Church Discipline a Means of Grace in Scottish Reformed Theology
The Sum of Saving Knowledge is a
sadly neglected work by David Dickson, the Scottish theologian and professor of divinity at both
Glasgow and, later, Edinburgh. To give
its full title:
The Sum
of Saving Knowledge: or, A Brief Sum of Christian Doctrine, Contained in the
Holy Scriptures, and Holden Forth in the Foresaid Confession of Faith and
Catechisms; Together with the Practical Use Thereof.
In one section, Head 3, Dickson
discusses the means of grace. This is
what he writes:
HEAD III.
The Outward Means Appointed to Make the Elect Partakers of This Covenant
THE
outward means and ordinances, for making men partakers of the covenant of
grace, are so wisely dispensed, as that the elect shall be infallibly converted
and saved by them; and the reprobate, among whom they are, not to be justly
stumbled: The means are especially these four. 1. The word of God. 2. The
sacraments. 3. Kirk-government. 4. Prayer. In the word of God preached by sent
messengers, the Lord makes offer of grace to all sinners, upon condition of
faith in Jesus Christ; and whosoever do confess their sin, accept of Christ
offered, and submit themselves to his ordinances, he will have both them and
their children received into the honour and privileges of the covenant of
grace. By the sacraments, God will have the covenant sealed for confirming the
bargain on the foresaid condition. By kirk-government, he will have them hedged
in, and helped forward unto the keeping of the covenant. And by prayer, he will
have his own glorious grace, promised in the covenant, to be daily drawn forth,
acknowledged, and employed. All which means are followed either really, or in
profession only, according to the quality of the covenanters, as they are true
or counterfeit believers.
Dickson clearly identifies what
he calls “kirk-government” as a means of grace; by kirk-government he
means the regular discipline of the church.
We are used to seeing church discipline listed among the marks of the
church, but Dickson goes beyond that to assert that it is a positive means of
grace, especially for a true believer who may fall into sin.
John MacPherson, whose fine
commentary on the Sum of Saving Knowledge is invaluable, takes up this theme of
discipline as a means of grace in his own Church Dogmatics (1898):
“The
exercise of discipline in the widest sense of the term is the special function
for the discharge of which the Christian Church exists. The preaching of the
word and the dispensation of ordinances in the communion of saints have in view
the spiritual culture of the individuals composing that communion, and the
discipline of their lives in self-denial and the love of God. Hence it was from
the very first recognised as the duty of the Church as an organisation to
exercise discipline over its members in order that this spiritual culture might
be secured. The potestas ecclesiastica is really the power belonging to Christ,
but conferred by Him upon His Church. From Christ also is the appointment of
Church officers, who, under Christ's commission, represent the Church, and in
the name of Christ exercise the functions, the discharge of which Christ has committed
to it. Hence the power of the keys belongs to the office-bearers of the Church,
not as a sacerdotium coming in as a mediating order between Christ and
believers, but as a ministerium serving under Christ and representing Him in
His service...
The
disciplina ecclesiastica is, according to the Reformed doctrine, one of the
notes of the Church, by means of which, in conjunction with the preaching of
the word and the dispensation of the sacraments, the spiritual health and
well-being of the community is secured and maintained. For this purpose, in the
Reformed order of Church government, there are elders or presbyters, as well as
pastors and preachers, on whom the duty of carrying out this discipline is
specially laid.
The
purpose of Church discipline is twofold: the immediate spiritual good of the
individual member dealt with, and the general spiritual culture of the
community.
The judgement passed on the individual had in view the saving of that
individual from condemnation in the final judgement (1 Cor. V. 5). That this is
a principal purpose in the exercise of discipline is also shown by the detailed
instruction given by Christ to His disciples as to the gradual patient way in
which He would have them proceed in dealing with an offending brother (Matt,
xviii. 15-17). If by private exhortation and remonstrance he can be convinced
of his fault, so that he repents of it and forsakes it, the latter is gained,
the object is secured in his penitence, which is his salvation.
But even
in the case of his stubborn refusal to acknowledge his fault and repent of it,
rendering an appeal to the judgement of the Church necessary, and ending in
exclusion from its membership, the offender is to be treated as an outsider in
order that a yearning after lost privileges may be awakened in him, and a
spirit of repentance and faith developed within him, which shall bring the
wanderer back. He has been put out because his conduct and spirit showed that
he was not really within; and if in no other way he can be made to see that he
is really without, public exclusion must be tried as a means of showing him
this. But besides the benefit thus contemplated in the case of the individual
dealt with by discipline, the advantage of the whole community is considered in
the exercise of this Church function.
It is
essential to the very existence of the Church, that it should hold up a high
standard of moral excellence before its own members and before the world.
Laxity of discipline implies the absence of any keen appreciation of holiness
and righteousness in the life; and failure to understand that life in the
Church as distinguished from life in the world is the imitation of Christ in
accordance with the holy perfection of God Himself. Hence carelessness in the
discharge of this duty is injurious alike to the spiritual life of the members
of the Church, and to the influence of the Church as a missionary agency in the
world."
There is therefore a two-fold
charge against any denomination that no longer exercises biblical church
discipline – it lacks an essential mark of the true Church and is therefore a
false church; it wilfully deprives the people of God individually and
collectively of one of God’s appointed means of grace and is therefore a cruel
church.
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