II. How to think about the lord Jesus Christ - Chambers, Oswald
All things have been delivered unto me of my father: and no one knoweth the son, save the father. Mat- thew 11:27 (RV)
In Matthew 11:27 the unique position of Jesus Christ to his own consciousness is clearly exhibited. The mystery of the person of Jesus resides in its nature from the beginning; before we begin to understand his person we must be quickened from above by the holy spirit. That is where the battle rages to-day around the person of Jesus Christ (cf. 1 john 4:23). The call for every christian worker is to thoroughly equip himself with right thinking about Jesus Christ.
The bible has no respect for mental abstractions. Jesus Christ did not talk about the infinite or the incomprehensible; whenever he talked about god he brought it down to concrete reality he that hath seen me hath seen the father. Unless god has become a concrete reality in Jesus Christ, he has no meaning for us at all. Jesus nowhere said, he that hath seen man hath seen the father: he emphatically states that he is the only medium god has for revealing himself. The trend of thought at the heart of all the modern ethical movements is based on the idea that god and humanity are one and the same. Jesus nowhere taught that god was in man, but he did teach that god was manifest in human flesh in his person that he might become the generating center for the same thing in every human being, and the place of his travail pangs is Bethlehem, Calvary, and the resurrection.
I and my father are one. Do we accept Jesus Christs thinking about himself ? According to his own thinking he was equal with god, and he became incarnate for the great purpose of lifting the human race back into communion with god, not because of their aspirations, but because of the sheer omnipotence of god through the atonement. The life of Jesus Christ is made ours not by imitation, but by means of his death on Calvary and by our reception of his spirit. Our lords marvellous message for all time is the familiar one: come unto me, . . . And i will give you rest.
The wayfaring men, yea fools, shall not err therein. When a man does err in the way of god, it is because he is wise in his own conceits. When the facts of life have humbled us, when introspection has stripped us of our own miserable self-interest and we receive a startling diagnosis of ourselves by the holy spirit, we are by that painful experience brought to the place where we can hear the marvellous message profounder than the profoundest philosophies earth ever wove, come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and i will give you rest.
Until this experience comes men may patronise Jesus Christ, but they do not come to him for salvation. The only solution is the one given by Jesus Christ himself to a good upright man of his day: marvel not that i said unto thee, ye must be born again. Howbeit when he, the spirit of truth, is come . . . He shall glorify me ( john 16:1314). There is abroad to-day a vague, fanatical movement which bases everything on spiritual impulsegod gave me an impulse to do this, and that, and there are the strangest outcomes to such impulses. Any impulse which does not lead to the glorification of Jesus Christ has the snare of Satan behind it. People say, how am i to know whether my impulse is from the holy spirit or from my own imagination? Very easily. Jesus Christ gave us the simplest, most easy-to- be-understood tests for guidance the holy ghost . . . Shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever i have said unto you; the holy spirit will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself. Beware of any religious experience which glorifies you and not Jesus Christ. It may use the right phrasing, it may praise Jesus Christ and praise the atonement that is one of the subtlest powers of the insinuations of Satan, but the life does not glorify Jesus, it does not magnify and uplift the crucified son of god. Living much in the presence of Jesus, coming in contact with his mind, simplifies life to a believer, and makes him an unflurried sceptic of everything that is not true to the nature of god. The central citadel of Christianity is the person of our lord Jesus Christ. The final standard for the christian is given at the outset to be conformed to the image of his son.
