Digging Out the Embedded Church - The Maranatha Community

It is interesting that 60 or so years later, Pope John XXIII could endorse Beauduin‟s view of
Christian Unity.
In Evangelicals and Catholics Together, James I Packer, in his essay Crosscurrents among
Evangelicals, 154 sees the way forward into unity through the two sides concentrating on
„informal grass roots collaboration‟ in „para-church‟ associations. None of the writers of the
essays in this volume seem concerned with organisational and structural unions, but with
practical cooperation in evangelism and social concern.
Objections are raised that, while Evangelicals in ‘evangelism’ seek converts, Catholics in
their ‘evangelisation’ seek mainly to lead those who are already by baptism members of the
Church into a realisation of what it means to be a real Christian. Such an objection is
countered by pointing out that the end result is the same, a calling on Jesus to save and
restore one to God.
The great uniting doctrine is the supremacy of Jesus. In general, Evangelicals and
Catholics Together holds that the binding force of the acceptance of the classical Creeds,
together with the renewal by the Holy Spirit which exalts Christ as the only Saviour and
Lord, create a solid basis for united service and witness.
The para-church model for Christian unity will not satisfy the Catholic and Orthodox
churches, which claim to be „holy, catholic and apostolic‟, with all that that implies for
discipline, authority and continuity. The model can, however, at a lower level, manifest those
very same marks of the Church. Christians can get together to speak for holiness in
individual and public life; they can show they have a universal faith; and they can hold to the
apostolic Scriptures as their authority for faith and behaviour.
The question has to be raised, as it is by some Protestants, are the differences in
understanding of the doctrine of justification by faith, the central Reformed tenet, too great to
be overcome?
This doctrine is not dealt with in the classic Christian Creeds. Most Catholics would assert
that justification is, in the first instance, by grace alone, but that the justified person has to
strive to be justified by the works he does. This is where justification and sanctification
overlap.
The Scriptures teach that Abraham was justified by both faith and works, but in different
senses (Romans 4.3 and James 2.21-24). Abraham‟s faith that brought him righteousness
was made „perfect‟ (hē pistis eteleiōthē (James 2.22)) or „complete‟ by his works; that is, in
his sanctification. So his justification is completed by his sanctification.
Many Protestants would rather speak of works giving evidence of justifying faith. Yet
Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants all reject an antinomianism that separates faith and
works. There is ground here for acceptance of each other‟s positions.
154 Packer, J I, Cross Currents among Evangelicals, Ch 5 in Evangelicals and Catholics Together, ed
Colson, Charles and Neuhaus, R J, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p 173.
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