Our lord’s view of himself and his work—III - Chambers, Oswald

The Finality of the Person of Jesus Christ

By finality is meant that there is nothing to be added. In our previous studies we have been clear- ing the ground for studying the person of our lord jesus christ, and warning ourselves of the danger of bringing to that study a mental point of view which we have no right to bring. We must be prepared to accept facts and not try to build facts into our pre- conceived fancies.

The word became flesh . . . (RV). What word? The explaining word about god, about creation, about man, became incarnate, became a flesh and blood fact, and trod this earth with human feet, and worked with human hands, and thought with a human brain. Now perplexities and fogs have gone for ever! The bible never asks us to try and find out god, the human mind can never work along that line; the bible is dictated by the holy ghost and he knows exactly the lines along which human minds can work. All things are delivered unto me of my father: and no man knoweth the son, but the father; neither knoweth any man the father, save the son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him (mat- thew 11:27). Every other line of finding out god is atheistic impertinence, and trying to think about man is presumption, as long as we ignore the one fact we can find out, the lord Jesus Christ, and the interpreting fact about him which is the bible.

1. The original position of man (genesis 2:7; Romans 5:12)

When we read that the lord god formed man of the dust of the ground, remember, that that man was the federal head of the race, not a member of the degenerate race to which we belong, but man as he came direct from the hand of god; and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. God breathed into man that which, going forth from god and entering into man, became the spirit of man, that spirit is essentially mans spirit, and never ceases to be mans spirit. This is an insistent revelation all through the bible. In john 20:22 another breathing is mentioned. After the resurrection Jesus breathed on them and saith unto them, receive ye the holy ghost mans spirit became energised by the spirit of the son of god. We must keep this distinction in mind in order to understand the difference between the christian belief and the beliefs of other religions, which are reviving all over our land, viz. , that mans spirit is simply a drop whipped out of the ocean of gods spirit, that individuality is a mistake, and man is going to drop back again into gods being and cease to be. The points of view are fundamentally different. Mans spirit is as immortal as gods spirit; god can no more anni- hilate mans spirit than he can annihilate himself. Soul is the expression of spirit in the body; soul has no existence apart from spirit and body. Immediately body goes, the spirit returns to god who gave it, and soul is not. The resurrection is of body, not of spirit or soul. Spirit is the immortal, indestructible part of a man, and it goes back to god who gave it, with all the characteristics that marked it while it was on this earth. When the bible speaks of the resurrection body of a good man, it says it is to be like Jesus christs glorious body (Philippians 3:21). Our lord does not give the picture of the resurrection body of a bad man, but he does say there will be a resurrection of damnation ( john 5:29).

The fundamental basis of the life of man was the life of god and communion with god, and until he fell Adams spirit and soul and body were in absolute harmony with god. What do we mean by the fall? God intended man to progress from innocence to holiness by a series of deliberate moral choices in which he was to sacrifice the life of nature to the will of god. Adam refused to do this, and that constitutes the fall. When Adam fell the spirit of god was withdrawn instantly, not after a time. The real seat of death is in mans spirit, the dissolution of the body is a mere incident; the point gods book emphasises is the instant withdrawal of life, the withdrawal of the spirit which held mans spirit, soul and body in living communion with god. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned (Romans 5:12). Up to the time of the fall man drew all his sustenance from god; when he fell, he lost that harmony completely; and the danger now is that although mans spirit is as immortal as god, it receives no sustenance from god. The first thing that happened was that man became his own god, exactly what the devil said would happen. Read genesis 3, and you will find the devil in sin uates god knows that if you eat of the fruit of the tree, and take the rule of yourself into your own hands, you will become as he is, and verse 22 is the confirmation from gods standpoint that man has become as he is. Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil. Man obliterated god from the throne and claimed that he was god. That is the essential principle of sin my claim to my right to myself. Insubordination is the characteristic of the fallen spirit of man, he will not sacrifice the natural life for the spiritual. Personality, which in the bible is synonymous with spirit, reveals itself in bodily life more or less clearly. The spirit of god alone knows the full limit of our personality; therefore the psalmists attitude is the right one search me, o god; i am too deep to understand myself. Unless i have received the holy spirit my personality is dead to all god has to say, i have no affinity with anything god wants, i am my own god; but through the atonement i can receive the holy spirit who imparts to me the life of Jesus and i am lifted into the domain where he is, and by obedience i can be led to the place of identification with his death. Soul in fallen man is the expression of his personality, either in morality or in immorality. When Jesus christ judges men he judges them according to the spirit, not according to soul, i. E. , the fleshly presentation of their personality. He saw what we do not see, viz. , the spirit behind. The spirit of fallen man has not the life of god in it, it has no power within it to discern god (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:1014). The meaning of the atonement is that mans spirit can be restored into harmony with god. It is not human nature that needs altering, it is mans spirit that needs to be brought back into right relationship with god, and before that can be done the disposition of sin has to be dealt with.

