The Reformers knew Christ's Guidance of The Church as truly as they knew His Headship of The Church.
They knew that by the Holy Spirit the Lord Jesus personally guides The Church and personally guides each individual person who is of The Church.
In this they knew that the Holy Spirit is given to each individual Christian, and that by the Spirit the Lord Jesus gives Himself personally to each individual Christian.
The Roman doctrine is that the Holy Spirit is given to "the church" and that "the church" bestows the Spirit on the individual in the ceremony of "confirmation."
By the light and power of God's truth, the Reformers were made free from that Romish superstition and monopoly.
Wicklif said: "Christ ever lives near the Father and is the most ready to intercede for us, imparting Himself to the soul of every wayfaring pilgrim who loves Him."
Matthias said: "It is Jesus Christ Himself, who, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever dwells in His Church, and in each, even most insignificant portion of it, holding together, sustaining and vitalizing the whole and all the parts, directly and from within, giving growth outwardly to the whole and to each, even the most insignificant part.
"He is, therefore, Himself the spirit and life of His Church, His mystical body."
Huss said: "Christ alone, on whom the heavenly dove descended as a symbol of the Holy Spirit, can bestow the baptism of the Spirit."
"The Holy Spirit, in the absence of a visible Pope, inspired prophets to predict the future bridegroom of The Church, strengthened the apostles to spread the Gospel of Christ through all the world, led idolaters to the worship of the one only God, and ceases not, even until now, to instruct the Bride and all her sons, to make them certain of all things and guide them in all things that are necessary for salvation.
"The Church has all that it needs, in the guidance of the Holy Spirit; and ought to require nothing else. Nothing else can be a substitute for that.
"Accordingly, The Church is sufficiently provided for in the invisible guidance, and should need no visible one by which she might be made dependent."
Let us see in the Scriptures how truly and how fully in this they had the truth of God.
At Pentecost, in the presence of that great outpouring of the Spirit, Peter said to the multitude: "The promise is to you and to your children, and to all them that are afar off: even as many as the Lord our God shall call." Acts 2:38, 39.
And further it is written: "The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal . . . dividing to every man, severally, as He will.
"We have been all made to drink into one Spirit." 1 Cor. 12 :7, 11, 13.
"If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him!" Luke 11:13.
All that Christ is to The Church He is to each individual who is of The Church.
He is the Head of The Church. He is likewise the Head of each individual in The Church? "I would have you know that the Head of every man is Christ." 1 Cor. 11:3.
"He is the Head of The Body." And in the very nature of things, in that He is Head of each particular member of The Body.
"Now ye are The Body of Christ, and members in particular." "For we are members of His Body, of His flesh and of His bones." 1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 5:30.
When Christ shed forth the Spirit at Pentecost, He gave Him to all--to each individual personally, as well as to The Church as a whole.
When He by the Spirit came to The Church here, He came to each individual as truly as He came to The Church, and became the Head of each individual as truly as He is Head of The Church.
Indeed He is Head of The Church by being Head of each individual who is of The Church. First, Head of the individual; then Head of the assembly of these, of whom He is already the Head individually.
"The Head of every man is Christ." "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." "Ye are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." And He is the Head of The Body--The Church which is the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. Matt. 18:20; Eph. 2 :22; 1 :22, 23.
Thus Christ is not Head of The Church in only a general sense, but in the most particular sense.
He is not Head by occupying the chief position and having charge of "the large affairs" of The Church, with the "details" left to others.
He is Head of The Church in the widest and most intricate sense; for God "gave Him to be Head over all things to The Church." Eph. 1:22. He is the Head of everything that can ever pertain "to" The Church.
Anything of which He is not the Head in the direct and full sense in which He is Head of The Church--that thing does not reach The Church.
Even though it be done in the name of the church, and as if in behalf of the church, if He is not the Head of it, it pertains to something else, it springs from somebody else, and comes just so far short of being of The Church or of pertaining "to" The Church.
And this is eternally right. In the eternal purpose, The Church is to be the expression of the fulness of all the perfections of God. To The Church this is expressed, and can be expressed, only from Christ in whom all fulness dwells.
For anything of which He is not the Head and spring to reach The Church, or to be of The Church, would be only to mar or stain the divine perfection of The Church. And Christ is now engaged in sanctifying and cleansing The Church from all these things "with the washing of water by the Word, that He may present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot nor wrinkle not any such thing, but holy and without blemish."
The blessed work of preparing The Church for this glorious presentation, the Lord Jesus began with the beginning of The Reformation, and He will now finish it. For we are now in the time of the finishing of the Mystery of God. He began it according to the original standard in His Word, and He will so finish it.
And by that Word the whole operation in, the whole administration of, the affairs and interests that pertain to The Church--of "all things to The Church"--is Christ's from God through the Spirit. As it is written--
"There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
"There are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.
"There are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all."
By gracious gifts from God through the Spirit, Christ Himself, Personally and directly, keeps His own divine mind and hand "over all things to The Church."
Therefore, in The Church of the Scriptures every responsibility is the gift of Christ direct by the Spirit; and is thus set in The Church by God Himself Personally,
"Wherefore when He ascended up on high, He gave gifts unto men. And He gave some--
"apostles; and some,
"prophets; and some,
"evangelists; and some,
"pastors and
"teachers." Eph. 4:8, 11.
And so "God hath set some in The Church. First--
"apostles, secondarily
"prophets, thirdly
"teachers, after that
"miracles, then
"gifts of healings,
"helps,
"governments,
"diversities of tongues." 1 Cor. 12:28.
