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DIVINE UNION

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 15, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 11.

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DIVINE UNION.

A Vital Question.

THE only true union which has any right to exist in the church of Christ for either worship or work is divine union. The prayer of Jesus Christ, uttered for all His people, through all time, uttered under the impending agony of the Garden and the Cross, was not "that they all may be one," controlled or guided or headed by one human mind or hand or heart, which might be called Peter or James or John, ancient or modern; but in the very agony of infinite wisdom and interest He prayed: "That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." "I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one."
This is divine union and unity, and it is secured in no other way than by the divine method.
Men in human wisdom would secure unity in God's work by putting at its head one man, placing in His hand the reins which guide, control, and direct the various branches of God's work, hoping in this way to avoid friction and difficulties, to secure greater and instant and more constant co-operation, and therefore greater success. Such plans seem to be efficient from a human standpoint. Their highest and most marked degree of success is seen in the Papacy.
But, at their very best, human plans fall far short of the divine plan. Their evils overbalance their good. They bring glory to the man who may stand as the head instead of God; (2) they lead men to look to man as their wisdom and strength and source of supply instead of to God, the infinite and ever-responsive Fountain of all good; for "the Head of every man is Christ;" (3) they prevent the fullest development of divine wisdom and power in the church of Christ; for no one man is capable of receiving and transmitting all that Christ would give to His church. The church therefore remains stunted of growth, the minds of her members narrowed and dwarfed, and God's work crippled where it should be strengthened.
And the church, guided by human wisdom, lorded over by human authority, centered in circumscribed human plans, will leave souls to perish in darkness, oppress and enslave the free, crucify afresh her Lord, and finally form a part of that great Babylon which shall be "utterly burned with fire."
The divine plan is union in diversity. God proposes (if man will permit, for Divinity will not compel humanity) to take of imperfect, diverse, discordant elements and make of them one great united concordant body in which the very diversity will make for unity and beauty, even as the mason takes the rough, irregular, ill-mated stones of the quarry and shapes them into a strong, noble edifice of beauty and harmony.
"The head of every man is Christ." Let the man recognize this and be united to his Head, by the Spirit of life. Let each man, each member, so do. Let each one be perfectly willing that God should reveal to his brother and guide him as God will. Let each one be willing that God shall by His Spirit guide him also.
If each and every one of the church of Christ are thus united with Him, it must be manifest to all that there could be no stronger bond of union between them. They are bound together by the life—the Spirit—of Jesus Christ. The bond of union is infinitely strong—it is Christ Jesus Himself.
Thus bound to the Head, thus baptized into the one body, there need be no fear that the church will go astray, that her fruit will prove abortive, that her work will be inefficient. All her members are in touch—en rapport—with the great Head. He could not reveal to or through one finite mind all His wisdom and beauty; for one mind could not contain it or bear it. But He can and will reveal it through all. The blended members of the church are the spectrum or prism through which the white rays of Christ's character of light are revealed to the world in the transcendent beauty of the covenant crown of glory, the bow of promise. Men will work in different lines, as the talents and mind of the Spirit directs, but there will be no friction, no schisms; for there are many ministries, but the one Spirit; there are diversities of gifts and operations, but the one God to direct. Men in the same lines will look to God together and separately, and He will reveal to each and all manifold plans and wisdom directly and indirectly—directly as they seek Him and labor for Him as individuals, indirectly as He reveals and develops through their fellow-members. And thus in God's plan, unlorded by men, men unenslaved by men, the church of Jesus Christ will prove to be the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.
O reader, brother, seek union with Jesus Christ, the union of faith and humility, the union of His Spirit and life, union in truth and righteousness! All other desired union and results will surely follow.