So often unity is spoken of within the fellowship of the Church as the one thing that is needed above all else in order to see the Lord Jesus Christ truly lifted up in this world. With this sentiment I would wholeheartedly agree, but with regard to the understanding of what Christian unity is, or how to acheive it according to many professing Christians, I couldn’t disagree more strongly.

It is true that God calls believers from every walk of life, and from all sorts of cultures and communities. Each true believer is then plunged into the death of Christ, and raised back up in the newness of His Holy Spirit, as a spiritually perfect new creature in Christ. However each believer is then taken on a pathway of being conformed into the image of their Creator, being tested and refined by the fire of the Holy Spirit as they are led through times of testing and tribulation, that shapes their character as the Lord leads them. This is a process that will last our whole earthly life, and will of course mean their is much need of grace, patience and forgiveness between believers, in order for this process to be carried out in our lives, for the glory of Christ. This is true Christian unity. As far as I can see, there are two ways to go about acheiving this unity; the right way and the wrong way! I will highlight first that which I would consider the wrong way in the light of Scripture, which will then hopefully serve better to emphasize that which is true.

Firstly I would like to point out that I am not someone who believes that the majority of professing Christians are wolves in sheep’s clothing, having constant ulterior motives going on underneath the surface. Rather I believe that any professing Christian, who strays from the truth of God for whatever reason, can and will be used by the devil and his cohorts to lead other Christians astray too. With regard to unity, it stands to reason that the devil would be particularly busy in this area, attempting to deceive many, that they may be deceived into exhorting disunity with Christ passionately, whilst all along thinking themselves committed to unity more than most.

At the heart of false Christian unity, in all its forms, seems to be the notion that we must do something for Christ. Although this may sound ridiculous to say, when our focus is shifted onto that which we must do, even if we would consider it service to Christ, we will be led from the grace of God into our own works. From this place it is impossible to acheive true Scriptural unity, for when our focus is on the outcome that we are trying to acheive, be it for Christ or not, our next step is to seek to compromise in order to acheive it.

A typical example of this can be seen in the current document known as the “Manhattan Declaration“, which it would be almost impossible for any Christian to disagree with the aims of what it is trying to acheive. As with the supporters of this document, I would also agree that it is perfectly acceptable and proper for any Christian to make a bold stand on such matters as the importance of marriage, the wrongness of abortion, the need to address the needs of the homeless and starving, or any other humanitarian matter that affects this world. However I would also state that a Christian could work side by side with the most ardent atheist in addressing such matters, without it having any diverse effect on the sincerity of their faith in Christ. For to be unified with others in any humanitarian work, no matter how noble, does not signify spiritual unity, any more than a kind and cheerful disposition signifies that someone is truly saved in Christ. I am not saying unity of purpose in this way is bad at all, but what I am saying is that it is not necessarily Christian unity.

True Christian unity stems from one thing above all, namely unity with Christ Himself. It is only from this basis that true Christian unity can be acheived, and all the fruit that unity will produce within a fellowship of believers committed to such a thing. Unity with Christ comes without compromise whatsoever, for the only way unity with Christ can be attained is to display a willingness to die to oneself completely, in order for His rule to become sovereign at every point in one’s life. We must abide in Him and He in us. We must rely totally on His work done for us, depend completely on the strength  of His Spirit within us, and cast aside all we think we know and adopt His truth alone as revealed through His Word alone. If we are surrendered in such a way, then we will without doubt be unified with Christ. We will also find that we will be unified with other believers who are unified with Him in the same manner, and together in total submission, we will be moved to action by the Head of the Body, who is Christ alone.

I may be labelled whatever anyone wishes to label me, but I would sooner tear out my own eyes, than to unify in spirit with someone who is in open and unrepentant disunity with Christ. And to put ones name to a binding document such as the one mentioned above, openly acknowledging as spiritual brothers those who openly reject the true Gospel of Christ, as those in the Roman Catholic church do, then it can not be a good thing. It is purely a cop out to suggest that we can disagree about what the Gospel of Christ is, and yet still embrace one another as Christian brothers for the sake of unity.

Understand this clearly: The Gospel of Christ is clearly stated in the pages of the Bible without any ambiguity at all, and if someone chooses to not believe what the Bible teaches us on such a matter, they are simply not a Christian, and cannot be called a brother in the Lord.

2 Corinthians 6:14-15
14  Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?
15  And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?

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3. The Manhattan Declaration – Reasons Not To Sign

(By John MacArthur)

Here are the main reasons I am not signing the Manhattan Declaration, even though a few men whom I love and respect have already affixed their names to it:

• Although I obviously agree with the document’s opposition to same-sex marriage, abortion, and other key moral problems threatening our culture, the document falls far short of identifying the one true and ultimate remedy for all of humanity’s moral ills: the gospel. The gospel is barely mentioned in the Declaration. At one point the statement rightly acknowledges, “It is our duty to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in its fullness, both in season and out of season”—and then adds an encouraging wish: “May God help us not to fail in that duty.” Yet the gospel itself is nowhere presented (much less explained) in the document or any of the accompanying literature. Indeed, that would be a practical impossibility because of the contradictory views held by the broad range of signatories regarding what the gospel teaches and what it means to be a Christian.

• This is precisely where the document fails most egregiously. It assumes from the start that all signatories are fellow Christians whose only differences have to do with the fact that they represent distinct “communities.” Points of disagreement are tacitly acknowledged but are described as “historic lines of ecclesial differences” rather than fundamental conflicts of doctrine and conviction with regard to the gospel and the question of which teachings are essential to authentic Christianity.

• Instead of acknowledging the true depth of our differences, the implicit assumption (from the start of the document until its final paragraph) is that Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant Evangelicals and others all share a common faith in and a common commitment to the gospel’s essential claims. The document repeatedly employs expressions like “we [and] our fellow believers”; “As Christians, we . . .”; and “we claim the heritage of . . . Christians.” That seriously muddles the lines of demarcation between authentic biblical Christianity and various apostate traditions.

• The Declaration therefore constitutes a formal avowal of brotherhood between Evangelical signatories and purveyors of different gospels. That is the stated intention of some of the key signatories, and it’s hard to see how secular readers could possibly view it in any other light. Thus for the sake of issuing a manifesto decrying certain moral and political issues, the Declaration obscures both the importance of the gospel and the very substance of the gospel message.

• This is neither a novel approach nor a strategic stand for evangelicals to take. It ought to be clear to all that the agenda behind the recent flurry of proclamations and moral pronouncements we’ve seen promoting ecumenical co-belligerence is the viewpoint Charles Colson has been championing for more than two decades. (It is not without significance that his name is nearly always at the head of the list of drafters when these statements are issued.) He explained his agenda in his 1994 book The Body, in which he argued that the only truly essential doctrines of authentic Christian truth are those spelled out in the Apostles’ and Nicene creeds. I responded to that argument at length in Reckless Faith. I stand by what I wrote then.

In short, support for The Manhattan Declaration would not only contradict the stance I have taken since long before the original “Evangelicals and Catholics Together” document was issued; it would also tacitly relegate the very essence of gospel truth to the level of a secondary issue. That is the wrong way—perhaps the very worst way—for evangelicals to address the moral and political crises of our time. Anything that silences, sidelines, or relegates the gospel to secondary status is antithetical to the principles we affirm when we call ourselves evangelicals.

John MacArthur

Source – Shepherds Fellowship

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