Systematic Theology, by Louis Berkhof - New Leaven

in religion. Unless it changes colour and strives for greater unity in the truth, it will not
be productive of real unity but only of uniformity, and while it may make the Church
more efficient from a business point of view, it will not add to the true spiritual
efficiency of the Church. Barth sounds the right note when he says: “The quest for the
unity of the Church must in fact be identical with the quest for Jesus Christ as the
concrete Head and Lord of the Church. The blessing of unity cannot be separated from
Him who blesses, in Him it has its source and reality, through His Word and Spirit it is
revealed to us, and only in faith can it become a reality among us.” 23
2. THE HOLINESS OF THE CHURCH.
a. The Roman Catholic conception. The Roman Catholic conception of the holiness of
the Church is also primarily of an external character. It is not the inner holiness of the
members of the Church through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, but the outer
ceremonial holiness that is placed in the foreground. According to Father Devine the
Church is holy first of all “in her dogmas, in her moral precepts, in her worship, in her
discipline,” in which “all is pure and irreproachable, all is of such a nature as is
calculated to remove evil and wickedness, and to promote the most exalted virtue.” 24
Only secondarily is the holiness of the Church conceived of as moral. Father Deharbe
says that the Church is also holy, “because there were in her at all times saints whose
holiness God has also confirmed by miracles and extraordinary graces.” 25
b. Protestant conception. Protestants, however, have quite a different conception of the
holiness of the Church. They maintain that the Church is absolutely holy in an objective
sense, that is, as she is considered in Jesus Christ. In virtue of the mediatorial
righteousness of Christ, the Church is accounted holy before God. In a relative sense
they also regard the Church as being subjectively holy, that is, as actually holy in the
inner principle of her life and destined for perfect holiness. Hence she can truly be
called a community of saints. This holiness is first of all a holiness of the inner man, but
a holiness which also finds expression in the outer life. Consequently, holiness is also
attributed, secondarily, to the visible Church. That Church is holy in the sense that it is
separated from the world in consecration to God, and also in the ethical sense of aiming
at, and achieving in principle, a holy conversation in Christ. Since visible local churches
consist of believers and their seed, they are supposed to exclude all open unbelievers
and wicked persons. Paul does not hesitate to address them as churches of the saints.
23 The Church and the Churches, p. 28.
24 The Creed Explained, p. 285.
25 Catechism of the Catholic Religion, p. 140.
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