The Ground Level Is Level At The Cross
“Jesus Saves”
By C. D. Cole
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). “…..be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your master, even Christ.” (Matthew 23:8-10).
The ground is level at the cross, both in the matter of salvation and also in the matter of service. There is not one way to be saved for the rich man and another way for the poor man. The Jew and the Gentile, the moral man and the criminal, the philosopher and the fool, the king and the savage stand on level ground before the cross. The merit in salvation is in the cross and not in the sinner who stands before it. All men are saved as sinners, not as any particular class of sinners.
A pastor once remarked that he had a church of the middle class. Another boasted of his “millionaire row.” But I would not want to be pastor of either church, or of any class you might name. No church ought to be class-conscience. I do all I can, as a pastor, to break down or break up any tendency to class consciousness that might try to get a foothold in my own church. I want all of us to be Christ-conscious and church-conscious and nor class conscious. The class spirit ought to be guarded against in every church of Christ. A fine Christian man, intellectual and spiritual, was being recommended as a teacher of a certain Sunday School class, when someone remarked, “Why he's a share-cropper.” Shame on the person who made the remark.
It is all too common in the larger towns and cities. .to have a church for the well-to-do, and another church for the middle class or poor people. One or two churches will have most of the wealth of the community which will guarantee splendor and engender pride. This apt to create the class spirit—the spirit of the social club where people of the same social class may feel at home and enjoy themselves. No New Testament church was ever organized on such basis. If I were a wealthy laymen, I would join a church of the least wealth in my community to help break down the distinction between the rich and poor church.
One day Charles Evans Hughes, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and a Chinese laundry girl were received into the same church in the same service. In receiving them, the pastor remarked that the ground is level at the cross. He meant to say that there is no class distinctions in Jesus Christ. In any given community all the saved ought to be in the same church regardless of their social, financial, and cultural standing. The world has its classes socially, financially and educationally, but there should be no such classes in the body of Christ—the Church. To carry worldly distinctions into the body of Christ is to make it a monstrosity and rob it of of its beautiful metaphor—that of the human body. The church is compared to a human body.
The human body is a marvelous system of cooperating and sympathizing units, joined together for mutual aid and service to others. Suppose the foot should say to the head: “I am down here on the ground and you are up above me. I resent your being above me, and I am not going to take you to the places you want to go; just get there the best way you can.” And suppose the stomach should say to the mouth: “I am not going to digest what you send down here.” Suppose the whole body should break up into little classes and cliques with only class interest. None of us would like to live in such a body.
Now in a large community there may need to be more than one body for the sake of the work. If there are too may believers to meet in one assembly and work as a single group, let them be divided into as many groups or churches as may be needed for the best service, but never on the class basis. And because of serious doctrinal differences there seems to be a need for demonstrations. A man who believes in salvation by grace without human works or merit as the cause and ground of salvation could not work with the man who believes in salvation by works. It is obvious there is no fellowship between men of such opposing views.
The various denominations have declared themselves as to what they believe on vital and fundamental doctrines and so makes their appeal on that basis. And that is the only true and proper ground to appeal. To appeal to class prejudice, whatever class it might be, is to violate the very spirit and norm of Christianity.
There should be no class consciousness socially. A church should not be made up of the same social class, or broken up into small social groups. When a church degenerates into a social club, it has reached the end of its usefulness as a soul winning body. A church must never become a mutual admiration society. There must be no social classes of high and low, of great and small, of rich and poor, in the body of Christ. Masters and slaves were members of the same church in the days of Paul.
There should be no class consciousness financially. Christ wants no church made up of rich people entirely, or poor people altogether, provided there are both rich and poor in the community. In Christ there are neither rich nor poor, and it should be the same way in his body, the church. In the early churches most of the members were poor in the things of the world, but there were some wealthy people and they all had fellowship in the same body.
