Heart: the radical region of life - Chambers, Oswald
Chapter XII Heart: the radical region of life
The Rendezvous of Perfect Life
1. The inner
(a) highest love (psalm 73:26; mark 12:3031)
(b) highest licence (Ezekiel 28:2)
(c) darkened (Romans 1:21; Ephesians 4:18)
(d) hardened (Isaiah 6:10; Jeremiah 16:12; 2 Corinthians 3:14)
2. The inmost
(a) the laboratory of life (mark 7:2023)
(b) lusts (mark 4:1519; Romans 1:24)
(c) law of nature (Romans 2:15)
(d) law of grace (Isaiah 51:7; Jeremiah 31:33)
(e) seat of conscience (Hebrews 10:22; 1 john 3:1921)
(f ) seat of belief and disbelief (Romans 10:10; Hebrews 3:12)
3. The innermost
(a) inspiration of god (2 Corinthians 8:16)
(b) inspiration of Satan ( john 13)
(c) indwelling of Christ (Ephesians 3:17)
(d) indwelling of spirit (2 Corinthians 1:22)
(e) abode of peace (colossi ans 3:15)
(f ) abode of love (Romans 5:5)
(g) abode of light (2 peter 1:19)
(h) abode of communion (Ephesians 5:19)
A rendezvous is an appointed place of meeting. The heart is the appointed place of meeting not only for all the life of the body physically, but for all the life of the soul and of the spirit. We have seen that the heart is the center of the bodily life physically, the center of the soul life, and the center of the spirit life, and that the bible places in the heart what modern science puts in the brain.
All through these studies we have insisted on what the bible insists on, viz. , that our body is the most gracious gift god has given us, and that if we hand over the mainspring of our life to god we can work out in our bodily life all that he works in. It is through our bodily lives that Satan works and, thank god, it is through our bodily lives that gods spirit works. God gives us his grace and his spirit; he puts right all that was wrong, he does not suppress it nor counteract it, but readjusts the whole thing; then begins our work. We have to work out what god has worked in, and we have to beware of the snare of blaming god for not doing what we alone can do. When paul says, be renewed in the spirit of your mind, he is referring to the heart, which is renewed by the spirit of god the expression of the heart is made through the mechanism of the brain, and the marvellous emancipation which comes, slowly and surely, is that when god has altered the heart and filled it with a new spirit, we have the power to will and to do all that he wants us to do.
Jesus Christ puts the test this way: if ye love me, ye will keep my commandments, not some of them, but all of them. No man can keep Jesus Christs commandments unless god has done a radical work in his heart; but if he has, this is the practical, common- sense proof he keeps the commandments of Jesus.
1. The inner
The inner, the inmost, and the innermost we now come right to the very centre of our personality, where we know nothing except what god reveals. Gods book counsels: keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life (proverbs 4:23). We are far too complex to understand ourselves; we must hand over the keeping of our hearts to god. If we think that we are simple and easy to understand, we shall never ask god to save us or keep us; but if we have come to the condition of the psalmist, we will hand the keeping of our souls right over to him and say, search me, o god, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts (psalm 139:23).
(a) Highest love
We must put the emphasis where the bible puts it: god is the strength of my heart (psalm 73:26).
Thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself (mark 12:3031). According to the bible, the highest love of the human heart is not for our kind, but for god. Our lord distinctly taught his disciples that if they were going to live the spiritual life, they must barter the natural for it; that is, they must forgo the natural life. We mean by the natural life, the ordinary, sensible, healthy, worldly-minded life. The highest love is not natural to the human heart. Naturally, we do not love god, we mistrust him; consequently in thinking we are apt to apply to god what should be applied to Satan. Satan uses the problems of this life to slander gods character; he tries to make us think that all the calamities and miseries and wrongs spring from god. We have defined love, in its highest sense, as being the sovereign preference of my person for another person. The surest sign that god has done a work of grace in my heart is that i love Jesus Christ best, not weakly and faintly, not intellectually, but passionately, personally and devotedly, overwhelming every other love of my life. In Romans 5:5 (the love of god is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy ghost which is given unto us), Paul does not say that the capacity to love god is shed abroad in our hearts, he says the love of god is shed abroad. The bible knows only one love in this connection, and that is the supreme, dominating love of god. Jesus Christ teaches that if we have had a work of grace done in our hearts, we will show to our fellow-men the same love god has shown to us. A new commandment i give unto you, that ye love one another; as i have loved you, that ye also love one another ( john 13:34). The natural heart, we cannot repeat it too often, does not want the gospel. We will take gods blessings and his loving-kindnesses and prosperity, but when it comes to close quarters and gods spirit informs us that we have to give up the rule of ourselves and let him rule us, then we understand what Paul means when he says the carnal mind (which resides in the heart) is enmity against god. Are we willing for god not to suppress or counteract, but to totally alter the ruling disposition of our heart? The wonderful work of the grace of god is that through the atonement god can alter the centre of my life, and put there a supreme, passionate devotion to god himself. The natural man does not like gods commands; he will not have them, he covers them over and ignores them. Jesus said that the first commandment is: thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. Men put the second commandment first: thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The great cry to-day is love for mankind. The great cry of Jesus is love for god first, and this love, the highest love, the supreme, passionate devo- tion of the life, springs from the inner center. What a rest comes when the love of god has been shed abroad in my heart by the holy spirit! I realise that god is love, not loving, but love, something infinite greater than loving, consequently he has to be very stern. There is no such thing as god overlooking sin. That is where people make a great mistake with regard to love; they say, god is love and of course he will forgive sin: god is holy love and he cannot forgive sin. Jesus Christ did not come to forgive sin; he came to save us from our sins. The salvation of Jesus Christ removes the sinner out of my heart and plants in the saint. That is the marvellous work of gods grace. That the natural heart of man does not want the gospel of god is proved by the resentment of the heart against the working of the spirit of god, no, i don’t object to being forgiven, i don’t mind being guided and blessed, but it is too much of a radical surrender to ask me to give up my right to myself and allow the spirit of god to have absolute control of my heart. That is the natural resentment. But oh, the ineffable, unspeakable delight when we are made one with god, one with Jesus Christ, and one with every fellow believer in this great, overwhelming characteristic of love, when life becomes possible on gods plan!
(b) highest licence
In Ezekiel 28:2 (say unto the prince of tyrus, thus saith the lord god; because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, i am a god, . . . Yet thou art a man, and not god. . . . ) we have the presentation of the personality of sin, not the picture of the wrong disposition, which we have all inherited, but of the being who is the instigator behind the wrong dispo- sition inciting to licence. Licence simply means i will not be bound by any laws but my own. This spirit resents gods law and will not have anything to do with iti shall rule my body as i choose, i shall rule my social relationships and my religious life as i like, and i will not allow god or any creed or doctrine to rule me. That is the way licence begins to work. Watch how often the apostle Paul warns us not to use our liberty for an occasion to the flesh, i. E. , don’t use your liberty for licence. What is the dif- ference between liberty and licence? Liberty is the ability to perform the law, perfect freedom to fulfil all the demands of the law. To be free from the law means that i am the living law of god, there is no independence of god in my make-up. Licence is rebellion against all law. If my heart does not become the center of divine love, it may become the centre of diabolical licence. Do people believe that nowadays? The majority of us do not accept Jesus Christs statements. Immediately we look at them, their intensity and profundity make us shrink. A very profitable and solemn study is the connection of the phrase children of the devil as used by Jesus. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do ( john 8:44). He is not referring to ordinary sinners, but to religious sinners. Natural sinners are called children of wrath, but when our lord used the phrase, children of the devil, he was referring to religious disbelievers, viz. , those who had seen the light and refused to walk in it, they would not have it.
Remember the two alternatives: our heart may be the center of the divine rule making us one with gods thoughts and purposes, or it may be the center of the devils rule making us one with the prince of this world, the being who hates god, one with the natural life which barters the spiritual.
(c) Darkened .
. . When they knew god, they glorified him not as god . . . But became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. (Romans 1:21; see also Ephesians 4:18)
These are striking passages, quite at home in the new testament, but at home nowhere else. This is not the darkness which comes from intensity of light, it is the refusal to allow any light at all. Read john 3:19 and you will see how our lord uses the word darkness. This is the judgement, he says, i. E. , the critical moment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil (RV). On another occasion Jesus said, if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! Darkness is my own point of view; when once i allow the prejudice of my head to shut down the witness of my heart, i make my heart dark.
