The Philosophy of Following our lord -
the quotations are from the book entitled Theological germanica .
Chapter V
First, man must consider the teaching and the life of jesus christ, for he hath taught poverty and lived it. And a man should follow the teaching and the life, if he wisheth to be perfect, for he saith, whoso loveth me keepeth my commandments and my counsels, and heareth my word.
In every profession under heaven the great ambition of the natural heart is to be perfect. When jesus christ was faced with a splendid specimen of a young man, he said, if you would be perfect, i will tell you what to do. If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. The whole out- come of following jesus is expressed for us in these words, viz. , that the trinity, father, son, and holy ghost, will come and make their abode with the man who loves jesus and keeps his word. As long as the devil can keep us terrified of thinking, he will always limit the work of god in our souls.
The way of the follower negative
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. (luke 9:23) the word deny embraces what the apostle paul meant when he said mortify therefore, or, make dead, your members which are upon the earth (colossians 3:5).
(a) infirmity-sins
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (romans 8:13) it might now be said, what is man in his selfhood, that he must deny, if he wisheth to follow after christ? Mans selfhood consisteth in four things. First, his frailty, and that he falleth into sins; and this he must needs set aside; he must die to his defects and sins, and mortify himself.
The disposition in us is either implanted naturally through the first adam, or implanted supernaturally through the last adam by regeneration and sanctifi- cation. We breed our temperament out of the disposition that is in us. If we are going to follow jesus, we must do to death infirmity-sins. God cannot do it, we have to do it ourselves. Satan takes occasion of the frailty of the bodily temple and says, now you know you cannot do that, you are so infirm, you cannot concentrate your mind, etc. Never allow bodily infirmities to hinder you obeying the commands of jesus. Paul says, but i keep under my body, and bring it into subjection. I buffet [bruise, mg] my body, and bring it into bondage (rv). Through the atonement god deals with the wrong disposition in us, then he gives us the glorious privilege of making our bodies instruments of righteousness unto god.
(b) inordinate affection
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; . . . Inordinate affection. . . . (colossians 3:5) secondly, he is inclined to creatures. For man is inclined by nature to his like, and he must kill nature, and must withdraw from creatures, for god and crea- tures are opposites. And therefore he who wisheth to have god must leave creatures. For the soul is so nar- row that god and the creature cannot dwell together in her; and therefore if god is to dwell in thy soul, the creature must remain without.
In colossians 3:5 paul is describing an unsanctified man, but the same man sanctified is inclined to creatures rather than to the creator. Watch the hard things jesus says about father, mother, wife, children, our own life (see luke 14:26); he says if we are going to follow him, these must be on the outside of the central citadel. The central citadel must be god and god alone. When once we are willing to do to death our clinging to creatures, which in certain supreme calls comes between ourselves and god, jesus says we will receive an hundredfold, because immediately we are rightly related to god he can trust us with creature-relationships without fear of inordinateness. With the majority of us these relationships are cut off, not by our own doing, god has to do it for us; he has to come with strange providences and cut them off, because we have professed that we are going to follow jesus. We forget that sanctification is only the beginning; the one purpose of sanctification is that jesus might be marvelled at in all them that believed.
(c) inveterate luxury
But i keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when i have preached to others, i myself should be a castaway. (1 corinthians 9:27)
The third point is, that man to part from selfhood should drop all sensual delight, for he must die to this and kill it in himself if he wisheth to have gods comfort. As st. Bernard saith, the comfort of god is so noble that no one receiveth it who seeketh comfort elsewhere.
The natural life in a sanctified man or woman is nei- ther moral nor immoral, it is the gift god has given the saint to sacrifice on the altar of love to god. Jesus christ had a natural body, it was not a sin for him to be hungry, but it would have been a sin for him to satisfy that hunger when god had told him not to, and satan came to him when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, and was an hungred, and said, sat- isfy that hunger now. The body we have is not sinful in itself; if it were, it would be untrue to say that jesus christ was sinless. Pauls words have reference to the fact that our body has been ruled by a sinful disposition, a disposition which simply means i am going to find my sustaining in creature comforts. After we are sanctified we have the same body, but it is ruled by a new disposition, and we have to sacrifice our natural life to god even as jesus did, so that we make the natural life spiritual by a series of direct moral choices.
(d) intellectual intemperance
And lest i should be exalted above measure . . . Through the abundance of the revelations . . . (2 corinthians 12:7) the fourth thing a man must let go if he wisheth to follow christ, is spiritual natural comforts, which are generated in man, by detecting the distinction between spiritual and natural knowledge. . . . Whoever tar- ries by this natural rational delight, hinders himself from the supernatural delight which god in his grace imparteth to the soul.
