Spiritual evolution - Chambers, Oswald
Evolution means a gradual working out or development. There is a difference between natural evolution and spiritual evolution: in natural evolution we do not know the final goal; in spiritual evolution the goal is given before the start. . . Till we all come in the unity of the faith . . . Unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13).
1. Spiritual biogenesis
In him was life; and the life was the light of men. ( john 1:4)
Verily, verily, i say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. ( john 6:53)
No man by nature has the life of the son of god in him; he has in him the life which god creates in all men, but before he can have in his actual life the life that was in the son of god, he must be born from above. Ye have not [this] life in yourselves (RV), said Jesus, i. E. , the life he had. The life of Jesus is imparted to us on the ground of the redemption, but we have to come to him for it. A man may say, i have the life of god in me by nature, all i have to do is to develop it, Jesus will assist me; he is the great type-christian. If you take that view, viz. , that a man becomes spiritual as he pays attention to the best elements in himself, you make the atonement unnecessary. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of god. Unless my personal life so assimilates the life of Jesus that i can manifest it, i have not got the life which characterised him. Life can only come from prexist- ing life: i must get the life of god from the one who has it. He that hath the son hath the life; he that hath not the son of god hath not the life (1 john 5:12 RV). . . . And ye will not come to me, that ye may have life (john 5:40 RV).
Marvel not that i said unto thee, ye must be born again. ( john 3:7)
Drummonds14 thesis in his natural law in the spiritual world makes it too easy, it does not recognise the factor of sin, and consequently does not cover all the facts. According to the new testament, a man can only be lifted into the kingdom of god by being born into it. Here drummonds illustration holds good, * but remember, it was the tragedy caused by sin that made new birth necessary. It sounds much more sensible to say that if a man goes on evolving and developing he will become a spiritual being; but once get a dose of the plague of your own heart and you will find that things are as the bible says they are, tragically wrong. As long as men have no experience of tragedy in their own life they remain ignorant of the need for the redemption. I was alive without the law once, says the apostle Paul in that little-understood chapter, Romans 7, which deals with his alternating experiences. When once a man recognises the gap sin has made between god and man, the meaning of the atonement is clear that in the cross Jesus Christ bridged the gap and made it possible for any man to be lifted to where the whole human race was designed to be, viz. , in perfect communion with god.
God formed Adam of the dust of the ground, a son of god. The son of god was born of the holy ghost. If i am ever going to have the heredity of the son of god i must have a similar experience, i must be born of the spirit; my personal life must be impregnated by the holy ghost my little chil- dren, of whom i am again in travail until Christ be formed in you (Galatians 4:19 RV). You cannot illustrate new birth by natural birth. Natural birth is by means of a process of procreation; new birth is not in the least like it. The only symbol for being born from above is the advent of Jesus Christ into this world. Jesus Christ entered into the human race from outside it; he entered it through the door of the virgins womb by the conception of the holy ghost therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the son of god (Luke 1:35). Adam was created a son of god, that is, he was innocent in relation to god, and god intended him to take part in his own development by a series of moral choices whereby he was to sacrifice the natural life to the spiritual. If Adam had done this there would have been no death, but transfiguration, as in Jesus Christ, the last Adam. But Adam refused to let god be his ruler; he took his right to himself and became his own god, thereby cutting himself off from the domain of god. The new testament phrase is that we are dead in trespasses and sins, dead towards all that Jesus Christ stands for. The two realms, the natural and the spiritual, ought to be one and the same: to be born a man, should be to be a son of god, as Adam was in the beginning. But gods original order for mankind was broken into sin entered into the world, and death by sin; consequently the necessity of the new birth is insisted on all through. Marvel not that i said unto thee, ye must be born again. It is a statement of foundation fact. The words were spoken not to a sinner, as men count sin, but to an upright, godly man. Before any man can be in the realm of god he must be born into it. New birth is not the working of a natural law. The introduction of anything into this world is cataclysmic: before a tree can grow it must be planted; before a human being can evolve he must be born a distinct and emphatic crisis. Every child born into the world involves a cataclysm to someone, the mother has practically to go through death. The same thing is true spiritually. Being born from above is not a simple easy process; we cannot glide into the kingdom of god. Common sense reasoning says we ought to be able to merge into the life of god, but according to the bible, and in actual experience, that is not the order. The basis of things is not rational, it is tragic, and what Jesus Christ came to do was to put human life on the basis of redemption whereby any man can receive the heredity of the son of god and be lifted into the domain where he lives. The historic jesus represents the personal union of god and man. He lived on the human plane for thirty-three years and during that time he presented what gods normal man was like. When we are regenerated we enter into the kingdom of god, we begin to grow, and the goal is certain. . . We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. But before i can begin to see what Jesus Christ stands for i have to enter into another domain except a man be born again, he cannot . . . Enter into the kingdom of god. I enter into the life of god by its entering into me, that is, i deliberately undertake to become the home of the life of the son of god. Bethlehem. I do not draw my life from myself, i draw it from the one who is the source of life.
3. Spiritual breath
And the spirit of the lord shall rest upon him, . . . And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the lord . (Isaiah 11:23)
Literally, he shall draw his breath in the fear of the lord. Most of us draw our breath from the ordinary human life we all live. The time a christian gives to prayer and communion with god is not meant for his natural life, but meant to nourish the life of the son of god in him. God engineers the circumstances of his saints in order that the spirit may use them as the praying-house of the son of god. If you are spiritual the holy spirit is offering up prayers in your bodily temple that you know nothing about, it is the spirit making intercession in you (see Romans 8:26 27). We hear it said that prayer alters things; prayer not so much alters things as alters the man who prays, and he alters things. When i am born from above the life of the son of god is born in me, and i have to take time to nourish that life. The essential meaning of prayer is that it nourishes the life of the son of god in me and enables him to manifest himself in my mortal flesh. The secret of our lords life is given us in his own words verily, verily, i say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it a bideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit ( john 12:24). Spiritual life is always of that order: just when you think it is going to be successful, it disappears; it is not time for it yet, it will appear in another order. Ultimately the meek shall inherit the earth, and then we shall have a system of national life without any of the materialistic crudities seen everywhere to-day. There are views abroad of a federation of nations, but it can only be brought about by the lord Jesus Christ, by our adherence entirely to him. When- ever a religious community begins to get organised it ceases to draw [its] breath in the fear of the lord ; the old way of talking is kept up, but the life is not there, and men who used to be keen on proclaiming the gospel are keen now only on the success of the organisation.