When Jesus Christ preached his first public ser- mon in Nazareth where he had been brought up, the hearts of the people witnessed to him wonder- fully, then their prejudices got in the way and they closed down the witness of their hearts, broke up the service and tried to kill him. That is an instance of how it is possible to choke the witness of the heart by the prejudice of the head. In john 3 Jesus was talk- ing to a man who was in danger of closing down the 178 biblical psychology.
Witness of his heart because of his Jewish prejudice. Is there any light for which some of us have been thanking god, as the psalmist puts it god is the lord, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords . . . (psalm 118:27), and is there a prejudice coming in and closing down the witness of the heart? If so, that is where the darkened heart begins; the light does not shine because it cannot. Until the holy spirit comes in we see only along the line of our prejudices. When we let the holy spirit come in, he will blow away the lines of our prejudices with his dynamic power, and we can begin to go in gods light. A darkened heart is a terrible thing, because a darkened heart may make a man peaceful. A man says my heart is not bad, i am not convicted of sin; all this talk about being born again and filled with the holy spirit is so much absurdity. The natural heart needs the gospel of Jesus, but it does not want it, it will fight against it, and it takes the convicting spirit of god to make men and women know they need to experience a radical work of grace in their hearts.
(d) Hardened
but their minds were hardened: for until this very day
. . . The same veil remaineth unlifted; which veil is done away in Christ. (2 Corinthians 3:14)
The characteristic of the hardened heart is familiar in the bible but not anywhere else. For instance, we read in exodus that god hardened pharaohs heart (exodus 4:21, et seq. ). This must not be interpreted to mean that god hardened a mans heart and then condemned him for being hard. It means rather that gods laws, being gods laws, do not alter, and that if any man refuses to obey gods law he will be hardened away from god, and that by gods own decree. No mans destiny is made for him, he makes his own; but the imperative necessity that a man must make his own destiny is of god. Whenever a man comes into an exalted position, it is a position in which he can either show the marvellous grace of god, or the hardening of his heart away from god. This is true of the prejudiced heart and the hardened heart, but not so true of the darkened heart. In a hardened heart there is no witness being crushed down, the heart is simply hard and untouched, and when gods love and gods works are abroad, it remains like ice; it may be smashed and broken by judgements, but it is simply breaking ice. The only way to alter the hardened heart is to melt it, and the only power that can melt it is the fire of the holy ghost. The heart is so truly central that god alone knows it, and the illustrations the bible uses are varied figures in order that we may understand how god deals with the heart.
2. The inmost
(a) The laboratory of life
A laboratory is the place where things are prepared for use. The heart never dies, it is as immortal as gods spirit because it is the center of mans spirit. Memory never dies, mind never dies; our bodily machine dies, and the manifestation of our heart and life in the body dies, but the heart never dies. Son, remember, these words were spoken to a man out of the body.
The things prepared for use are prepared in the heart. For from within, out of the heart of man, pro- ceed evil thoughts . . . (mark 7:20). These are staggering words, and they spring from the lips of the master of the human heart. They are not the shrewd guesses of a scientist, or the simple intimations of an apostle, they are the revelation of god almighty through Jesus Christ. Look at them and see whether they do not awaken resentment in you unless you have received the spirit of god. These verses mean that no crime has ever been committed by a human being that every human being is not capable of committing. How many people believe that? It is absurd, morbid nonsense, they say, which means that Jesus Christ did not know what he was talking about. To-day people are willingly and eagerly and all-embracingly accepting christian science, that popularisation of the belief that there is no such thing as sin or suffering or death, they are all imagination. The consequence is people are preaching the gospel of temperament cheer up and look on the bright side of things. How can a man look on the bright side of things when the spirit of god has shown him the possibilities of hell within? The major- ity of us are shockingly ignorant about ourselves simply because we will not allow the spirit of god to reveal the enormous dangers that lie hidden in the centre of our spirit. Jesus Christ taught that dangers never come from outside, but from within. If we will accept Jesus Christs verdict and receive the spirit of god, we need never know in conscious life that what he says about the human heart is true, because he will re-relate the heart from within. Perfect life does not mean perfection. Perfection means perfect attainment in everything. Perfect life means the perfect adjustment of all our relation- ships to god, nothing out of joint, everything rightly related; then we can begin to have the perfect life, that is, we can begin to attain. A child is a perfect human being, so is a man; what is the difference? The one is not yet grown and matured, the other is. Paul puts the two perfections very clearly in Philippians 3:1215. When you are sanctified you have become perfectly adjusted to god; but remember, he implies, that you have attained to nothing yet; the whole life is right, undeserving of censure, now then begin to attain in your bodily life and prove that you are perfectly adjusted to him.
