Cleansed from sin - Chambers, Oswald
1. Where sin ceases. Walk in the light
but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus christ his son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 john 1:7) .
. . As he is in the light god has nothing to hide: have i anything to hide from god? If i try to vindicate myself, i am not in the light; if i say i can explain that away, i am not in the light, i have something to cover up; but if i walk in the light as god is in the light, then comes the amazing revela- tion that so that god almighty can see nothing to censure the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin, in me. That is not a conscious experience, it is a revelation. If you make the experience of conscious freedom from sin the test, you make hypocrites. Sin enough and you will soon be unconscious of sin. The nature of sin is that it destroys the possibility of knowing that you sin. Sin ceases when i am in the light as god is in the light, and in no other way. In my experience it works with a keen poignant knowledge of what sin is (cf. 1 timothy 1:1516).
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 john 1:9). Watch the difference between confessing and admitting; the majority of us are quite ready to admit, it is the rarest thing to get to the place where we will confessconfess to god, not to man. It is much more difficult to confess to god than we are apt to think. It is not confessing in order to be for- given; confession is the evidence that i am forgiven. God does not forgive me because i confess; i realise by my confession that i am forgiven. Am i willing to be brought to the place where god draws out my confession? When the spirit of god convicts of sin it is not like a detective convicting a criminal, it is sin finding out a mans own nature and making him say, yes, i recognise it. When once your sin does find you out, the exquisite pain of confessing acts like the sweetest medicine a broken and a contrite heart, o god, thou wilt not despise. Beware of having anything that makes your mind accept an excuse for yourself. I can step out of darkness into the light when god is willing? No, when i am willing. I do want to be in living communion with god; i don’t, if i did, i could be there in one second; the reason i am not there is that i wont confess, i wont submit to gods condemnation of the thing. Immediately confession is made the atonement of our lord steps in with its supernatural efficacy.
2. Where love invades. Walk in love and walk in love,
Even as Christ also loved you. . . . (Ephesians 5:2 rv)
If i want gods light to increase in me until i am a child of the light, 1 Corinthians 13 is what i must measure up to.
Love suffereth long, and is kind . . . (rv ). Have you had to suffer anything? Have you remained kind in heart? It is damnably easy to be kind in speech and cruel in heart. To walk in love means that the very breathing of my disposition is kindness. If i get the trick of the right expression of face and speech, i can harbour a spirit that is as unlike Jesus Christ as can be. Beware of affectation spiritually, it is the very paw of the devil over the saint.
Love envieth not . . . (rv). Envy and jealousy may remain entirely latent until competition is launched on a certain plane and i recognise someone elses superiority; there is no getting away from it, i recognise that in the particular quality on which i prided myself, the other person is superbly my superior. How do i know when i am envious, jealous of someone being what i am not? When i am secretly rather glad, though my lips say the opposite, when that one stumbles. It springs from a jealous dislike of easily recognised superiority in the very same line of things as my own. No one can be with a superior person without having a feeling of envy and jealousy unless he is a saint; the saint knows no jealousy or envy because the life of the lord Jesus is being manifested in him.
Seeketh not her own . . . Self is so completely effaced that the only characteristic of the life is, in all the world, my god, there is none but thee. Its self does not bother its self, it is altogether devoted to gods interests in others. Is not provoked . . . (rv ). Was Jesus Christ ever irritable? Am i? God will put me in places where it would be natural for me to be provoked so that he might magnify his grace in me.
. . . Taketh not account of evil (rv ). If someone has done an unkind thing to you, don’t let it blot god out. Apart from god we do reckon with evil, we reason from that standpoint. To take no account of evil does not mean we are ignorant of its existence; it means we do not take it in as a calculable factor. When the love of god is shed abroad in my heart by the holy ghost there is no lurking nest of remembrance in my spirit for the evil. Always beware of suspicion, it comes from the devil and ends there. The holy spirit never suspects.
First Corinthians 13 is sentiment transfigured into character. Love springs spontaneously, that is, it is not premeditated: but love does not develop like that. Both naturally and spiritually love requires care- ful developing; love wont stay if it is not sedulously cultivated. If i am not careful to keep the atmosphere of my love right by cultivation, it will turn to lust i must have this thing for myself. No love of the natural heart is safe unless the human heart has been satisfied by god first. The tragedies of human lives can only be solved by an understanding of the one great fundamental truth that Jesus Christ alone can satisfy the last aching abyss of the human heart.