Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 6
September 30, 1954
NUMBER 21, PAGE 13

Does This Spoil Your Sermon?

Pryde E. Hinton, Dora, Alabama

Through the years my better understanding of the meaning of the scriptures has ruined some of my "best" sermons which I used in the distant past. For instance, I copied from somebody a diagram in which I used a ladder to teach 2 Peter 1:5-11. Later I realized that all these things must be in us, and "abound" or increase at the same time — simultaneously. But if each characteristic, or principle, is a rung in a ladder, one cannot stand on all of them at the same time. Having made use of each round in a ladder, one is forever through with it, unless he wants to descend. So the ladder sermon was out for me. It has been the same with many others. I rather think that faith should be a foundation, and all the other things in 2 Peter 1:5-11 are builded on it, and stem, or grow, from it.

Then there is the old stand-by that Christ is the saviour of the body, we are reconciled unto God in one body, and therefore one must get into the church in order to be saved; IF ONE MUST BE IN THE CHURCH TO BE SAVED, BEFORE HE IS SAVED; then he will have to be in the church while unsaved. We use Ephesians 2:14-17; 5:23 to prove this. We say: "If He is the saviour of the body, the church, you will have to be a member of the church before you can be saved, or in order to be saved." Why not say: "When you hear, believe, and obey the good news of Christ, you are redeemed, cleansed, saved, by his blood, and thereby and simultaneously become a member of his church. That is how he purchases the church with his own blood (Acts 20:28); when individuals believe and obey his gospel."

In Ephesians 2:14-17, my brethren interpret this way: "Since we are reconciled unto God in one body, one must be in that body to be reconciled." Do we really mean, brethren, that nobody is reconciled unto God until after he becomes a member of the church? Did he become a member of the church without being reconciled to God? If one must be in the one body, the church, in order to be reconciled to God, then he gets into the church without, or before, being reconciled to God. Therefore, he gets into Christ's church before he is friendly, while he is still an enemy to God. Brethren, doesn't Ephesians 2:11-22 really teach that Christ's cross took away the dividing Old Testament Law; then by that same cross reconciled both former divisions of mankind in one body (that is, all in one body, on the same footing) to God? It seems to me that the "20th Century New Testament" translates Ephesians 2:14-17 clearly: "He made the two divisions of mankind one, broke down the barrier that separated them, and in his human nature put an end to the cause of enmity between them — the law with its injunctions and ordinances — in order to create, through union with himself, from Jew and Gentile, one New Man, and thus make peace. And when upon the cross he destroyed their mutual enmity, he sought by means of the cross to reconcile them both to God, united in one body." Why don't we teach the truth? We are reconciled unto God by the death of His Son. (Rom. 5:10.) As a result of this reconcilliation to God, we obey Him, and as a result of obeying Him, we are saved, and added to His church. Is this not the truth? I have just looked at Romans 5:10 in several translations, and every one of them says either "If while we were enemies," or "when we were enemies, we were reconciled unto God." If we are reconciled unto God "while" we are enemies (and it is inconceivable that His friends should be reconciled to Him), do these enemies first get into His church before they are reconciled to Him? Is their reconciliation to God a result of becoming a member of His church? The church does not reconcile men to God, brethren, except as it teaches and preaches the cross of Christ — the cross is the only reconciling power that God has given to man!