There should be no class consciousness spiritually. No church should be made up of spiritually minded people exclusively. Then what would become of the babes and immature believers? What would become of the weak and sickly members? A church composed entirely of people of deep spirituality and piety would mean fine fellowship but not much service. It would relieve the pastor of many burdens and agonies and make his work easy and delightful. But what is a pastor for if he is to have no burdens to bear and no crosses to carry? I would not want to be the pastor of a perfect church, on one hand, nor of unregenerate members on the other hand. A perfect church would mean fine fellowship, but little work and no goal to be striven for.
There should be no consciousness doctrinally. If anybody might be called a doctrinal preacher it is the speaker. And what I believe I must preach earnestly and faithfully. Of course, I wish everybody would agree with me doctrinally. I think I am right and that is saying that I want everybody else to be right. But nobody has to agree with me doctrinally in order to be a member of my church. There would be no room for indoctrination if ever person had to come up to my standard doctrinally in order to be a member of my church. Anybody who has taken the place of a sinner before God and is trusting the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation from sin is welcome into our church, provided he is willing to be taught.
The various groups in the church should be only as working units and should not be allowed to develop a class consciousness. There is a danger that a Sunday School class might develop a class consciousness, so that members of the class will think only of the class as a means of fellowship rather than as a working group to reach others for Christ and the church. All classes and organizations should work in the interest of the whole church and not merely for the sake of any class or group. To join a Sunday School class and have no use for the church is an insult to Jesus Christ.
I do not believe in a tither's club in the church. It could be made an interesting thing, but it would lead to class consciousness. Tithers could meet and discuss the blessings of tithing and congratulate one another on their spiritual attainments. I would not want a church made up of tithers exclusively. That would exclude any of the saved who might not be developed in the grace of giving. Tithing is a duty and a blessing and every tither should humbly let it be known that he is a tither for the glory of God and as an example to others, but not as a display of his spirituality. In endorsing tithing, I do not say or think that tithing represents all there is to Christian stewardship. I do not think of tithing as a goal for the individual, but at the same time if a man reaches the goal beyond tithing he will have to reach and pass the tithe. And those who tithe are nearer the goal than those who do not.
Now as to demonstrations in church service I would not want a shouter's club to pass on the spirituality of other members. I neither encourage nor discourage outward demonstration in the services. The person who is quiet and reserved and makes no outward demonstration is welcome to come and sit and listen without opening his mouth. And any of the demonstrative kind who wish to say “Amen” are welcome to do so. And if anyone gets so happy over the truth that he wants to shout, I have never offered any rebuke. But I do object to making shouting a necessary mark of spirituality. Vance Havner says he neither likes to see people scream like Comanche Indians, nor sit with a blank expression like Wooden Indians.
The world has its social and cultural clubs where people of special and particular interests may have fellowship. There are clubs for the educated an cultured where nobody but the learned could feel at home. There are clubs for music lovers and for those who love sports. But such clubs have no place in a church of Jesus Christ.
Christianity brought an entirely new thing into this world. It brought unity and this unity was around a person, the Lord Jesus. In Christ there is a common hope—the hope of glory; a common faith—the faith revealed in the Bible, the once delivered faith; a common task—the task of making Christ known to all the world; a common relation—that of brethren in Christ. When Christ came, this world was rent asunder by deep clefts of misunderstanding, alienation, and animosity. There was the cleft of racial divisions of Jew and Greek and Samaritan and Roman; clefts of sexual division which flung men and women to opposite sides of a great cleft; clefts of social position of rich and poor; bond and free; clefts of culture which made wise men look down on the unlearned and the unlearned to hate the wise men.
Into that disintegrating mass of society came one who drew men to himself and said unto them, “One is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.”And it must have been to their own astonishment that the male and female, Greek and Jew, master and slave, rich and poor, philosopher and fool, found themselves sitting at the same table as members of one family of God and of one body of Christ. And they looked into each others face and said, “Brother”. There had never been anything like that in the world until Christ came. And we should do nothing to undo that glorious relation. When all human and earthly relations are no more we shall shall still be brethren in Christ. And the only worthy ambition for of us is to minister to the needs of men in the name of Christ.