Nothing can be more forcible, nothing more lovely. That dry, dead stick was the apt figure of Israel’s condition, and indeed of the condition of every one of us by nature. There was no sap, no life, no power. One might well say, “What good can ever come of it?” None whatever, had not grace come in and displayed its quickening power. So was it with Israel in the wilderness, and so is it with us now. How were they to be led along from day to day? how were they to be sustained in all their weakness and need? how were they to be borne with in all their sin and folly? The answer is found in Aaron’s budding rod. If the dry, dead stick was the expression of nature’s barren and worthless condition, the buds, blossoms, and fruit set forth that living and life-giving grace and power of God on which was based the priestly ministry that alone could bear the congregation through the wilderness. Grace alone could answer the ten thousand necessities of the militant host. Power could not suffice,—authority could not avail: priesthood alone could supply what was needed, and this priesthood was instituted on the foundation of that efficacious grace which could bring fruit out of a dry rod.
Thus it was as to priesthood of old, and thus it is as to ministry now. All ministry in the Church of God is the fruit of divine grace—the gift of Christ, the Church’s Head. There is no other source of ministry whatsoever. From apostles down to the very lowest gifts—all proceed from Christ. The grand root-principle of all ministry is embodied in those words of Paul to the Galatians in which he speaks of himself as “an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead.” (Gal. i. 1.)
Here, be it noted, is the sublime source from whence all ministry emanates. It is not of man, or by man, in any shape or form. Man may take up dry sticks and shape and fashion them according to his own will, and he may ordain and appoint, and call them by certain high-sounding, official titles; but of what use is it? they are only dry, dead sticks. We may justly say, “Where is there a single cluster of fruit? where is there a single blossom? nay, where is there one solitary bud?” Even one bud will suffice to prove that there is something divine; but in the absence of this, there can be no living ministry in the Church of God. It is the gift of Christ, and that alone, that makes a man a minister. Without this, it is an empty assumption for any one to set himself up, or be set up by others, to be a minister.
Does the reader thoroughly own this great principle? is it as clear as a sunbeam to his soul? Has he any difficulty respecting it? If so, we entreat him to seek to divest his mind of all preconceived thoughts, from what source soever derived; let him rise above the hazy mists of traditional religion; let him take the New Testament, and study, as in the immediate presence of God, the twelfth and fourteenth chapters of 1 Corinthians, and also Ephesians iv. 7-12. In these passages he will find the whole subject of ministry unfolded, and from them he will learn that all true ministry, whether it be apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors, or evangelists,—all is of God—all flows down from Christ, the exalted Head of the Church. If a man be not possessed of a _bona-fide_ gift from Christ, he is not a minister. Every member of the body has a work to do. The edification of the body is promoted by the proper action of all the members, whether prominent or obscure, “comely” or “uncomely.” In short, all ministry is from God, and not from man; it is by God, and not by man. There is no such thing in Scripture as a humanly ordained ministry. All is of God.
We must not confound ministerial gifts with office or local charge. We find the apostles, or their delegates, ordaining elders and appointing deacons; but this was quite a distinct thing from ministerial gifts. Those elders and deacons might possess and exercise some specific gift in the body; the apostle did not ordain them to exercise such gift, but only to fulfill the local charge. The spiritual gift was from the Head of the Church, and was independent of the local charge altogether.