The Fundamental offence - Chambers, Oswald

“Now is the day of salvation,” and to do it now is the “thank you” of our acceptance of that salvation.April 9, 1917 — Zeitoun YMCA huts, Egypt
 The Fundamental offense

And apart from shedding of blood there is no remission. Hebrews 9:22

1. Christ is the blood of god the cross is the blood of Christ (1 john 2:2)

When we speak of the blood of Christ we mean that what he did drew upon what was the very citadel of his personality and involved his total self.

2. Sin is the blood of Satan selfrealisation is the blood of sin (1 john 3:8)

What in us harrows the heart, in him harrowed hell. He revolutionises the eternal foundations of our moral world.

3. Sanctification is the blood of the saint repentance is the blood of sanctification (1 john 1:7)

The sinner could only be saved by something that damned his sin.

             Dr. P. T. Forsyth17

1. Christ is the blood of god

And he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. (1 john 2:2 RV)

The expression the blood of Christ means not only that Christ shed his blood, but that he poured out

His very life before god. In the old testament the idea of sacrifice is that the blood, which is the life (see genesis 4:4), is poured out to god, its giver. When Jesus Christ shed his blood on the cross it was not the blood of a martyr, or the blood of one man for another; it was the life of god poured out to redeem the world. It is easy to be thrilled by the sacrifices men make: it takes the spirit of almighty god to get us even interested in the cost of our redemption to god. There is a good deal of talk to-day to the effect that the men who sacrifice their lives are thereby redeemed. It is said in an earnest mood, but it reveals a total lack of understanding of the cross, which is not the cross of a man, but the cross of god, i. E. , the offering of god for the purpose of bringing back the human race into fellowship with himself. Either the cross is the only way there is of explaining god, the only way of explaining Jesus Christ, and of explaining the human race, or there is nothing in it at all. If the human race apart from the cross is all right, then the redemption was a useless waste. Our lord did not sacrifice himself for a cause: he poured out his life for a purpose in the mind of god. We will sacrifice ourselves to further orders for another part of ourselves, but the meaning of Jesus Christs passion is that he poured out his total self. The cross is the expression of the very heart of god, and when my eyes are opened i see that Jesus Christ has made the basis of life redemptive, and it cost him everything to do it. The death of Christ was not the death of a martyr, it was god manifesting him- self in the heart of the human race when the human race was saying, crucify him. The christian revelation is not that Jesus Christ stands to us as the representative of god, but that he is god. If he is not, then we have no god. . . . God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. We do not worship an austere, remote god, he is here in the thick of it. The cross is a reality, not a symbol at the wall of the world stands god with his arms outstretched. There is nothing more certain in time or eternity than what Jesus Christ did on the cross: he switched the whole human race back into right relationship to god and made the basis of human life redemptive, consequently any member of the human race can get into touch with god now. It means not simply that men are saved from hell and put right for heaven, but that they are freed from the wrong disposition and can have imparted to them the very disposition of the son of god, viz. , holy spirit. The dangerous tendency of to-day is not so much the anti-religious tendency as the pietistic tendency, that by prayer and consecration, by giving up things and devoting ourselves to god, he will recognise us. We can never get to god in that way; we can get to god instanter irrespective of what we are on the basis of the redemption. On that basis i can be forgiven, and through the forgiveness i can be turned into another man.

2. Sin is the blood of Satan

For this purpose the son of god was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. (1 john 3:8)

The bible makes a distinction between the devil and Satan, only occasionally are the terms used synonymously, e. G. , revelation 20:2. The devil is the antagonist of god: Satan is the result of a relationship set up between man and the devil. God took on himself the responsibility of having created the being who became the devil and the being who became the sinner, and the proof that he did so is the cross. God never lays the sin of the human race on anyone saving himself; the revelation is not that god punished Jesus Christ for our sins, but that him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf. . . . The relationship set up between Adam and the devil was self- realisation, not immorality and vice, but, my claim to my right to myself, whether it is manifested in clean living or unclean living is a matter of indifference; sin is the fundamental relationship underneath. Sin is not wrong doing, it is wrong being, independence of god; god has undertaken the responsibility for its removal on the ground of the redemption. The condemnation is not that a man is born with an heredity of sin; a man begins to get the seal of condemnation when he sees the light and prefers the darkness (see john 3:19).

