Is human sacrifice redemptive? - Chambers, Oswald

November 6, 1916, Zeitoun , Study hut

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

But god commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 (RV)

There is a vast difference between human sacrifice and divine sacrifice. John 15:13 refers to human sacrifice, the highest height to which a human being can get; romans 5:8 refers to divine sacrifice, that which god has done for the human race and which no man can ever do. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. It has nothing to do with a mans religion; a pagan will lay down his life for his friend, so will an atheist, and so will a christian; it has to do with the great stuff human nature is made of, there is nothing divine about it. We find men who have been the greatest scamps in civil life doing the most heroic things in war. The love of god is other than that god laid down his life for his enemies, a thing no man can do. The fundamental revelation made in the new

Testament is that god redeemed the human race when we were spitting in his face, as it were. We can all be stirred by high, noble, human sacrifice; it is much more thrilling than Calvary. Calvary is an ignoble thing, against all the ideas of human virtue and nobility; it is far more thrilling to talk about men fighting in the trenches. Gods love is not in accordance with our human standards in any way. In the generality of our thinking the bible does not mean anything to us, other things are of more practical use, and we are apt to discard what the bible says until we come up against things. The bible speaks about the redemption, viz. , what god has done for the human race, not about what we can get at by our common sense. The great fundamental revelation regarding the human race is that god has redeemed us. Redemption is finished and complete; but what does it mean in our personal lives? The fact of redemption amounts to nothing in my actual life unless i get awakened to a sense of need. It is a mat- ter of moonshine11 to me whether Jesus Christ lived or died until i come up against things either sin in myself or something that ploughs deeply into me, then i find i have got beyond anything i know, and that is where the revelation of Jesus Christ comes in; if i will commit myself to him, i am saved, saved into the perfect light and liberty of god on the ground of redemption. The redemption is a revelation, not something we get at by thinking, and unless we grant that redemption is the basis of human life we will come up against problems for which we can find no way out. I can no more redeem my own soul and put myself right with god than i can get myself upstairs by hanging on to my shoestrings it is an impossibility; but right at the basis of human life is the redemption. The redemption means that god has done his bit: men are not going to be redeemed, they are redeemed. It is finished, said Jesus on the cross. But the way the redemption works in my actual life depends on my willing attitude to the revelation. Every man is redeemed, and the holy spirit is here to rouse us up to the fact that we are redeemed. Once that realisation dawns, the sense of gratitude springs up in a man and he becomes of use to god in practical life. Human sacrifice can never be redemptive. How can a man, noble or ignoble, get me nearer god? He may stir and move me till i say, that is a magnificent deed, but he tells me no more about god. Many a man without any knowledge of god has laid down his life in the same noble manner that a christian has done. That is the greatest love of man. The love of god is that he laid down his life for his enemies in order that he might make the basis of life redemptive. We have to reason on that basis, viz. , on what god has done for the human race. Think of the worst man or woman you know; can you say to yourself, with any degree of joyful certainty, that man, that woman perfect in Christ Jesus? You will soon see how much you believe in Christ Jesus and how much in common sense. The gospel is not good news to men, but good news about god, viz. , that god has accepted the responsibility for creating a race that sinned, and the cross is the proof that he has done so. The basis of human life is the redemption, and on that basis god can perform his miracles in any man, i. E. , he can put a new disposition into me whereby i can live an entirely new life. Think of the relief that the gospel brings to a mans mind, and then think of the abortion that is called the gospel and is preached to men as good news! The test of our religious faith is not that it does for12 us, but that it does for the worst blackguard we can think of. If the redemption cannot get hold of the worst and vilest, then Jesus Christ is a fraud, but if this book means anything it means that at the wall of the world stands god, and any man driven there by conviction of sin finds the arms of god outstretched to save him. God can forgive a man anything but despair that he can forgive him.