Interest and Identification - Chambers, Oswald
We did esteem him stricken, smitten of god and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions . . . And the lord hath made to light on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:46 RV mg)
Immediately we face Jesus Christ two issues reveal themselves: first, the issue of interest, second, the issue of identification. Which issue are we caught up with? Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward god (Hebrews 6:1).
Interest
And sitting down they watched him there (mat- thew 27:36). The name of those interested is legion. Thank god for interest; the fascination of our lord Jesus Christ is on the interested, and by pious performances and personal penances, and seasons of waiting on god, they sit and watch him there, dissolved in mists of sentiment and self-depreciating conventions. It is a gracious state to be in, as an introductory stage, but a place of imminent peril to remain in. From positions of sitting in solemn silence, this stage of interest may reach a development like that indicated in mark 15:39the centurion, which stood . . . , saw . . . , said, truly this man was the son of god. The attitude has changed to a standing, and speculative statements are the result. Our lord is inferred to be a sublime martyr, good beyond any goodness of man or woman yet witnessed on this Earth. His life and ideals were so far beyond his time and age that all the reward they gave him was to crucify him. Truly this man was the son of god. He is stated to be from this stage of standing interest, the very first of all martyrs, of all prophets, of all priests. There is still another development of the issue of interest and that is indicated in john 1:3839rabbi, . . . Where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, come and see. They came and saw . . . , and abode with him that day. This may represent the sympathetic souls who follow our lord Jesus Christ out of the natural affinity of their natural hearts. They follow his steps just as the disciples did in the days of his flesh, growing more and more perplexed at his teaching, more and more strained in their comprehension; becoming overwhelmed with their own sorrow in gethsemane till they all forsook him, and fled, and he went alone to his place for usthe cross. So many abide with him that day the day of natural devotion and interest; honest, earnest souls whose sense of the heroic, like peter, or of the holy, like john, and the honest, like Thomas, has made them leave all and follow him, but only to heartbreak and faltering; slowly but surely they break for retreat and return to their own (see john 16:32). All around us are these sad, spirituelle people wandering and wondering, too fascinated by our lord Jesus Christ to turn again willingly to the beggarly elements of the world; all the pleasures of sin are not possible because of their interest in him.
This inward disaster and unsatisfactoriness they scarcely dare confess to themselves, let alone to others. Where have they failed? Are you there, reader? Then you are on the way of the cross. You must go to the cross. Read john 20:22 and couple it with Luke 11:13, and then as a destitute soul receive the gift of the holy spirit on the ground of what jesus did on the cross, and he will identify his life with yours. I will not leave you desolate: i come unto you ( john 14:18 rv).
Intermediate
And they stood still, looking sad. . . . And they said unto him, . . . But we hoped. . . . Yea and beside all this, . . . Moreover certain women of our company amazed us. . . . But him they saw not. (Luke 24:1724 rv)
The literature produced by the interested is most prolific and enervating. This literature may deal with the statements of Jesus Christ before his cross, and strange and fantastic are the doctrines that are woven, and no wonder, as the only exegete of our lords word and doctrines is the holy spirit, and he is not given to any man who is blind to the atonement Of the cross. The holy spirit is a gift, remission of sins is a gift, eternal life is a gift, on the ground of the cross of our lord and saviour Jesus Christ. Ignore that, and life is a wayless wilderness, where all our ideals fade and falter, leaving us only a grey, uncertain outlook, gathering to an eternal night. The literature of the unregenerated intellect in a final analysis ends where Matthew arnolds15 words place it.
Thou waitest for the spark from heaven! And we, light half-believers of our casual creeds, who never deeply felt, nor clearly willed, whose insight never has borne fruit in deeds, whose vague resolves never have been fulfilled; for whom each year we see breeds new beginnings, disappointments new; who hesitate and falter life away, and lose to-morrow the ground won today ah! Do not we, wanderer, await it too?
How ones whole being yearns to get such men and women to see that our lord Jesus Christ by the gift of his spirit in mighty regeneration, ends this night of sorrow. Reader, if your counterpart is in any of the sentiments already expressed, seek god now on the merits of the cross, and ask him for the gift of the holy spirit, and receive him in faith.
Identification
I have been crucified with Christ, . . . And that life which i now live in the flesh i live in faith, the faith which is in the son of god, who loved me, and gave himself up for me. (Galatians 2:20 RV )
What is imperatively needed is that emotional impressionisms and intellectual and moral interest be violently made by each individual into a moral ver- dict against our self-interest, our right to ourselves, determinedly letting go of all and signing the death warrant of the disposition of sin in us. Paul says, i have been crucified with christ; not i have determined to imitate him, or i endeav- our to follow him, but, i have been identified with him. This is the point of vital godlinessthe indi- vidual deciding, something after this manner: my god, i should be there on that bitter cross.
My sin, my sins, my saviour, how sad on thee they fall.
All that Jesus Christ wrought for us is worked in us whenever we come to such a violent moral decision and act on it, for this is the free committing that Of the cross. The holy spirit is a gift, remission of sins is a gift, eternal life is a gift, on the ground of the cross of our lord and saviour Jesus Christ. Gives the spirit of god his chance to impart the mighty substituted holiness of god to us.
I live; and yet no longer i, but Christ liveth in me. The individual remains, but the mainspring, the ruling disposition, is radically different; the same human body remains, but the old satanic right to myself is gone. A lamp takes up very little room, but its burning and shining light streams far and penetrates wide, consumed in a glorious effulgence by the indwelling light. No wonder the scriptures exclaim: our god is a consuming fire. Wherefore, if any man is in Christ, there is a new creation (RV mg), and, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. The life which i now livenot the life which i long to live or pray to live, but which i live, the life which is seen in my mortal flesh, i live by the faith of the son of god.
This is not pauls faith in the son of god, but the faith that the son of god has imparted to him. This is no longer faith in faith, but faith that has overleapt all self-conscious bounds and is the identical faith of the son of god (see 1 peter 1:8).