THE UNIFYING POWER OF THE CROSS 

And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself — Jn. 12.42 

It takes power beyond the best of human effort to unite that which is divided. Unity forums are to be encouraged but these alone lack the power to unite. Creeds, whether written or unwritten, when subscribed to by all parties involved, may produce a superficial uniformity, but hardly the unity for which our Lord prayed. Even baptism, the powerful symbol that it is of union with Christ, has not the power within itself to unite believers, for people may see baptism alike and be baptized alike and still not be one. And however much doctrinal agreement may be prized it is hardly the bond of oneness, for two people (or an entire congregation) may see everything alike and still not be one in Christ.

We all know that people can sit side by side, pews full of them, and sing the same hymns, pray the same prayers, and read the same Scriptures and still be void of unifying power. Just as men may spend years together in the same prison cell and never become brothers, church folk can be locked into the same liturgical routine for a lifetime and never experience the power of unity in Christ.

We often point to the Bible as the basis of unity, but even the Bible makes no such claim for itself. No book has the power to meld estranged hearts into one, not even a book that comes from God. God did not give a collection of documents to heal broken hearts, but a Person. It is the wonderful Person of the Bible that makes wholeness possible, not the Bible itself, however much unanimity there may be in the study of it. If a book could have reconciled men to God and to each other, then the God of heaven could have looked to the printing press rather than the Cross. If we could have been saved (and made sisters and brothers) by the law or by a book, then Christ died for naught.

If unity is a matter of seeing the Bible eye-to-eye, then believers will never be united, for they never have and never will see the Bible alike. And if believers ever have been united, such as in the early centuries (and other times as well) when they died together for their faith, it was not because of doctrinal agreement upon the Bible but because of their common devotion to Jesus Christ.

Lest we forget that the earliest church, which we may think of as united amidst substantial diversity, had no New Testament Scriptures upon which to unite. If the little band of saints in Philippi were of "the same mind in the Lord," as the apostle's letter to them would indicate, it was not because they had read the New Testament and agreed on its contents, for the writings that make up that portion of the Bible were not yet determined and some were not yet written. So, it was something else (or Someone else) beside doctrinal conformity to a book that united them, and so, when Paul wrote to them he could refer not only to the fellowship of the Spirit but also to their abundant joy in Jesus Christ.

If you have the joy of the Lord in your heart and I have it in my heart, we are going to be one, in spite of our differences. In that little Philippian letter Paul names the basis of unity, even when referring to brethren with whom he had serious differences: "What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, and will rejoice" (Philip. 1:19). Christ is preached! Any other basis of unity is heresy, for only the Cross has the power to unite that which is divided.

It takes nothing from the importance of the Bible to acknowledge that it never has been and never can be the basis of Christian unity. The Bible as the word of God strengthens and enriches the unity and fellowship that is found only in Christ. It is enough to allow the Bible itself to describe its function: "All Scripture inspired of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Tim. 3:16). Devotion and loyalty to Jesus Christ is the basis and source of our oneness in the faith, while the Scriptures are given to "build us up" as the family of God on earth, as Acts 20:32 shows. Children are a great blessing to a marriage, but not the basis of the marriage. A marriage must find its oneness in the mutual love of the man and wife. Children do not produce the marriage but the marriage the children. So with the Scriptures. The Bible did not produce the church but the church the Bible. Unity in Christ came first, and out of that united witness came the Scriptures.

The apostle John serves as interpreter of what Jesus meant when he declared, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself" in Jn. 12:32. One might conclude that Jesus was referring to his ascension, but John tells us in the following verse that Jesus was alluding to "what death He would die." It is remarkable that Jesus would refer to being "lifted up" on the Cross as the power whereby all people would be drawn to him. Not his teaching, not his life, not even his resurrection, but the Cross. The use of "IF I be lifted up" really means "When I be lifted up," for there was no question in his mind but what he would go to the Cross. When that happens, he was saying, the drawing power of unity will be a reality.

When you are drawn to that Cross and I am drawn to that Cross, we are together, in spite of all our faults and warts and diversities. If we are separated by factions, parties and divisions, we don't have to wait until everything is resolved and every point settled, for that will never happen. And we don't have to concentrate on trying to get closer to each other, such as whooping it up at a unity conference. The means, the source, the power is already available. We only need to move within the shadow of the Cross. All who do that will experience the unifying power of the Cross.

However much people may be separated, whether by race, sex, class, or creed, they can find unifying power in the Cross. Each step we take toward the Cross puts us one step closer to each other. Once we stand at the Cross together with empty cups to be filled by His grace, our differences will not be as important to us as when we stand at shouting distance from each other. But some differences are important and need to be dealt with. Let them be dealt with within the shadow of the Cross and in the spirit of that love that prayed "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do!"

That is the only unity there can be. In that unity of love and acceptance of each other as equals, and not as "erring brothers," we can discuss our differences - like Paul and Peter did, within the unity and fellowship of Christ. Fellowship at the Cross must come first, then discussion of differences. Not the other way around. If we allow the Cross to wait until we iron out all the problems, we will never make it to the Cross. The power to unite is not in doctrinal unanimity but in the Cross.

This is why the apostle Paul addressed a church riddled with factions, not in terms of doctrinal conformity, but in terms of the power of the Cross: "I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2). In the same context Paul refers to "the message of the Cross" as the power of God (1:18), which is the power to unite as well as the power to save. If we would but be like the great apostle by making the Cross our message rather than our sectarian peculiarities, we would discover the power to overcome our superficiality

In meeting each other at the Cross we not only find power but also joy. Our Lord endured the Cross and ignored its shame "for the joy that was set before him" (Heb. 12:2). He rejoiced in the face of the Cross not only because it marked the end of his earthly ordeal and that he would be returning to the Father, but also because in the Cross the Father's purpose for the unity of all mankind could be realized. In Eph. 1:10 that purpose is described as "that He might gather together in one all things in Christ," and that includes "all things in heaven and upon earth." That seems to include all of nature, all the animal kingdom, all the universe, as well as all mankind. So, there is great significance in Christ's assurance that "When I am lifted up I will draw all peoples to Myself." His mission was to unite all things in heaven and on earth, and this pointed to the unifying power of the Cross.

We are a people who have always been concerned, and perhaps rightly so, as to where to draw the line in terms of unity and fellowship. There is obviously a place to draw the line since everyone is not a Christian, but we are reluctant to draw the line only where Christ drew it, at the Cross. He accepts all who come to the Cross. Should we require more. In Jn. 3:14 he likened his being lifted up on the Cross to the serpent that Moses lifted up in the wilderness. In Moses' time the people were healed when they looked upon the serpent. They did have to look in simple trusting faith.

And so we today must look to the Cross for our healing. When people do that we should meet them there in loving acceptance, for they have yielded themselves in humble obedience to Christ. That is unity and fellowship. If they are deficient in some ways (and who is not?) there will be time enough, in an atmosphere of loving forbearance, to show them the way of the Lord more perfectly. They in turn will help us to see and to do the way of the Lord more perfectly. —the Editor

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There is but one way to tranquility of mind and happiness, and that is to account no external things thine own, but to commit all to God.  — Epictetus