The Doctrine of the holy spirit—ii - Chambers, Oswald
The Bounty of Destitution
John 7:37–39
Generally speaking, our lord does not deal with the experimental stages of salvation, he deals with the great revelation facts; the holy spirit expounds the experimental stages. Our lord makes no divisions such as conversion, regeneration, sanctification, he presents the truth in nugget form and the apostles beat out the nuggets into negotiable gold, it is in their writings that we have the stages of experience worked out. Always view the epistles as the posthumous work of the ascended Christ; dont say, that is only what Paul says. In the epistles we have not got pauls ideas or peters ideas; we have the ideas of the holy ghost, and the pens happen to be Paul or peter or john. . . . Holy men of god spake as they were moved by the holy ghost (2 peter 1:21).
1. Christs infinite patience and human destitution
In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. ( john 7:37)
Our lord begins where we would never begin, at the point of human destitution. The greatest blessing a man ever gets from god is the realisation that if he is going to enter into his kingdom it must be through the door of destitution. Naturally we do not want to begin there, that is why the appeal of Jesus is of no use until we come face to face with realities; then the only one worth listening to is the lord. We learn to welcome the patience of Jesus only when we get to the point of human destitution. It is not that god will not do anything for us until we get there, but that he cannot. God can do nothing for me if i am sufficient for myself. When we come to the place of destitution spiritually we find the lord waiting, and saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. There are hundreds at the place of destitution and they dont know what they want. If i have been obeying the command of Jesus to go . . . And make disciples (rv ), i know what they want; they want him. We are so interested in our own spiritual riches that souls that are white unto harvest are all around us and we dont reap one for him.
Some men enter the kingdom of heaven through crushing, tragic, overwhelming conviction of sin, but they are not the greatest number; the greatest number enter the kingdom along this line of spiritual destitution no power to lay hold of god, no power to do what i ought to do, utterly poverty-stricken. Then, says Jesus, blessed are you, because you have come to the place where you can receive the gift of the holy spirit. We are told by some that it is foolish to tell people to ask for the holy spirit because this is the dispensation of the holy spirit. Thank god it is! Gods mighty spirit is with all men, he impinges on their lives at all points and in unexpected ways, but the great need is to receive the holy spirit. There stands the promise for every one who will put it to the test: 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? The bedrock in Jesus Christs kingdom is poverty, not possession; not decisions for Christ, but a sense of absolute futility i cant begin to do it. That is the entrance; and it does take us a long while to believe we are poor. It is at the point of destitution that the bounty of god can be given.
2. Christs infinite promise and human dependence
He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of [him] shall flow rivers of living water. ( john 7:38)
To the woman of Samaria, Jesus talked of the benefits to the individual personal life of the living water the water that i shall give him shall become [rv ] in him a well of water springing up into eternal life (4:14). Here, he is talking not of the benefits to the individual life at all, but of the rivers of living water that will flow out of the individual life. Jesus did not say, he that believeth on me, shall experience the fulness of the blessing of god; but, he that believeth on me, out of him shall escape every- thing he receives. It is a picture of the unfathomable, incalculable benediction which will flow from the one great sovereign source, belief in jesus. We have nothing to do with the outflow; we have to see to it that we are destitute enough of spiritual independence to be filled with the holy ghost and then pay attention to the source, our lord himself. You can never measure what god will do through you if you are rightly related to Jesus. The parenthesis in 7:39 does not apply to us: the holy ghost has been given; Jesus is glorified; the rivers of living water are there, and, unspeakable wonder! The sacrament may flow
Through our lives too. All that the one out of whom the rivers of living water are flowing is conscious of is belief in Jesus and maintaining a right relationship to him; then day by day god is pouring the rivers of living water through you, and it is of his mercy he does not let you know it.
3. Christs infinite power and human devotion
But this spake he of the spirit, which they that believe in him should receive: for the holy ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified. ( john 7:39)
The abiding vital meaning of pentecost is not that there were added unto them about three thousand souls; what happened at pentecost was that our lord was glorified, and that he shed forth from above the holy ghost in the plenitude of his power. Therefore being by the right hand of god exalted, and having received of the father the promise of the holy ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear (acts 2:33). The gift of the holy spirit is the impartation of a personal spirit that blends the historic son of god and the individual believer into one, and the characteristic of the life is devotion to god, so much so that you don’t even know you are devoted to him until a crisis comes.
When you have become united to Jesus it is impossible to talk about your experiences or to pray for yourself because you have been brought into a oneness with him even as he was one with the father. The higher Chris- tian life 6 type of teaching is apt to lead us not to worshiping god and to being devoted to Jesus, but merely to pietistic experiences. The snare of experiences is that we keep coming back to the shore when god wants to get us out into the deeps. The one great thing about the salvation of jesus is that the more you experience it the less you know what you experience; it is only in the initial stages that you know what you experience. The danger is lest we mistake the shores of our experience for the ocean. The experimental aspect of the baptism of the holy ghost is not defined by the historic pentecost, but by our lords words in acts 1:8but ye shall receive power, after that the holy ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me. The spirit that comes in is not that of doing anything for Jesus, but of being a perfect delight to him.