Dimensions of effective redemption - Chambers, Oswald
Lecture: November 20, 1914
John 3:16; Ephesians 3:18–19
By the dimensions of effective redemption, under- stand the redemption of god expressing itself in individual experience; but beware of limiting the redemption to our individual experience of it.
1. Breadth
for god so loved the world . . .
The world embraces things material and things evil, things suffering and sinning. Think how narrow and bigoted the love of god is made when it is tied up in less than his own words; we make god out to be exactly the opposite of all Jesus christ said he was. The breadth of the love of god, the agony of that love, is expressed in one word, so. If you can estimate the so, you have fathomed the nature of god. Our love is defective because we will not get down low enough. We must get down lower than hell if we would touch the love of god; we will persist in living in the sixteenth storey when the love of god is at the basement. We speculate on gods love, and discourse on the magnificence of the redemption, while all the time it has never been made effective in us.
The love of god is broader
than the measures of mans mind.
It embraces the whole world. Compare john 3:16 with our lords prayer in john 17. Our lord did not pray that the world might be saved, but that the world may know that thou hast . . . Loved them. Our lord prays for those in whom his redemption is at work that they may live in effective contact with god that they may be one, even as we are one. The same thing with regard to sin and misery. In the bible you never find the note of the pessimist. In the midst of the most crushing conditions there is always an extraordinary hopefulness and profound joy, because god is at the heart. The effective working of redemption in our experience makes us leap for joy in the midst of things in which other people see nothing but disastrous calamity. When the redemption is effectually at work it always rises to its source, viz. , god.
2. Length
that he gave his only begotten son . . .
When the supreme love of god in the giving of him- self has got hold of me, i love myself in the power of his love; that means a son of god being presented to god as a result of his effectual redemption bring- ing many sons unto glory . . . (hebrews 2:10). That is a gratification to god because it is the returning back to himself of his love in expressed real- ity. When the redemption is effective in me, i am a delight to god, not to myself. I am not meant for myself, i am meant for god.
3. Depth
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish . . .
The love of god rakes the very bottom of hell, and from the depths of sin and suffering brings sons and daughters to god. To introduce the idea of merit into belief, i. E. That i have done something by believing, is to annul my belief and make it blasphemous. Belief is the abandonment of all claim to desert; that is why it is so difficult to believe in Jesus. It requires the renunciation of the idea that i am someone i must have this thing explained to me; i must be convinced first. When the spirit of god gets hold of me, he takes the foundation of the fictitious out of me and leaves nothing but an aching cavern for god to fill. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
We love the lovely because it is flattering to us to do so. We love our kith and kin because it is the economy of pride to do so. God loves the un-lovely, and it broke his heart to do it. The depth of the love of god is revealed by that wonderful word, whoso- ever. The bible reveals god to be the lover of his enemies (romans 5:610). We will stick to our rag rights,28 until by gods engineering of our circumstances, every rag right is blown from us and we are left with nothing; we become abject paupers, and say, its all up, and we find ourselves in heaven! We will persist in sticking to the thing that must be damned.
Not by wrestling, but by clinging
Shall we be most blessed
4. Height
. . . But have everlasting life.
The redemption of jesus christ effectively at work in me puts me where he was, and where he is, and where we shall for ever be ( john 14:23; 16:23, 26). it is the terrific lift by the sheer, unaided love of god into a precious oneness with himself, if i will only let him do it. It is not a magic-working necromantic thing, but the energy of his own life. The realest thing is the love of god by means of the effective working of redemption. On the human plane we may have love real, but low: my love, i. E. The sover- eign preference of my person for another person, is in order that my purpose may be fulfilled; and when Jesus christ comes into the life, it looks as if he were the dead enemy of that love. He is not; he is the dead enemy of the lowness. When the love of god is realised by me, the sovereign preference of my person for god enables him to manifest his purpose in me. To realise the dimensions of the love of god, its breadth, and length, and depth, and height, will serve to drive home to us the reality of gods love, and the result of our belief in that love will be that no question will ever profoundly vex our minds, no sorrow overwhelm our spirits, because our heart is at rest in god, just as the heart of our lord was at rest in his father. This does not mean that our faith will not be tested; if it is faith, it must be tested, but, profoundly speaking, it will be supremely easy to believe in god.