What is a Third Way church?

Now, in between these two, lies our present position. There are many, who know at least a little of the Headship and Lordship of Christ, who wish to walk in this loyal path of fidelity to Him, neither re-adjusting the conditions of fellowship as the "London" brethren have confessedly (through their leaders) done, to the exclusion of those who ought not to be excluded; nor lapsing into the indifference and looseness of "Open" Brethrenism. They wish to keep in the truth of Paul's gospel, while owning their feebleness in presenting it. They wish to be conversant with God's mind in the Assembly and with Christ's glory in it too, and consistent with its every aspect; but own with shame and confusion of face, the terrible failures of today. They have exercises upon exercises. They see some tiring of the looseness which marks the day in which we live, and slipping into the "London" enclosure to escape that exercise. They see on the other hand, some tiring of the very suggestion of corporate testimony, and in their weariness, and also to escape exercise, slipping into "Open" Brethren practices and positions. And between these two lesions, it sometimes looks as if everything were going.

This reception is to all privileges and responsibilities of assembly life and fellowship. Such believers are received as members of the body of Christ, not as "members of our church" since all Christians become part of the one true church at conversion, and any further membership is unnecessary and divisive (Acts 2:47b).

So here is an important principle that is a prerequisite to any church fellowship now that the professing church has become a mixed mass of vessels to honour and dishonour. Where necessary there is to be separation, by purging oneself out from what dishonours the Lord, and then a gathering to His Name alone with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart, following righteousness (submission to the Lord), faith (dependence upon Him alone), love (the activity of that characteristic trait of the divine nature, see 1 John 3:10-19; 4:7-8), and peace (the practical result of these three things). In other words those who separated themselves from what dishonours the Lord were to return to the two great principles that governed the fellowship of the church in the beginning. There is to be membership of the body of Christ, evidenced by divine life in activity, and a practical submission to the Lordship of Christ, in owning Him as Lord over all things that pertain to the house of God and over our own lives. Anything else would be sectarian with arbitrary conditions or limits imposed as a rule of fellowship.

Yet, notwithstanding these things, is all lost? No, indeed, but the answer is not to set up something else in addition to the vast numbers of Christian groups, even if it were with more light and godliness; nay, rather, it is for us to cleave to that which was from the beginning and, while owning the ruin and failure that has come in, to gather simply as members of the body of Christ recognising no other membership. On that ground we can act for the whole church, not as being the whole church, but as being on the ground of the church and therefore representative of the whole church. And I believe that God holds us responsible as such. Every local gathering ought to realise that being on the ground of the one body, it acts for the body, the whole church, in its action. Reception and discipline ought to be looked at in this light. That is, as being gathered as members of the one body and owning His authority in their midst, their action cannot be viewed as of themselves locally only, but is in reality an act of the church and for the church, the one body, irrespective of locality.

Any company of Christians thus gathered in confession of their common membership in the Body of Christ will, of course, recognize any other company or companies likewise assembled, and they will practise together all that Scripture enjoins upon the whole Church of God. Individuals presenting themselves to be received, and accrediting themselves as members of the Body of Christ, will be received as such by any one of the companies on behalf of Christ and of the whole Church; or, any one sinning against Christ, and requiring to be put under discipline, will be so dealt with by any one of the companies on behalf of Christ and of the whole Church. The truth that “there is one Body” will govern all their ways and actions; everything will be done in the light of that fact. They cannot be together in one place, but they are together in one Spirit.

Thus, according to the divine plan, if I am a member of the church at all, I am a member of the church everywhere. If I go to any quarter of the world where saints call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, I am a member, not by permission nor by courtesy, but by the universal recognition, on the part of believers, of the title which grace has given me. Baptised by the Spirit, I am a member of Christ's body, wheresoever I may be. In apostolic days that membership, and none other, was known throughout. There might be differences of view. There might be need of the word, "Whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing." Some might eat herbs, and some might eat meat; but the Spirit said, and says, "Receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God." Now the glory of God is identified, not with some, but with all the members of the body of Christ. If the weakest member therefore were excluded, save in case of necessary scriptural discipline, so far would that glory be forgotten or despised; and those guilty of such exclusion ought to be avoided, as causers of divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which we learned.

284 Further, as distinguished from this, the gathering of companies of believers is nothing new. This all Dissenters profess to do. They may have thrown themselves into the world and politics more rabidly than the Establishment, and in a large measure fallen into rationalism; but they profess to make churches of believers, unless we except the Wesleyans who have a peculiar polity of their own. But they make churches to be voluntary associations, of which so-called churches those who associate are members - a thing wholly unknown to scripture. A member of a church is a thing unknown to scripture. All Christians are members of Christ, and there can be no other membership. We, all who have the Spirit of Christ, are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. Baptism even as a figure has nothing to do with giving life, or membership. It is baptism to the death of Christ for one previously a child of sinful Adam. The Lord's supper is (besides other precious truths) the expression of the unity of the body of Christ. Every saint is a member of it; and this is the ground "Brethren" meet on, supposing of course that the person is not justly subject to discipline.

It is sure that we cannot bring all the saints of God together today from all the divisions that have taken place, and practice the unity that once existed in the early church. But we can still recognize the one basis of true gathering, that is, the one body of Christ, and gather in simplicity on that basis, without claiming to be the body of Christ. If this is honestly the one ground of gathering that we recognize, this is not sectarian ground. May we desire nothing else than this.

— Unity, i.e., the oneness of the church, as the One body of Christ, and the communion of the body and blood of Christ, claimed by the members of that body as such. The "Lord's table" being the expression of that communion, every true Christian has a title and claim, to take his seat with us at that table, provided the following essential conditions for such communion are to he found him: — True, living faith. — Godly walk. — Pure and sound doctrine, etc. — No intercommunion with assemblies, where unsound doctrines are tolerated (Rev. 2:14-15).

To do so involves no pretension. It is not “rebuilding the Church.” It is owning the ruin of the Church and, in simplicity, “endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). Difficulties may and will arise. Troubles will come up. Sorrows will have to be faced. But if there be a cleaving to Christ and His truth, the Word of God will be found all-sufficient to meet every case that appears. Owning to the broken and defiled conditions in Christendom, more care will need to be exercised as to whom fellowship is to be extended. But the heart should ever be open to all whose ways and doctrine give good evidence that they are of the one body and subject to the one Lord. Special discernment will be needed, lest by association with the unholy, such become partakers of other men’s sins; for to go on with one who is in an evil course, even to the extent of greeting him in a brotherly way, is to make oneself “partaker of his evil deeds” (2 John 7-11). But if the Scriptures are allowed to be judge, every difficulty will vanish. In the beginning what applied to one assembly applied to all, as all were one; and if the same principle is recognized by believers gathering in the simple way indicated above, it will solve many perplexities and keep from isolation and independency, which are the twin enemies of practical fellowship between local companies of believers.