The Philosophy of the Perfect life - Chambers, Oswald
Chapter XI
Matthew 19:16–22
The occasion of a conversation is in many respects as important to consider as its subject. The occasion of this conversation was the coming to jesus of a splendid, upright, young aristocrat who was consumed with a master passion to possess the life he saw jesus possessed. He comes with a feeling that there is something he has not yet, in spite of his morality and integrity and his riches, something deeper, more far- reaching he can attain to, and he feels instinctively that this jesus of nazareth is the one who can tell him how to possess it. It is to this type of man that jesus presents a most powerful attraction.
The occasion of the conversation of perfection the what and may of matthew 19:16
Good master, what good thing shall i do, that i may have eternal life?
Never confound eternal life with immortality. Eternal has reference to the quality of life, not to its duration. Eternal life is the life jesus exhibited when he was here on earth, with neither time nor eternity in it, because it is the life of god himself (see john 17:3). Jesus said, ye have not [this] life in your- selves (rv). What life? The life he had. Men have moral life, physical life and intellectual life apart from jesus christ. This rich young ruler felt the fascination of the marvellous life jesus lived and asked how he might become possessed of the same life. His question was not asked in a captious spirit. Watch the atmosphere of your mood when you ask certain questions. Good master, what good thing shall i do, that i may have eternal life? The great lesson our lord taught him was that it is not anything he must do, but a relationship he must be willing to get into that is necessary. Other teachers tell us we have to do somethingconsecrate here; do this, leave off that. Jesus christ always brings us back to one thingst and in right relationship to me first, then the marvellous doing will be performed in you. It is a question of abandoning all the time, not of doing.
The obedience to the conditions of perfection the why and if of matthew 19:1720
why callest thou me good? . . .
If thou wilt enter into life . . . It looks at first as if jesus was captious, as if the young mans question had put him in a corner; but our lord wishes him to understand what calling him good and asking him about good things meant if i am only a good man, there is no use coming to me more than to anyone else; but if you mean that you are discerning who i am, then comes the condition: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the command- ments. The commonplace of the condition must have staggered this clean-living noblemanall these things have i kept from my youth up. Then jesus beholding him, loved him. . . . The nobility of moral integrity and sterling natural virtue was lovely in the sight of jesus because he saw in it a remnant of his fathers former handiwork.
In listening to some evangelical addresses the practical conclusion one is driven to is that we have to be great sinners before we can be saved; and the majority of men are not great sinners. This man was an upright, sterling, religious man; it would be absurd to talk to him about sin, he was not in the place where he could understand what it meant. There are hundreds of clean-living, upright men who are not convicted of sin, i mean sin in the light of the commandments jesus mentioned. We need to revise the place we put convic- tion of sin in and the place the spirit of god puts it in. There is no mention of sin in the apprehension of saul of tarsus, yet no one understood sin more fundamen- tally than the apostle paul. If we reverse gods order.
And refuse to put the recognition of who jesus is first, we present a lame type of christianity which excludes for ever the kind of man represented by this rich young ruler. The most staggering thing about jesus christ is that he makes human destiny depend not on goodness or badness, not on things done or not done, but on who we say he is. What lack i yet? Jesus then instantly presses another if : if thou wilt be perfect . . . The second if is much more penetrating than the first. Entrance into life is through the recognition of who jesus is, i. E. , all we mean by being born again of the spirit if you would enter into life, that is the way. The second if is much more searching if thou wilt be perfect . . . If you want to be perfect, perfect as i am, perfect as your father in heaven is then come the conditions. Do we really want to be perfect? Beware of mental quibbling over the word perfect. Perfection does not mean the full maturity and con- summation of a mans powers, but perfect fitness for doing the will of god (cf. Philippians 3:1215). Sup- posing Jesus christ can perfectly adjust me to god, put me so perfectly right that i shall be on the footing where i can do the will of god, do i really want him to do it? Do i want god at all costs to make me perfect? A great deal depends on what is the real deep desire of our hearts. Can we say with robert murray mccheyne10lord, make me as holy as thou canst make a saved sinner? Is that really the desire of our hearts? Our desires come to light always when we press this if of jesusif thou wilt be perfect . . .
