Redemption - Chambers, Oswald
Lecture : October 16, 1914
The Christian’s Greatest Trust
1. The cross and the fathers heart ( john 12:28; galatians 6:14)
We can understand the attributes of god in other ways, but we can only understand the fathers heart in the cross of christ. The cross of christ is not the cross of a martyr, it has become the symbol of the martyr; it is the revelation of redemption. The cross is the crystallised point in history where eternity merges with time. The cry on the cross, my god, my god, why hast thou forsaken me? Is not the desolation of an isolated individual: it is the rev- elation of the heart of god face to face with the sin of man, and going deeper down than mans sin can ever go in inconceivable heartbreak in order that every sin-stained, hell-deserving sinner might be absolutely redeemed. If the redemption of christ cannot go deeper down than hell, it is not redemption at all. It is always the tragic note that is struck when once the spirit of god gets hold of a man. The rea- son we are so shallow and flippant in our presentation of the cross is that we have never seen ourselves for one second in the light of god. When we do see ourselves in the light of god, there is only one of two refugessuicide or the cross of christ. The great condemnation of much of our modern preaching is that it conveys no sense of the desperate tragedy of conviction of sin. When once the real touch of con- viction of sin comes, it is hell on earththere is no other word for it. One second of realising ourselves in the light of god means unspeakable agony and distress; but the marvel is that when the conviction does come, there is god in the very centre of the whole thing to save us from it. That is the meaning of the cross of christ as experimentally applied to us. We have to face ourselves with the revelation of the redemption, mirrored and concentrated in the cross of jesus christ as it is presented in the new tes- tament, before we get the shallow, pious nonsense
Shaken out of our religious beliefs. To be saved by gods grace is not a beautifully pathetic thing; it is a desperately tragic thing.
2. The cross and the saviours mind (matthew 16:24; galatians 2:20)
The evidence that i have accepted the cross of christ as the revelation of redemption is that the regenerating life of god is manifested in my mor- tal flesh. Immediately i accept the cross of christ as the revelation of redemption i am not, i must not be, the same man, i must be another man, and i must take up my cross from my lord. The cross is the gift of jesus to his disciples and it can only bear one aspect: i am not my own. The whole attitude of the life is that i have given up my right to myself. I live like a crucified man. Unless that crisis is reached it is perilously possible for my religious life to end as a sentimental fiasco. I dont mind being saved from hell and receiving the holy spirit, but it is too much to expect me to give up my right to myself to jesus christ, to give up my manhood, my womanhood, all my ambitions. Jesus said, if any man will be my dis- ciple, those are the conditions. It is that kind of thing that offended the historic disciples, and it will offend you and me. It is a slander to the cross of christ to say we believe in jesus and please ourselves all the time, choosing our own way. Our salvation is one of unspeakable freedom for heart and mind and body, but do we sufficiently brood on what it cost god to make it ours? At certain stages of christian experience a saint has no courtesy towards god, no sense of gratitude; he is thankful for being delivered from sin, but the thought of living for jesus, of being recklessly abandoned to him, has not begun to dawn on him yet. When we come to the cross we do not go through it and out the other side; we abide in the life to which the cross is the gateway, and the characteristic of the life is that of deep profound sacrifice to god. Social service that is not based on the cross of christ is the cultured blasphemy of civilised life against god, because it denies that god has done anything, and puts human effort as the only way whereby the world will be redeemed.