(b) lusts
Wherefore god also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts. (Romans 1:24)
What is lust? I must have it at once! That is lust. Jesus said that lust would destroy the work of grace he has begun in us; the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word (mark 4:19). The word lust is also used in other connections, viz. , of the spirit of god, the spirit [lusteth] against the flesh (galatians 5:17). The spirit of god who comes in at new birth lusts after this body, must have it at once, for god, and he will not tolerate the carnal mind for one second; consequently when a person is born again of the spirit, there is a disclosure of enmity against god. No man knows he has that enmity inside until he receives the holy spirit. Immediately he receives the spirit the carnal mind is aroused, and the carnal mind clamours and will not yield to the spirit. This war is described in Galatians 5:17, the flesh lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, both demanding i must have this body at once. To which power are we going to give our body? Thank god for everyone who says, lord, i want to be identified with the death of Jesus until i know that my old man was crucified with him. But watch lust on the other side watch where it begins. Ye did run well; who did hinder you? Think what simple things Jesus Christ says will choke his word the cares of this world, . . . The lusts of other things. Once become worried and the chok- ing of the grace of god begins. If we have really had wrought into our hearts and heads the amazing rev- elation which Jesus Christ gives that god is love and that we can never remember anything he will forget, then worry is impossible. Notice how frequently Jesus Christ warns against worry. The cares of this world will produce worry, and the lusts of other things entering in will choke the word god has put in. Is the thing which claims my attention just now the one thing for which god saved and sanctified me? If it is, life is all the time becoming simpler, and the crowding, clamouring lusts have no hold.
(c) the law of nature, (d) the law of grace, (e) the seat of conscience and (f ) the seat of belief and disbelief are all in the heart.
Conscience is the eye of the soul, and the orbit of conscience, that marvellous recorder, is the heart. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. God puts the law of grace where the law of nature works, viz. , in the heart. Thank god for his sovereign grace which can alter the mainspring of life!
(f ) The seat of belief and disbelief
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living god. (Hebrews 3:12) there the distinction is made perfectly clear the heart must never be agnostic, the head, if you like, may be. Every christian is an avowed agnostic. Have you ever thought of that? How do i know god? All i know of god i have accepted as a revelation, i did not find it out by my head. Canst thou by searching find out god? Next time you meet some agnostic friend, say something like that to him and see if it does not alter the problem for him. We have to keep our minds open about a great many things. The reason people disbelieve god is not because they do not understand with their heads we understand very few things with our heads, but because they have turned their hearts in another direction. Why was Jesus Christ so stern against disbelief ? Because disbelief never springs from the head but from the wrong direction of the heart. Can i have the evil heart of unbelief taken out and a heart of belief put in? Thank god, the answer is yes! A new heart also will i give you, and a new spirit will i put within you . . . (Ezekiel 36:26). Can i have an impure, defiled heart made pure, so pure that it is pure in gods sight? The answer is yes! . . . The blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin (1 john 1:7). Can i be filled with the holy ghost until every nook and cranny is exactly under the control of god? Again the answer is yes! He that cometh after me is mightier than i, . . . He shall baptize you with the holy ghost and with fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor . . . (Matthew 3:1112).
Jesus Christs salvation works first at the center, not at the circumference. No one is capable of think- ing about being born, or of how they will live when they are born, until they are born; we have to be born into this world first before we can think about it. Marvel not that i said unto thee, ye must be born again you must be born into a new world first, and if you want to know my doctrine, do my will said Jesus. A right relation to god first is essential. How are we to have a right heart relationship to god? By accepting his spirit, and he will bring us where we can understand how gods grace works. If any man will receive the spirit of god, he will find he will lead him into all truth.