The obliterating concessions to perfection the go and come of matthew 19:21
go and sell that thou hast, . . . And come and follow me.
After you have entered into life, come and fulfil the conditions of that life. We are so desperately wise, we continually make out that jesus did not mean what he said and we spiritualise his meaning into thin air. In this case there is no getting out of what he meant if thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor. The words mean a voluntary abandoning of property and riches, and a deliberate devoted attachment to jesus christ. To you or me jesus might not say that, but he would say something equivalent over anything we are depending upon. Never push an experience into a principle by which to guide other lives. To the rich young ruler jesus said, loosen yourself from your property because that is the thing that is holding you. The principle is one of fundamental death to possessions while being obliged to use them. Sell that thou hast . . . Reduce yourself till nothing remains but your consciousness of yourself, and then cast that con- sciousness at the feet of christ. That is the bedrock of intense spiritual christianity. The moral integrity of this man made him see clearly what jesus meant. A man who had been morally twisted would not have seen, but this mans mind was unwarped by moral damage and when jesus brought him straight to the point, he saw it clearly. Go and sell that thou hast. . . . Do you mean to say that it is necessary for our souls salvation to do that? Our lord is not talking about salvation, he is sayingif thou wilt be perfect . . . Do mark the ifs of jesus. If any man would be my disciple . . . Remember, the conditions of discipleship are not the conditions for salvation. We are perfectly at liberty to say, no, thank you, i am much obliged for being delivered from hell, very thankful to escape the abominations of sin, but when it comes to these conditions it is rather too much; i have my own interests in life, my own possessions.
The obstructing counterpoise to perfection the when and went of matthew 19:22
But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
Counterpoise means an equally heavy weight in the other scale. We hear a thing, not when it is spoken, but when we are in a state to listen. Most of us have only ears to hear what we intend to agree with, but when the surgical operation of the spirit of god has been performed on the inside and our perceiving powers are awakened to understand what we hear, then we get to the condition of this young man. When he heard what jesus said he did not dispute it, he did not argue, he did not say, i fail to perceive the subtlety of your meaning; he heard it, and he found he had too big an interest in the other scale and he drooped away from jesus in sadness, not in rebellion.
Our lords statements seem so simple and gentle that we swallow them and say, yes, i accept jesus as a teacher, then his words seem to slip out of our minds; they have not, they have gone into the subconscious mind, and when we come across some- thing in our circumstances, up comes one of those words and we hear it for the first time and it makes us reel with amazement. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. What have we ears for?
Go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor. Remember, jesus did not claim any of the rich young rulers possessions; he did not say, consecrate them to me; he did not say, sell that thou hast, and give it to my service; he said, sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and for you, you come and follow
Me, and you shall have treasure in heaven. One of the most subtle errors is that god wants our possessions; they are not any use to him. God does not want our possessions, he wants us.
In this incident our lord reveals his profound antipathy to emotional excitement. The rich young mans powers were in unbewitched working order when jesus called him to decide. Beware of the seeking great things for yourself ideacold shivers down the back, visions of angels and visitations from god. i cant decide in this plain, commonplace, ordinary evening as to whether i will serve jesus or not. That is the only way jesus christ ever comes to us. He will never take us at a disadvantage, never terrify us out of our wits by some amazing manifestation of his power and then say follow me. He wants us to decide when all our powers are in full working order, and he chooses the moment when the world, not himself, is in the ascendant. If we chose him when he was in the ascendant, in the time of religious emotion and excitement, we would leave him when the moment of excitement passed, but if we choose him with all our powers about us, the choice will abide.
And come and follow me. It is not only a ques- tion of binding the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar, it is a rising in the might of the holy ghost, with your feet on the earth but your heart swelling with the love of heaven, conscious that at last you have reached the position to which you were aspiring. How long are some of us who ought to be princes and princesses for god going to be bound up in the show of things? We have asked in tears, what lack i yet? This is the road and no othercome and follow me, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and on earth, what? An hundredfold of all you left for my sake.
The devotion to Jesus christ of our person is the effectual working of the evangelical doctrine of christian perfection.