of theology or the explanation of abstract doctrine by erudite professors of the schools. And in Christ there is “neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free man, but Christ is all, and in all.” Christ is all! Ponder that carefully.