The Church in God's Program Quotes

“While the church as church refrains from entering secular forms, its influence is felt in these forms through the influence of individuals who have been transformed by the Word. The member of the church lives not only in the church but in the secular forms of the world. In these structures of human society he is called to a supernatural life, witnessing to the world the reality of the power of the gospel to change the characteristics of this fallen life into those of the life to come. Through every member’s attitudes and actions in the world, so different from those of the world that the supernatural is required for their explanation, the church bears witness to her Lord. The effect of this witness is described as being-light to the world and salt to the earth (Mt 5:13-16; Phil 2:15). As such, it will most certainly have a beneficial effect upon society. But the transformation of the world is not the ultimate goal. Neither the Lord in His ministry nor the apostles in theirs set about to reform society as an end in itself. As a matter of fact, if the reformation of the world was envisioned, the injunctions to be separate from it would be pointless. The final end of the church’s witness of good works is revealed everywhere in Scripture as that of causing others to acknowledge God and glorify Him (Mt 5:16; 1 Pe 2:12; 3:1). In this function good works are linked to evangelism in the fulfillment of the Great Commission. Thus the total church witness is born when the Word is proclaimed in all its fullness and application to all areas of men’s lives, and then lived by each believer in the contacts with the world in which the Lord of the church has stationed him for a witness.”
― Robert L. Saucy, The Church in God's Program

“So much had the gospel been spread abroad during this early period of the church that the apostle could speak of it going into “all the world” (Col 1:6). Justin Martyr, writing in about the middle of the second century, corroborates this rapid expansion: There is no people, Greek or barbarian, or of any other race, by whatever appellation or manners they may be distinguished, however ignorant of arts or agriculture, whether they dwell in tents or wander about in covered wagons, among whom prayers and thanksgivings are not offered in the name of the crucified Jesus to the Father and Creator of all things.”
― Robert L. Saucy, The Church in God's Program

“One other sacrifice of the New Testament believer-priests is the offering up of new converts to God. The apostle Paul saw himself by the grace of God as a minister to the Gentiles “that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost” (Ro 15:16; cf. Is 66:20). Although the apostle Paul was uniquely a minister to the Gentiles, every New Testament believer has the privilege of making this sacrifice of the fruits of evangelism.”
― Robert L. Saucy, The Church in God's Program