3. The innermost
(a) the inspiration of god
The inspiration of god may dwell in the innermost recesses of my heart. But thanks be to god, which put the same earnest care into the heart of titus for you (2 Corinthians 8:16). You may be surprised at the seeming slightness of this passage. The inspiration for benevolence and philanthropy springs from god, and gods book has some stern revelations to make about philanthropy and benevolence, it reveals that they may spring from a totally wrong motive.
The inspiration of god does not patch up my natural virtues; he re-makes the whole of my being until we find that every virtue we possess is his alone. God does not come in and patch up our good works, he puts in the spirit that was characteristic of Jesus; it is his patience, his love, and his tenderness and gentleness that are exhibited through us. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood . . . . When god alters a mans heart and plants his spirit within, his actions have the inspiration of god behind them; if they have not, they may have the inspiration of Satan.
(b) Inspiration of Satan
And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of judas iscariot . . . To betray him. . . . ( john 13:2)
(c) The indwelling of Christ
The indwelling of christian unspeakable wonder! That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith . . . (Ephesians 3:17). This figure of the indwelling of Christ is very remarkable; we are made part of the mystical body of Christ that Christ may indwell us. The new testament gives three pictures of Jesus: first, the historic Jesus; second, god incarnate; and third, the mystical body of Christ, which is being made up now of sanctified believers. By the sovereign work of god and the indwelling Christ, we can show through our lives, through our bodily relation- ships, the very same characteristics that were seen in the lord Jesus, so that men may take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus, and, as our lord said, men seeing your good works, may glorify your father which is in heaven.
The thought is unspeakably full of glory, that god the holy ghost can come into my heart and fill it so full that the life of god will manifest itself all through this body which used to manifest exactly the opposite. If i am willing and determined to keep in the light and obey the spirit, then the characteristics of the indwelling Christ will manifest themselves. (d) the indwelling of the spirit this is something more explainable. The spirit, soul and body of the man Christ Jesus were kept in perfect oneness with god the father by the holy spirit. Study Jesus Christs life: his up-look to god, i. E. , his prayer life, was always right; his out-look on men was always right, and his down-look on sin and the devil and hell was always right. He did not ignore any of these facts, as a great many people are doing to-day, and his spirit energising our spirit will produce in us the same characteristics and lift us by his marvellous atonement into the same at-one-ment with god. That they may be one, even as we are one, not by absorption, but by identification. This is not the teaching which is prevalent nowadays that we are to be absorbed into one great, infinite being; we are to be made one in identity with Jesus Christ, to have a disposition like his; consequently we are interested only in the things in which he is interested, we cannot be appealed to on any other line. (e) the abode of peace and let the peace of god rule in your hearts (colossi ans 3:15). This is the peace of god, not peace with god. Thank god, there is a peace with god, but this is a different peace. Peace i leave with you, my peace i give unto you, said Jesus, i. E. , the peace that char- acterised Jesus Christ is to characterise his saints. (f ) the abode of love the love of god is shed abroad in our hearts (Romans 5:5), not the capacity to love god, but the very love of god. That is what Paul means by those words with which we are so familiar i have been [RV ] crucified with Christ: nevertheless i live; yet not i, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which i now live in the flesh i live by the faith of the son of god. This is not faith in jesus, but the faith of the son of god, i. E. , the faith that was in Jesus is in me; i am identified with jesus to such an extent that you cannot detect a different spring of life, because there is not one! It is no longer the old disposition that rules me, says Paul, but the disposition that is in Jesus christ. If you have not the spirit of god, you will think the apostle is straining language beyond its limit in his effort to express what the spirit of god does, viz. , he alters the ruling disposition, and a man shows himself as entirely changed. (g) the abode of light . . . A light that shineth in a dark place (2 peter 1:19). We have a wonderful picture of light in James 1:17, . . . The father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning (rv ), nothing to hide. That is the characteristic of god, and st. Paul counsels us to walk as children of light. (h) the abode of communion st. John says, if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. That is a wonderful description of the communion we shall have. Natural affinity does not count here at all. Watch how god has altered our affinities since we were filled with the spirit; we have an affinity of fellowship with people for whom we have no natural affinity at all, we have fellowship with everyone who is in the light, no matter who they are, or to what nation they belong, or anything elsea most extraordinary alteration. The complete works of Oswald chambers 181.