II. The Church, the Home of the Truth¶
The Church is a divine society to which are entrusted the treasures of grace and truth for the benefit of mankind. We have seen that in the ages before God was made man, He was gradually disclosing his truth to mankind as they were able to bear it. This disclosing is commonly called ‘revelation.’ God’s revelation was complete in Jesus Christ. He, as God made man, was “full of truth.” Jesus said— “I am the Truth.”[1] He came to bring the truth in all its fulness to mankind. The sum of truth was communicated by Christ through the Holy Spirit to the Church, in the person of her first leaders. To the apostles our Lord said,—“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father shall send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you;” and again,—“When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth.”[2] In this manner the early Church became possessed of all the truth. St. Jude tells us that “the faith was once delivered unto the saints.”[3] The word “once,” here means literally “once for all,” or “once only.” The Church might be called upon to explain and enlarge upon the faith thus given, but she could never add to it.
This faith or truth was “delivered unto the saints,” i.e., to the Church as its divinely appointed guardian. The truth of God was too precious a treasure to be cast loose among mankind, and so left to take its chance in the world. It needed a home in which it might be preserved free from human error, and a guardian which should keep it and hand it down unimpaired to future ages. Such a home and such a guardian is “the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”[4] As Dr. Gore says,—“It is conceivable that our Lord might have proclaimed a certain body of truth, and then left it to make its own way, to advance by its own weight among mankind. He might have scattered truth at random, like ‘bread upon the waters,’ over the area of human need. But in fact He did something different, He enshrined the truth deliberately in an organized society.”[5]
It is the office of the Church to explain aright Christ’s teaching. This duty she is enabled to fulfil through the aid of the Holy Ghost, who abides with the Church. Man needs a trustworthy teacher of the doctrine of Christ; such a teacher is the Church of God. She is a teacher holding a divine warrant, and her warrant rests upon the words of her Lord,—“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them… teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”[6] The Church is the heaven-born teacher of the truth.