A Reflection on Christian Unity
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. “
(Rom 10.9-13).
This week I watched a friendly debate on YouTube between a Reformed Protestant – Dr. Gavin Ortlund – and an Eastern Orthodox Priest – Father Stephen De Young. The debate was posted on Gavin Ortlund’s page: Truth Unites, which I’d highly recommend, if you’re interested in thoughtful, humble, and consumable theology, church history, apologetics, etc. The debate covered several topics, but one issue they continuously circled back to was: the nature and boundaries of the Kingdom of God – where do all true Christians find their unity – basically, what makes for a genuine Christia?. Father Stephen, in step with the history of the Eastern Church (maybe not every individual but the movement in general), argued that unity is found in the institution – salvation is found in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Dr. Ortlund, in step with Protestant Christianity in general, and the Reformed tradition in particular, argued that the unity of all true Christians is found, not in any given institution, but in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The gospel message is that God is our holy creator and that we have sinned against Him. God sent His Son in the incarnation of Jesus to live a sinless life in our place, to die on the cross for our sins, and to resurrect on the third day, victorious over sin and death. Through the Holy Spirit, every true believer’s response to that good news is faith and repentance. A person is justified when they believe in their heart (vs. 10; cf. Gen 15.6). When we confess the lordship of Jesus (by virtue of His resurrection) with our mouth we are saved (vss. 9, 10, & 13).
The official teaching of both the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church (at least until Vatican 2) is that salvation is found in the institution. The boundaries of the Kingdom of God, for both these strands of Christianity, are the boundaries of their own church membership. But Protestants have (and have always had) a much more generous interpretation of the Scripture. We understand the Scripture to teach that the boundaries of the Kingdom of God, in which the unity of all true believers is found exclusively in the gospel.
There are genuine Protestant believers. There are genuine Roman Catholic believers. There are genuine Eastern Orthodox believers.
That doesn’t mean that we Protestants think that everyone who claims to be a Christian genuinely is regenerate (Matt 7.23; Rom 9.6). Nor does it mean that the theology and practice of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church is correct – it’s not a wash in terms of doctrine. There are several intensely problematic teachings and practices found in these two traditions. Chief among them being Rome’s doctrine of justification (which may also be true in practice for the East, though they never codified it like Rome did in Trent).
But what it does mean is that everyone who confesses with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believes in their heart that God raise Him from the dead will be saved. There are genuine Roman Catholic believers, despite the teachings and practice of the Roman Catholic Church. There are genuine Eastern Orthodox believers, despite the teachings and practice of the Eastern Orthodox Church. There are genuine Protestant believers, despite some severely problematic teaching and practices in different Protestant traditions.
Why? Because the institution is not the true mark of the Kingdom of God. Everyone (regardless of where they go to church) who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. In the gospel lies the unity of all true believers.
We are justified by faith alone, not by believing in justification by faith alone. There are going to be brothers and sisters in eternity who believed and practiced some things that make us scratch our heads. There will be saints who believed some untrue things (just like we do, no doubt). But they will be our brothers and sisters forever, because they confessed with their mouth that Jesus is Lord, and they believed in their hearts that God raised Christ from the dead.
And that’s good news.