"For to one is given by the Spirit the word of
"wisdom; to another the word of
"knowledge, by the same Spirit; to another
"faith by the same Spirit; to another the working of
"miracles; to another
"prophecy; to another
"discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of
"tongues; to another the
"interpretation of tongues.
"But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will." 1 Cor. 12:8- 11.
The responsibility of "elders" or "bishops" is included in the gift of "governments"; for the word denotes a helmsman or pilot, who guides a ship. Yet in addition to this we are told plainly that this responsibility, as the others, is the gift of the Spirit. Paul, talking to elders only, said to them: "Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers." Acts 20:17, 28.
The responsibility of "deacon" is included in the gift of "helps"; for the word "deacon" signifies "a servant." Rom. 16:1.
And all of this care of Christ in these gracious gifts, is for a double purpose. First--
"for the perfecting of the saints,
"for the work of the ministry,
"for the edifying of The Body of Christ."
And this, "Till we all come, in the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."
And the second purpose, the consequence of the first, is "That ye be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive." Eph. 4:12-14.
Thus Christ supplies all that is needed to bring The Church to perfection, and so protect her from all the powers of deception, and thus prepare her for the glorious Presentation.
It should be repeated, that it may not be forgotten, that every responsibility in The Church is the direct gift of God by Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.
And the membership of The Church, by the Spirit are to be able to recognize the gift upon the individual and accordingly to recognize that individual in the place and work in The Church for which the gift has prepared him. Acts 13:2-4; 6:3-5.
For The Church is The Body of Christ. And the will of the Head can be truly manifested as that will is in Him, only by the response, in spirit and in the Spirit, of the members of The Body. Matt. 6; 10; Ps. 103:20; Eze. 1:20.
The failure of James and the church in Jerusalem to recognize Christ's gift of Paul and in Paul to The Church, put Paul in Roman prisons to the day of his death (except a very short interval near the end), robbed the churches of Christ's wonderful revelations in the Mystery of God, and hastened the rise of the mystery of iniquity. Gal. 2:13 Acts 21:18--2 Tim. 1:15; 4:16; Gal. 1:15, 16, Eph. 3:2-5; Col. 1:26-29; 2 Thess. 2:3-10.
And the failure of professed Christians to recognize Christ's spiritual gifts, is always of the mystery of iniquity. For it is but the manifestation of the natural against the spiritual, of the will of man against the will of Christ, and of man instead of Christ--of man in the place of God--in The Church.
Therefore, again let it be said: In the Scriptures and according to the order of God every responsibility in The church is the direct gift of God by Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.
In the Scriptures there is no such thing as appointment or election by men in The Church, nor in the churches. There is ordination, but not election.
And the ordination is the act of response of the members of The Body to the will of their Head: not the endorsement nor the legalizing of it.
Elections came in from Greece, by those Greeks who in the "falling away," had not the Spirit, and so had lost their Head.
Appointments came in from Rome, when the Greek political system in church affairs was imperialized and the bishop of Rome became the head.
The Reformation threw off the Greco-Roman heathen political naturalism, and restored the spiritual principle of the divine order.
But there has been another falling away. Again the spiritual principle has been lost. In every denomination of professed Protestants the Greco-Roman naturalistic principle of human election and appointment prevails.
Yet they are not consistent even in this inconsistency. Only some of the responsibilities that rightly pertain to The Church are allowed to be subject to election or appointment: as deacons, elders, and others of "helps" or "governments."
Evangelists, pastors, and teachers, stand in a sort of "twilight zone"--of the gift of God in a sense, but of no standing till "authorized" by appointment or vote of men.
Apostles, prophets, miracles, tongues, and all the rest are left wholly to God as His gifts: or even denied to Him, and left out altogether, as belonging only to primitive Christian times.
But when men can elect or appoint some of God's gifts, why not all? If men have any authority at all, upon any ground or under any plea, to elect or appoint any of these, they have equal authority to elect or appoint all.
When every responsibility known to the Scriptures, that pertains to The Church, is the direct gift of God by the Spirit Himself in His own divine administration and Kingdom, then what superior right or wisdom can men have above God to discriminate among them?
But deeper than that, what right can men have under any possible plea to assume any authority or control in the matter? It is all of the realm of God. All here relates exclusively to the kingdom of God. In all these things Christ is conducting the affairs of His own House.
What colossal presumption it is, then, for finite, fleeting men to assume to exercise dominion and authority there!
While Jesus was with His Church here those forty days after His resurrection, "speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God," what an arrogantly disrespectful and presumptuous thing it would have been for the disciples, with Him present, to take upon themselves the conducting of the affairs of His kingdom--and of course according to their thinking concerning the kingdom!
And how much more would it have been arrogantly disrespectful and presumptuous in them to do such thing after Pentecost when He was more present than He was in those forty days!
And such only is it ever for anybody. Has not God sufficiently characterized that thing at its first appearance in the world--in the awful branding that He gave it as "the mystery of iniquity," "the man of sin," "the son of perdition," "that Wicked," "who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God showing himself that he is God?"
No, no, no. "The Church is subject unto Christ in every thing" : not His superior, nor even His equal, in any thing. Eph. 5:24. God will yet have in this world that Church that will be "subject unto Christ in everything."
Out of all the Babylonish confusion of the two great fallings away combined, Christ calls all of His own unto Himself, in His own Church which He is now sanctifying and cleansing with the washing of water by the Word, preparatory to her Glorious Presentation. Rev. 17:5; 18:4.