Relative redemptive reactions - Chambers, Oswald
Lecture : October 23, 1914
An abiding snare in dealing with christian doctrine arises from the tendency to bend the attention exclusively either to the objective or the subjective side. If we deal only with the objective, it produces the type of practical life that contradicts the creed believed in; and to deal only with the subjective side produces the moody, sickly introspective type of life, its eyes fixed on its own whiteness. The wholesome antidote to either tendency is the new testament, which embraces both the objective and the subjective through the miracle of regeneration. Belief in the new testament is always practical and positive, that is, it instantly manifests itself. I do not gull myself into believing something has happened, it is a fact; i am not only right with god but am actually proving that i am in my life. If my faith in the redemptive work of christ does not react in a practical life which manifests it, the reason is a wrong temper of mind in me.
How ought life from the ascended lord to react in me? By reaction is meant not a reaction of nerves but the essential nature of the life. The danger of dealing only with the objective side is that it blinds our minds to the fact that we have to receive some- thing which must have a reaction, to open their eyes, . . . That they may receive (acts 26:18). That means the will of the individual is willing to receive. Not only has jesus christ been seen and believed in, but accepted, and the reaction in the life is as radical as the stupendous miracle that made it possible.
1. Sympathies humanitarian or evangelical (Galatians 3:6)
if i feel sympathy with anyone because he cannot get through to god, i am slandering god; my fundamental view is not the evangelical one, but a point of view based on mere human sympathy. Trace where your sympathies arise, and be sympathetic with god, never with the soul who finds it difficult to get through to god. God is never to blame. Remember the people. Dont! Remember the christ who saves you. We are not here to woo and win men to god; we are here to present the gospel which in individual cases will mean condemnation or salvation. Where you get the most faithful preaching, you get the most hardened sinners (thos. Guthrie).26 it is perilous to listen to the truth of god unless i open my will to it. We have not to rouse
Peoples sympathies and humanitarian conceptions how beautiful and dignified man is! We have rigorously to push an issue of will, and when the issue is put you find the obstruction; men resent it, and that is the barrier to god. Immediately that barrier is down god comes in like a torrent, there is nothing to keep him back; the one thing that keeps him back is anarchy and rebellion, the essential nature of satan i wont give up my right to myself; i wont yield, and god is powerless. Immediately a man removes the barriers it is as if god romped into his soul with all his almightiness, it is a flood of blessing quite overwhelming.
2. Strenuousnessholy or evangelistic (2 corinthians 6:12)
Jesus christ is not an individual who died twenty centuries ago; he is god and mankind centred in his cross. The cross is the revelation of the deepest depth in almighty god. What should be the reaction of that in my life? Holiness, rugged, fierce holiness in every detail of the life. That is the meaning of new testament repentance. The only truly repentant man is the holy man, he has been made holy through the incoming of god by his willing reception of him. Evangelistic effort must never forget the source from which it springs; it often does, and all that is presented is the objective side which has no practical outcome in the life.
3. Sacrifices homely or extraordinary (Luke 14:2627, 33)
These are extraordinary sacrifices, they cut clean across everything we believe naturally. We must have the marks in our hands and feet that are exactly like our lord. There must be the crucified love of grasp for myself; the crucified love of wandering in my own ways; the crucified love of the world; the wounded pride of intellect. There is no bigger word and no word made more shallow than surrender. To say i surrender all may be blethering sentiment, or it may be the deep passionate utterance of the life.
4. Strong holds honest or exceptional (acts 20:24) actions that spring from obedience to jesus christ can never be explained on any other ground. This is where the shame of testifying comes in. Testimony is not a hard protestation that i have done something better than others, nor is it first a means of helping others; it means that i have ventured out on god and have no one to rely upon but him. I have staked my all in obedience to jesus christ in this matter, and it is sink or swim. Try and explain why you did a certain thing, if it sprang from obedience to christ, and you find you cannot. It is not the logical working out of a principle, and that is why the other relationships of life do not see it. If any man cometh unto me, and hateth not his own father, and mother, . . . He cannot be my disciple (rv). Remember, the crisis may never come to you, and instead of the claims of father or mother clashing with the commands of jesus christ, you may be clashing with commands of his coming to you through them. But if the crisis does arise, it must be prompt obedience to jesus christ at every cost.