The Last Reformation | Page 7

set forth in his epistles, Paul
has been branded an idealist. But what shall we say of Christ who
prayed for such visible unity and died for it? An idealist is one who
forms picturesque fancies, one given to romantic expectations
impossible of accomplishment. The idealist usually has but few
practical results. But Paul accomplished things. He broke away from
his Jewish prejudices, which brought down upon his head the wrath of
his fellows. He went into the synagogs of the Jews and brought out
those who were willing to become disciples of Jesus. To build up the
work of the Lord he labored night and day with tears; he laid broad and
deep the very foundations of the Christian faith in heathen lands.
Within a very few years he established Christian churches in four
provinces of the Roman Empire--churches in which Jew and Gentile
met together in common fellowship, in one body. If this is idealism,
Lord, give us many more such idealists.
[Sidenote: The burden of Paul's ministry]
But the unity described by Paul in the epistles which he wrote late in
life is not given as a mere ideal standard for the future toward which
men should strive. It is given as the record of a historic fact, the
accomplishment of which lay at the very foundation of Paul's call to the
ministry.
In the second chapter of Ephesians, already quoted, Paul declares that
both Jews and Gentiles were reconciled to God in one body by the
cross. In the next chapter he shows his part in the accomplishment of
that end. First, he was called of God as the apostle of the Gentiles; then
by revelation was made known unto him "the mystery of Christ which
in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men ... that the
Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and OF THE SAME BODY, and
partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel" (Eph. 3:4-6). The
promise referred to was doubtless the "promise of the Father," the gift
of the Holy Ghost. "That the blessing of Abraham might come on the

Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the _promise of
the Spirit through faith_" (Gal. 3:14). "For this cause," says Paul, "I
was made a minister ... that I should preach among the Gentiles the
unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the
fellowship of the mystery ... to the intent that now unto the
principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known BY THE
CHURCH the manifold wisdom of God" (Eph. 3: 1-10).
[Sidenote: Was divinely attested]
Paul was given a tremendous task--"TO MAKE ALL MEN SEE" that
mystery. This task required from God "the effectual working of his
power" (verse 7). And in another place he also shows that this power
was not lacking: "For I will not dare to speak of any of those things
which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient,
by word and deed, through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of
the Spirit of God" (Rom. 15: 18, 19).
Paul, then, was divinely commissioned "_to make all men see_" the
mystery of this union of all classes of men "in one body by the cross"
(Eph. 2: 16), all in "the SAME body, and partakers of his promise in
Christ by the gospel" (Eph. 3: 6). And when Paul's career was finished,
the same mystery was given over to others that it might be "known BY
THE CHURCH" (verse 10), "the church, which is his body" (Eph. 1:
22, 23). The ministry, then, should have held the ground already
attained, the actual union of all the saved in one body, and have labored
earnestly "to make all men see" that that body only is the church.


CHAPTER III
THE LOCAL CHURCH
The words of Christ, "I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall
not prevail against it" (Matt. 16: 18), convey a deeper meaning than the

simple preaching of the kingdom. As we have already shown, the one
specific personal act by virtue of which Christ became the founder of
the church was his atonement on Calvary, where the church was
"purchased with his own blood" (Acts 20: 28). The church, then, as an
institution, resulted from the atonement. Paul, describing the union of
Jews and Gentiles in one body, the church, declares that it was effected
"by the cross" (Eph. 2: 16).
There was power in redemption. It brought into the lives of believers
forces that could not but unite them in social compact. It threw them
together in living sympathy and united their hearts firmly in the strong
bonds of brotherly love. Their outward organic union as a church was
the natural and