The great miracle of the redemption is that i can receive an absolutely new heredity, viz. , holy spirit; and when that heredity begins to work out in me, i manifest in my mortal flesh the disposition of the son of god. The result of the redemption in my life must be that i justify god in forgiving me. I can mouth my salvation, i can thank god for it, but if i do not pro- duce goods up to sample my religious life is a travesty. Always beware of the presentation of redemption which produces a dangerous state of priggishness in moral life that i can receive forgiveness and yet go on being bad; if i do, god is not justified in forgiving me. If you are justified by faith, show it by your works, says the apostle James (see James 2:1424); in what way are you different in your life? Does the reality of the redemption at work in you justify god in having forgiven you? A man has to clear the conscience of god in forgiving him. Present-day evangelism is inclined to go much more strongly on the line of the passion for souls than the passion for sanctification; everyone has gone a-slumming to save the lost; it suits our religious passion to help the men and women who are down and out. Saving souls is gods work, mans work is discipling those souls (see Matthew 28:1820). When Jesus Christ faced men with all the forces of Evil born in them and men who were clean living and moral and upright, he did not look at the immorality of the one or the morality of the other, he looked at something we do not see self-realisation. If my religion is based on my right to myself, that spells Satan in my soul; i may be right-living, but i am anti-god. If you are going to be my disciple, Jesus says, you must give up your right to yourself. Jesus Christ came to do what i could not do, viz. , alter my heredity, and the point for me is, am i going to let him do it? And apart from shedding of blood there is no remission. God redeemed the world by shedding his blood, by putting the whole passion of the godhead into it. He did not become interested and put one arm in to help the human race up, he went into the redemption absolutely, there was nothing of himself left out. Am i willing to put my whole self into becoming his? Or am i one of those who accept his salvation, but thoroughly object to giving up my right to myself to him? Unless i am willing to shed my blood for him my Christianity is not worth anything. The trouble is that we have never come to the realisation of what sin is, we confound it with sins. Sin has to be cleansed, sins must be forgiven; the redemption of Jesus Christ deals with sin. Do i agree with gods judgement on sin and self-realisation on the cross? If so, i see where that judgement hits me and i agree that god is right. Self-realisation and god cannot live together. In the history of the human race when god appeared in the person of Jesus Christ, they crucified him. When i am born from above i realise that if i am going to obey the holy spirit i must enter into identification with Jesus Christ, otherwise i will kill the life of god in me. If i agree with gods judgement on self-realisation, then the salvation of Jesus Christ will be manifested in me. It is a moral decision. There is no shirking the point and saying, oh, im not so bad as other people; it is a question of agreeing with gods verdict on sin. Will i go through the condemnation now? If i will, there is no more condemnation for me, the salvation of Jesus Christ is made actual.

3. Sanctification is the blood of the saint

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, . . . The blood [the essential life] of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 john 1:7)

The one condition is that we walk in the light as god is in the light. God does not give a man a clean thing to look after, he puts a life within him that keeps him clean as long as he walks in the light a super abounding life, a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

Repentance is the blood of sanctification, the exhibition of a real gift of god; not only am i sorry for my sin, that is human, but in the sorrow for sin god slips in something elsethe power never to do the thing again. Many a man is kept away from Jesus Christ by a sense of honouri don’t deny what you say, that god is able to save, but it cant mean me if you only knew me! The mistakes i have made, the wrong things i have done, the blundering things; i would be a perfect disgrace to him. There are more men in that attitude than is commonly supposed; but when a man realises what Jesus Christ undertakes to do not tell him to do his best, but to surrender to him and he will put into him the power to do right, he is emancipated right away.