Personal relationship - Chambers, Oswald
The essence of Christianity is a personal relationship to Jesus Christ with any amount of room for its out- working.
The appeal of the gospel is not that it should be preached in order that men might be saved and put right for heaven, but that they might enter into a personal relationship with Jesus christ here and now.
Discipleship and salvation are two different things: a disciple is one who, realising the meaning of the atonement, deliberately gives himself up to Jesus Christ in unspeakable gratitude. The one mark of discipleship is the mastership of jesus his right to me from the crown of my head to the sole of my foot.
If any man would come after me, let him deny himself (rv), i. E. , deny his right to himself. Jesus never swept men off their feet in ecstasy, he always talked on the line that left a mans will in the ascen- dant until he saw where he was going. It is impos- sible for a man to give up his right to himself without knowing he is doing it.
Naturally, a man regards his right to himself as the finest thing he has, yet it is the last bridge that prevents jesus christ having his way in a life.
The approaches to jesus are innumerable; the result of coming to him can be only onethe dethroning of my right to myself, or i stop short somewhere.
Jesus christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself.
The one essential element in all our lords teach- ing about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest. Is jesus christ absolutely necessary to me? Have i ever shifted the basis of my reasoning on to incarnate reason? Ever shifted my will on to his will? My right to myself on to his right to me?
What is the personal history between jesus christ and myself ? Is there anything of the nature of the new creation (rv mg) in me? Or is what i call my experience sentimental rubbish placed on top of me as i am? A disciple is one who not only proclaims gods truth, but one who manifests that he is no longer his own, he has been bought with a price.
Our service is to be a living sacrifice of devotion to jesus, the secret of which is identity with him in suffering, in death, and in resurrection (philippians 3:10). It is possible to be first in suffering for the truth and in reputation for saintliness, and last in the judgement of the great searcher of hearts. The whole question is one of heart-relationship to jesus.
If you remain true to your relationship to jesus christ the things that are either right or wrong are never the problem; it is the things that are right but which would impair what he wants you to be that are the problem. The mark of the saint is the good right things he has the privilege of not doing. There are a hundred and one right and good things which, if you are a dis- ciple of jesus, you must avoid as you would the devil although there is no devil in them. If our lords words in matthew 5:2930 were read more often we would have a healthier young manhood and womanhood. Beware of the people who tell you life is simple. Life is such a mass of complications that no man is safe apart from god. Coming to jesus does not sim- plify life, it simplifies my relationship to god. The implicit relationship tells more than the explicit, if you put the explicit first you are apt to produce sceptics.
When jesus christ is bringing a son to glory, he ignores the work he has done; the work has been allowed as a discipline to perfect his relationship to the father. The work we do for god is made by him a means till he has got us to the place where we are willing to be purified and made of worth to himself. Overmuch organisation in christian work is always in danger of killing god-born originality; it keeps us conservative, makes our hands feeble. A false artificial flow of progress swamps true devotion to jesus. Whenever a spiritual movement has been true to jesus christ it has brought forth fruit in a hundred and one ways the originator of the movement never dreamed of.
Neither usefulness nor duty is gods ultimate purpose, his aim is to bring out the message of the gospel, and if that can only be done by his bruis- ing me, why shouldnt he? We put our intelligent fingers on gods plan.
Gods idea is that individual christians should become identified with his purpose for the world. When christianity becomes over-organised and denominational it is incapable of fulfilling our lords commission; it doesnt feed his sheep, it cant (see john 21:1517).
I have had visions on the mount, wonderful times of communion with god but is it turning you into an individual infinitely superior to your lord and master? One who wont wash feet, but will only give himself up to certain types of meeting? If i then, the lord and the master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one anothers feet (rv ): the highest motive is the only motive for the lowliest service. Where do we stand in gods sight under that scrutiny? A false religion makes me hyperconscientious i must not do this, or that; the one lodestar in the religion of Jesus is personal passionate devotion to him, and oneness with his interests in other lives. Identify yourself with Jesus Christs interests in others, and life takes on a romantic risk. Christianity is not service for Jesus Christ, not winning souls, it is nothing less than the life of Jesus being manifested more and more in my mortal flesh. Beware of allowing the historic Jesus Christ to be taken from you in any shape or form; make it the intensest concern of your spiritual life to accompany the disciples as he went in and out among them in the days of his flesh. What has my religion done for me i could not do for myself ? That is a question every man is forced to ask. Religion ostensibly is faith in someone, or a form of belief in some power, i would be the poorer if i did not have, and i should be able to state in what way i would be poorer. If my religion is not based on a personal history with Jesus it becomes something i suffer from, not a joyous thing, but something that keeps me from doing what i want to do. Occasionally we have to revise our ways of looking at gods providence. The usual way of looking at it is that god presents us with a cup to drink, which is strangely mixed. But there is another aspect which is just as true, perhaps more vitally true, viz. , that we present god with a cup to drink, full of a very strange mixture indeed. God will never reverse the cup. He will drink it. Beware of the ingredient of self-will, which ought to have been dissolved by identification with the death of Jesus, being there when you hand the cup of your life back to god.