The gift of god to every fallen son of Adam is the gift of the holy spirit, that is, the essential power and nature of god coming into a man and lifting him to a totally new kingdom; and that power can be had for the asking if ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly father give the holy spirit to them that ask him? (Luke 11:13). Yet is it not strange that men should go through seas of trouble before they get to the length of asking? If a man says, i have this power in myself, all that is necessary is to develop it, then he will never be in agreement with Jesus Christ. Jesus says, ye have not [this] life in yourselves (RV)the fall obliterated it entirely; the gift of life was with- drawn, and death reigned. Death is not annihilation: we exist in a kingdom of death (cf. Ephesians 2:1). In the bible the term life is used only of the life of god; death is all that is not god. Man lives to use a seeming contradiction of term sin the kingdom of death, and only when he is born from above by the holy ghost does he enter into the kingdom of life (see john 3:3). When man is right with god he is filled with gods spirit. Whenever Jesus speaks about life he is referring to the life which is in himself, and it is this life which he imparts by means of his death.

2. The original position of Jesus Christ

And now, o father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which i had with thee before the world was. ( john 17:5)

In these words the essence of the personality of Jesus is made known, it is identified as being exactly the same as almighty gods. The snare of the modern tendency is in saying that we can know all about Jesus Christ if we will simply examine ourselves; Jesus says we cannot. No man knoweth the son, but the father . . . Jesus Christ makes the distinction perfectly clear between his personality and our human personality. Jesus Christ had a twofold personality: he was son of god revealing what god is like, and son of man revealing what man is to be like. When our lord talks about his own personality he identifies himself with god almighty i and my father are one. For any man to say that would be blasphemy, we are not one with almighty god; through the atonement we become one with Jesus Christ, and he brings us into union with god, . . . That they may be one, even as we are one. That is the meaning of the atonement.

Who, being [originally] in the form of god, . . . Emptied himself, . . . Being made in the likeness of men (RV). Our lord might have taken on him the form of an angel (see Hebrews 2:10), but he could not take the form of anything lower than man, because man is the last reach of creation in the image of god. Angels belong to a different realm; man was made in the likeness of god (see genesis 1:26). In the incarnation Jesus Christ came down to the lowest rung possible, he came on to the plane where Adam was originally, and he lived on that plane in order to show what gods normal man was like. And then he did what no man could ever do he made the way for man to get back to the position he had lost. By the sheer might of the atonement we can be rein- stated in gods favourthat is the marvel. After we are identified with the death of Jesus the life of Jesus becomes the pattern for our walk in this world. Jesus Christ transformed innocence into holiness by sacrificing himself to god; when we are rightly related to god the golden rule for our life is the sacrifice of our will to Jesus christ. It has to be submission of the intellect all along the line, and in these mortal bodies of ours, impaired and damaged through sin though they are, we are to manifest the life of jesus. The same body which used to be the seat of a soul which expressed the wrong disposition can make itself the seat of a soul that expresses a strong family likeness to Jesus.

The sacrifice of Jesus is the essence of renunciation, it was a sacrifice to god for a sweet smelling savour. The death of Jesus was not a satisfaction paid to the justice of goda hideous statement which the bible nowhere makes. The death of Jesus was an exact revelation of the justice of god. When we read of the sacrifice of Jesus christ, it is the sacrifice of god also. . . . God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. When Jesus christ lifts the veil from his own consciousness he makes it clear that his death was not the death of a martyr. I lay it [my life] down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and i have power to take it again. Our lord laid down his life for one purpose, the express purpose in the mind of god; he is the lamb of god, which taketh away the sin of the world; the lamb that hath been slain from the foundation of the world (RV).

There is nothing obscure about these revelations, but they are so deep that only the holy ghost can reveal them. Where are we with regard to under- standing these mysteries of our faith? Along with the craving to be right with god, there is also a deep resentment, born of our laziness, that we should be expected to understand these things, and the urgency all through the new testament is that we should stir up our minds to search out these things, and build ourselves up on our most holy faith. We are called upon not only to be right in heart, but to be right in thinking.