The great life - Chambers, Oswald
Spoken to British commonwealth troops at zeitoun16 YMCA camp near Cairo , Egypt. Sunday morning service, may 13, 1917
. . Believeth all things. (1 Corinthians 13:7)
it is a great thing to be a believer, but easy to misunderstand what the new testament means by it. It is not that we believe Jesus Christ can do things, or that we believe in a plan of salvation; it is that we believe him; whatever happens we will hang in to the fact that he is true. If we say, i am going to believe he will put things right, we shall lose our confidence when we see things go wrong. We are in danger of putting the cart before the horse and saying a man must believe certain things before he can be a christian; whereas his beliefs are the result of his being a christian, not the cause. Our lords word believe does not refer to an intellectual act, but to a moral act; with our lord to believe means to commit. Commit yourself to me, and it takes a man all he is worth to believe in Jesus Christ.
The great life is to believe that Jesus Christ is not a fraud. The biggest fear a man has is never fear for himself but fear that his hero wont get through; that he wont be able to explain things satisfactorily; for instance, why there should be war and disease. The problems of life get hold of a man and make it difficult for him to know whether in the face of these things he really is confident in Jesus Christ. The attitude of a believer must be, things do look black, but i believe him; and when the whole thing is told i am confident my belief will be justified and god will be revealed as a god of love and justice. It does not mean that we wont have problems, but it does mean that our problems will never come in between us and our faith in him. Lord, i dont understand this, but i am certain that there will be an explanation, and in the meantime i put it on one side. Our faith is in a person who is not deceived in anything he says or in the way he looks at things. Christianity is personal, passionate devotion to Jesus Christ as god manifest in the flesh.
The genesis of the great life
Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of god, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. ( john 6:29)
The great life is begun when we believe, belief can- not be pumped up. If we in our hearts believe in Jesus Christ, not about him, but in him, he is all right anyway, it is an evidence that god is at work in our souls. Abraham believed god (Galatians 3:6). Though he slay me, yet will i trust in him ( job 13:15). Every abortion and wrongdoing in spiritual life begins when we cease believing in Jesus Christ. If we believe in a state of mind he produces in us, we will be disappointed, because circumstances will come in our lives when these works of Jesus Christ are shad- owed over; but if we believe in him, no matter how dark the passage is we shall be carried right through, and when the crisis is passed our souls will have been built up into a stronger attitude towards him. What counts in a mans life is the disposition that rules him. When god begins his work in us he does not make a mighty difference in our external lives, but he shifts the center of our confidence; instead of relying on ourselves and other people, we rely on god, and are kept in perfect peace. We all know the difference it makes if we have someone who believes in us and in whom we believe, there is no possibility of being crushed. The great life is not that we believe for something, but that when we are up against things in circumstances or in our own disposition, we stake our all on Jesus Christs honour. If we have faith only in what we experience of salvation, we will get depressed and morbid; but to be a believer in Jesus Christ is to have an irrepressible belief and a life of uncrushable gaiety.
The growth of the great life
let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in god, believe also in me. ( john 14:1)
Jesus Christ is talking here about what no man knows but himself viz. The day after death, and he says, dont be troubled about it. We grow in this great life by making room for Jesus Christ in our outlook on everything. Before you seal your opinion on any matter, find out what he has said about it about god, about life, about death. Men discuss matters of heaven and hell, of life and death, and leave Jesus Christ out altogether; he says, before you finally seal your mind, believe also in me. If the bit we do know about Jesus Christ is so full of light, why cannot we leave the matters of heaven and hell, of life and death, in his hand
And stake our confidence in him? God is light, and one day everything will be seen in that light. I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. To be a believer in Jesus Christ means we are committed to his way of looking at everything, not that we are open to discuss what people say he taught; that is the way difficulties have arisen with regard to christian faith. Theology ought to be discussed; it does not fol- low, however, that our faith is assailed, but that in the meantime we stake our all in Jesus Christ. The great lodestar of our life is believe in Jesus Christ, and in everything on which i form an opinion i make room for him and find out his attitude.
The grandeur of the great life
verily, verily, i say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. ( john 6:47)
We often hear it put as if god gave us a present called eternal life. What Jesus Christ says is, he that committeth himself to me hath eternal life, i. E. , the life that was characteristic of himself (see john 17:3; Romans 6:23; 1 john 5:11). If we commit our- selves to Jesus he says, stake your all on me and i will see you through, dont worry about anything but your relationship to me. The best is yet to be. We shall yet see everything brought into subjection to the one in whom we believe. Watch carefully how you begin to get away from believing in Jesus. When we mistake darkness for sin, or when we get into moods and hang fire, we choke the work of god in us. This is the work of god, not that you believe you are turned into a child of god, but that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. What does it matter what happens to us? The thought of ourselves ought never to come in at all! The one thing that tells is the great fundamental rock: believe also in me. Many know a good deal about salvation, but not much about this intense patience of hanging in in perfect certainty to the fact that what Jesus Christ says is true.
. . . Believeth all things. That is the greatest courtesy in the whole of human life. If we believe in Jesus Christ we will determine to make our relation- ship to men what Jesus Christs was to us. He believed that he could save every man irrespective of his condition. Do we believe he can? Or do we get small and sceptical and cynical about some men? If we do, we are hindering them from being right. There are some people we feel the better for meeting, their ruling dis- position is a generous one, they are not frost-bitten and mean; they are not necessarily good, but they have hold of the right relationship to things. That is true in the spiritual world; when we meet a man or woman who believes in Jesus Christ, we feel we can tell them anything. The thing for us to examine is: are we really living the great life, or are we living in a bandbox17 with a priggish notion that Jesus Christ is tied up in some formula? Jesus Christ is god manifest in the flesh, and he says, this is the work of god that you believe in me. The full growth in the great life is to believe also in me about everything. Make room for me, especially in matters where you cannot go; bring the child mind to what i have said about them. We want to be our own lord and master, to get everything solved for ourselves, Jesus says, look unto me, and be ye saved. To commit his life and reasoning to Jesus Christs attitude takes a man right out of himself and into Jesus Christ. This is not rational, it is redemptive. How many saw Jesus Christ as the son of god? He was nothing more than a carpenter to the majority. It comes with a rush of revelation, i see who he is! And he gives us the life which is inherent in himself.
Many Christians get depressed over mean, 18 despicable things they find in themselves; i feel glad, because it is a justification of what Jesus said, without me ye can do nothing. If we stake our all in him, he will see us through as saviour or as deliverer just where we need him. It is a great thing to have a god big enough to believe in. To believe in a god whom to be god is not fit makes a man immoral. The god revealed in Jesus Christ is grand enough for every problem of life. I am the way, the truth, and the life. Let us carry away the great life of joy and simplicity.