By Robin G. Jordan
The Common Cause Theological Statement embedded in Article I is not the only problematic doctrinal provision in the ACNA Constitution. Article III. 1 of the ACNA Constitution states, “The mission of the Province is to extend the Kingdom of God….” Is it agreeable with God’s Word to say that the task that the Anglican Church in North America is appointed to carry out is the enlargement of God’s reign, the expansion of God’s righteous rule in the human heart? Our Lord speaks of God’s kingdom being at hand (Matthew 3:2, 10:7; Mark 1:5) of entering the kingdom (Matthew 5:20; Mark 9:46), seeking the kingdom (Matthew 6:33, Luke 12:31), belonging to the kingdom (Matthew 19:14), shutting the kingdom (Matthew 23:13), receiving the kingdom (Mark 10:15), of not being far from the kingdom (Mark 12:34), bringing or proclaiming the good news of the kingdom (Luke 8:1), being given the kingdom (Luke 12:32), and being fit for the kingdom (Luke 9:62). He compares the kingdom to a grain of mustard seed (Matthew 13:31) leaven (Matthew 13:33), treasure in a field (Matthew 13:44), a pearl of great price (Matthew 13:45), a net (Matthew 13:47), a householder bring out treasures new and old from his storeroom (Matthew 20:1), and a king giving a wedding feast for his son (Matthew 22:2. However, we do not read anywhere in the Gospels that our Lord commissioned his church to spread God’s kingdom. Rather we are called to join the apostles in proclaiming God’s kingdom (Luke 9:2, 60). We are called to be heralds of the kingdom.
In 1 Corinthians 3: 5-9 Paul writes, “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.” We share in God’s work in the sense that we are the instruments that God uses to achieve his purposes. However, we cannot take any credit for what God accomplishes through us. It is all God’s doing.
In Colossians 4:11 the apostle Paul speaks of his “fellow workers for the kingdom of God,” a reference to those who shared with him in the task of preaching the kingdom. In neither 1 Corinthians 3: 5-9 nor Colossians 4:11 is Paul suggesting that God’s kingdom is spread through human effort.
We do not have the natural inclination to do what is right, much less to spread God’s righteous reign. It is the Holy Spirit at work in us that moves us to seek the salvation of others, which enables us to proclaim “the good news of the coming kingdom of God and of the salvation to be obtained through it in Christ, and of what relates to this salvation.”
Article III.2 of the ACNA Constitution states, “The work of the Province is to equip each member of the Province so that they may reconcile the world to Christ….” Once again we must ask, “Is this clause Scriptural?”
Colossians 1: 21 speaks of Christ having reconciled us to God “in his body of flesh by his death.” 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 refers to God reconciling himself to us through Christ and giving us a ministry of reconciliation. It goes on to say, “…in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” Ephesians 2:16 points to our attention that Christ reconciled both Gentile and Jew through the cross. Colossians 1:20 reminds us that the fullness of God dwelled in Christ and through him reconciled all things to himself, “making peace by the blood of his cross.” It is clear from these passages that God, not us, has reconciled humanity to himself through Christ’s death on the cross.
The ministry of reconciliation that God has given us is to proclaim what God has done. Nowhere does the Bible speak of Christians reconciling the world to Christ. God has already reconciled the world to himself through the cross. Our task is to proclaim Christ and him crucified.
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