One Body in Christ

When the Lord walked on earth, He praised the ​“great faith ” of a centurion and blamed the ​“little faith” of the disciples. He acknowledged the faith of a sinful woman, a leper, a woman suffering with a flow of blood, and a blind man by saying, ​“your faith has saved you.” In all such cases no doctrines, institutions or ceremonies ere involved. Those who simply relied wholly on the Lord himself were accepted, their sins forgiven, and thus they were saved. The only necessary condition was that they have faith in Christ personally – that they engage in a living contact with Him. Where there was this ​“faith,” there was the beginning of the Ekklesia, because through this koinonia they became one with Christ and He became their Lord. In a word, Christianity has its center in God Himself, and in the fellowship men have with Him. This fellowship of God through the Spirit with believers is the answer to the question of what faith is, and of what the true Ekklesia is.

When this centrality of God in fellowship with men through Christ is made clear, we at once see that all other elements, such an institutional Church, the interpretation of the Bible, various doctrines, the morality of believers, or any other problem of different denominations or sects, cannot be the center of Christianity. When this revelation dawns, we know that we should not judge others by any of these standards, for Christ Himself never made these the standard for judging His followers. The center of Christianity is fellowship with God. The Bible itself is not the center. It is only the inspired description of this central truth, through which we may come to the center and have fellowship with Him.

Oh, how important our fellowship with God is! This koinonia is the essence of the new life we have in Christ. ​“You pore over the Scriptures for you imagine you will find eternal life in them. And it is they that give testimony to Me.” (John 5:39).

Redemption by the blood of Christ is, of course, the most important fact of Christianity, the basis of all koinonia with God. Everyone knows how Paul emphasized this truth, as also did Augustine, Luther, Calvin and every other great spiritual leader through the years. But God ​“loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins,” not just to have us believe the doctrine of our sins being forgiven through the blood, but also to let us actually in practice ​“have boldness and confidence of access through our faith in Him” (Eph. 3:12; see also 2:13, 18; Heb. 10:20).

To have access to God is the true purpose of redemption, while the propitiation by the blood of Christ is the basis on which we are allowed to come near to God. Therefore, the main purpose of God’s sending His Son, as well as the Son’s death on the cross, was to let us have this access, this entering into communion with God. 

All Christians are one Body in Christ we cannot create this, but only recognize it. However, we must recognize it and then fearlessly practice it, disregarding our differences in doctrine, forms and interpretations of the Bible. We must receive one another on the ground of a mutual fellowship with God in living union with Christ in the Spirit. This is the essence of the true Ekklesia, and in such a free fellowship the truth will surely triumph.

On the contrary, if we put our emphasis on other matters, as has usually been the case in the churches since the Reformation, the great mistakes of the Roman and Protestant Churches will only continue. Division upon division will overcome all efforts to perfect the Church, and certainly any attempt to form an ecumenical Church will prove to be in vain.

We simply must come back to this central point, for in no other way can the oneness of the Body of Christ be practiced. I realize that to those who are used to the life of organizational churches, this principle seems very vague and impractical, but if they will put it to the test and really live the life of fellowship with God, practicing fellowship with all Christians upon this basis, they will soon experience the reality of it. Those who have experienced a real measure of this koinonia with God and men, from Apostolic times down to the present, know that it is the true and practical center of Christianity, and that here alone is the pathway to the unity of all Christians in the Ekklesia of Christ.