( b ) John 3:3. eja;n mhv ti" gennhqh'/ a[nwqen, ouj duvnatai ijdei'n th;n basileivan tou' qeou' .
John 3:5.
eijselqei'n eij" th;n basileivan tou' qeou'
. John 18:36.
hJ basileiva hJ ejmh; oujk e[stin ejk tou' kovsmou touvtou: eij ejk tou' kovsmou touvtou h\n hJ basileiva hJ ejmhv, oiJ uJphrevtai oiJ ejmoi; hjgwnivzonto a[n, i{na mh; paradoqw' toi'" jIoudaivoi": nu'n de; hJ basileiva hJ ejmh; oujk e[stin ejnteu'qen
.
The Kingdom [implies] a Sovereign of whose Personal Rule His subjects would be conscious and by Whose Will they would be guided, an organization, by which the relative functions and duties and stations of those included within it would be defined and sustained, a common principle of action, and common rights of citizenship.
(
Gospel of the Resurrection
, p. 195.)
The Christian Society and the Apostolic Ministry.
Our bodies (1 Cor. 6:15) are members of Christ ( mevlh Cristou' ); and conversely (1 Cor. 12:27) a Christian society is a body of Christ ( sw'ma Cristou' )[a body of which Christ is the Head].[Such is] each Christian societya body of Christ, of which the members are charged with various functions and gifts. And these bodies again are members of other bodies wider and greater, and thus at last members of that universal Church which is the fulness of Christ, its Heavenly Head. ( G. of R. pp. 177-182.)
In the providential ordering of the Christian Society these various functions and graces have been variously concentrated; but all belong alike to the new life, which the Risen Christ breathed into His Church.
To this Body, as a whole, the Risen Lord communicated the virtue of His glorified Life.
For it is a fact of the highest importance and clearly established by the documentsthat the commission given on the evening of the first Easter Daythe Great Commissionwas given to the Church and not to any class in the Churchto the whole Churchand not to any part of it, primarily.
The Commission and the Promise, like the Pentecostal blessing which they prefigured, were given to the Christian Society, and not to any special order in it.
Not that every member of the Church has in virtue of the corporate gift a right to exercise it individually.
The very fact that the commission is given to the body renders it impossible for any member to exercise it except by the authority of the body.
When the Body is quickened and endowed, then the Spirit works out its purpose through the several parts.
It is indeed a general law of life that differentiation of organs answers to [the] increasing fulness of life. The particular power of the living being finds expression through the organs. The specialisation of functions required for the permanent well- being of the Church [appears, when] in Eph. 4:7-11 St Paul marks the types of ministry with which the Church is endowed. He states the fact of the individual endowment of the several members of the Christian Society (vs. 7); and (vs. 11) notes that certain special gifts have been made for its government.
Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whosesoever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained. (John 20:22 f.)
The words are the Charter of the Christian Church, and not simply the Charter