“For Christ’s Crown and Covenant” - Chambers, Oswald

For Christs crown and covenant 20 comes nearer to the new testament conception of loyalty to Christ than any other all down the centuries of Christianity, and what we need to do is to translate it into terms which fit our own day and generation.

1. Loyalty to his royalty

Pilate therefore said unto him, art thou a king then? Jesus answered, thou sayest it, because i am a king. ( john 18:37 rv mg)

Jesus Christ is not only saviour, he is king, and he has the right to exact anything and everything from us at his own discretion. We talk about the joys and comforts of salvation; Jesus christ talks about taking up the cross and following him. Whenever our lord talks about discipleship he prefaces it with an if you need not unless you like. It is always easier in certain crises to be demas than a devoted disciple. Very few of us know anything about loyalty to Jesus christ. For my sake that is what makes the iron saint. We look upon Jesus christ as the best example of the christian life; we do not conceive of him as almighty god incarnate, with all power in heaven and on earth. We make him a comrade, one who in the battle of life has more breath than the rest of us and he turns round to lend a hand. We deal with him as if he were one of ourselves; we do not take off the shoes from our feet when he speaks. Jesus Christ is saviour, and he saves us into his own absolute and holy lordship.

2. Loyalty to his lordship

Ye call me, master, and, lord: and ye say well; for so i am. ( john 13:13 RV)

From a dog to a man, the master makes the difference. Pi people have no master, they are always hole-and-corner folks. Whenever a man is mastered by Jesus Christ you have a man with breast and back as either should be, no whimperer, no sentimentalist, no pietist, but a man of god. That can only be produced by the mastership of Jesus Christ. The curi- ous thing about our lord is that he never insists on our obedience. When we begin to usurp authority and say, you must and you shall it is a sure sign that we are out of touch with the supreme authority. If you are in a position of authority and people are not obeying you, the greatest heart-searching you can have is the realisation that the blame does not lie with them, but with you; there is a leakage going on spiritually. Get right with god yourself, and every other one will get in touch with god through you.

3. Loyalty to his rule

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless i live; yet not i, but christ liveth in me. (Galatians 2:20)

To imagine that Jesus christ came to save and sanctify me is heresy: he came to save and sanctify me into himself, to be his absolute bond slave; so completely his bond slave that when he speaks there is no possibility of dispute. I reckon on you for extreme service, with no complaining on your part and no explanation on mine. We begin to debate and say, why shouldn’t i do this? I m within my rights. That idea is so foreign to our lords conception that he has made no provision for it. The passion of Christianity is that i deliberately sign away my own rights and become a bondslave of Jesus christ. Any fool can insist on his rights, and any devil will see that he gets them; but the sermon on the mount means that the only right the saint will insist on is the right to give up his rights. That is the new testament idea of sanctification, and that is why so few get anywhere near the baptism with the holy ghost. I want to be baptised with the holy ghost so that i may be of use then it is all up. We are bap- tised with the holy ghost not for anything at all, but entirely, as our lord puts it, to be his witnesses, those with whom he can do exactly what he likes.

4. Loyalty to his calling

And we know that to them that love god all things work together for good [god worketh all things with them for good, mg], even to them that are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28 rv)

it is only the loyal saint who believes that god engineers circumstances. We take such liberties with our circumstances, we treat the things that happen as if they were engineered by men, although we say that we believe god engineers them. To be faithful in every circumstance means that we have only one loyalty, and that is to our lord. Most of us are too devoted to our own ideas of what god wants even to hear his call when it comes. We may be loyal to what.

We like, but we may find we have been disloyal to gods calling of us by not recognising him in either the distress and humiliation or the joy and blessing. The test of loyalty always comes just there. Loyalty to our own ideas is always the result of disloyalty to a person. God educates us by people. Any refusal to be loyal to whatever Elijah god sends us is detected by pious talk about being loyal to a word of god. Loyalty to the teachers god sends ends ultimately in supreme devotion to himself. Beware how you treat the messengers of god because there is only one aim in the true messengers of god, and that is unflinching loyalty to the lordship of jesus christ, and we shall have to account to god for our heedfulness of them or our heedlessness.