Intellectual intemperance is a great snare to a saint. Bodily fasting is childs play compared to the deter- mined fasting from the intellectual apprehension of the teachings of jesus that goes beyond what we are living out. The characteristic of many spiritual people to- day is intellectual intemperance, fanatical intoxication with the things of god, wild exuberance, an unlikeness to the sanity of jesus in the very ways of god. There is a danger in the enjoyment of the delights and the power that come to us through jesus christs salvation without lifting the life into keeping with his teaching, especially in spiritual people whose minds have never been disciplined and they wander off into all kinds of vagaries. That accounts for the distinction we find between spiritual sincerity and spiritual reality. All this is the negative side of following our lord. Have we told jesus we will follow him? Are we prepared to do our part in keeping under the body for one purpose only, that we may learn the fellowship of following? Are we beginning to realise that until we are born again the teachings of jesus are simple; after we are born again they become growingly difficult, and we find clouds and darkness are round about the things we thought we knew perfectly well once, and following our lord is one of these things?
The way of the fellowship positive and he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. (matthew 10:3839)
It is possible to be grossly selfish in absorbing the salvation of jesus, to enjoy all its benedictions, and never follow him one step. So jesus says, if any man would follow me, this is the way let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
. . . For as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holi- ness. (romans 6:19)
First, man should kill sin in himself through virtue; for just as man is removed from god by sin must he be brought nigh again unto god by virtue . . . But let no one believe that he is free from sins, unless he hath taken unto himself all the virtues. The positive side is thisthat we work all the virtues of jesus in and through our members, but this can only be done when all self-reliance has come to an end (cf. 2 corinthians 1:9). Our natural virtues are remnants of what god created man to be, not promises of what he is going to be. The natural virtues cannot be patched up to come anywhere near gods demands, and the sign that god is at work in us is that he corrupts our confidence in the natural virtues. It is simply an ampli- fication of the old gospel hymn nothing in my hand i bring, simply to thy cross i cling!
(b) willing poverty for god
For ye know the grace of our lord jesus christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. (2 corin- thians 8:9)
The second thing that man must shun is the love for creatures. Poverty of spirit is a going out of yourself and out of everything earthly. Thereby he despiseth creatures, is despised by them, and is thus set free. A truly poor man taketh nothing from creatures, but all from god, be it bodily or spiritual. God alone will be the giver. To be willingly poor for god is to strip myself of all things for the sake of jesus christ. One of the greatest snares is built on what is really a great truth, viz. , that
Every man has christ in himself. The pernicious use that is made of that statement is that therefore man draws power from himself. Never! Jesus christ never drew power from himself: he drew it always from without himself, viz. , from his father. The son can do nothing of himself ( john 5:19, see john 5:30). Beware of being rich spiritually on earth, only be rich spiritually in heaven. Jesus said to the rich young ruler, if you will strip yourself and have no riches here, you will lay up for yourself treasure in heaven. Treasure in heaven is faith that has been tried (cf. Revelation 3:18). Immediately we begin to have fellowship with jesus we have to live the life of faith at all costs; it may be bitter to begin with, but afterwards it is ineffably and indescribably sweetwilling poverty for god, a determined going outside myself and every earthly thing.
(c) watchful purity for god whosoever is born of god
Doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of god. (1 john 3:9) but who knoweth, wilt thou ask, if he have all vir- tues? I answer to this like john, who saith, whosoever is born of god cannot sin. For in the same moment in which god the father begetteth his son in the soul, sins and all unlikeness disappear, and all virtues are born in her in a likeness to god.
According to that statement of the apostle john no one is free from sin unless he is possessed of all the virtues. The apostle is not teaching sinless perfection; he is teaching perfect sinlessness, which is a different matter. If as sanctified souls we walk in the light, as god is in the light, the revelation is that through the atonement the blood of jesus christ his son cleans- eth us from all sin. That does not mean cleansing from all sin in our consciousness; if it did, it would produce hypocrisy. Any number of people are not conscious of sin, but it does not follow that they are cleansed from all sin. It is not our consciousness that is referred to, but the consciousness god has of us; what we are conscious of is walking in the light with nothing to hide. The outcome of following our lord is a holiness of char- acter so that god sees nothing to censure because the life of his son is working out in every particular. Our main idea is to keep steadfastly in the blazing light of god so that he can exhibit the virtues of jesus through us unhindered. If ye love me, ye will keep my com- mandments (rv). How many of them? All of them. Then, says jesus, we will come unto him, and make our abode with him in heaven? No, here.
Forasmuch then as christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of god. (1 peter 4:12) . . . And whoso would eat its fruit (the fruit of the holy cross) with profit must break it off from the cross by steadfast internal contemplation of the passion of our lord. All on the cross is full of fruit, and more than all tongues could in truth proclaim. Nay, angels tongues could not describe the overflowing grace that is there hidden in the passion of our lord. Blessed are those who have found this treasure.
Steady contemplation of the passion of our lord will do to death everything that is not of god. It is only after a long while of going on with god and steady contemplation of the cross that we begin to under- stand its meaning. To day shalt thou be with me in paradise is said at only one place, viz. , at the cross.
This is not a message about our salvation and sanctification, but about the outcome of salvation and sanctification in our implicit life, i. E. , where we live it and cannot speak it. Jesus said, if any man would be my disciple . . . Not, if any man would be saved and sanctified. If any man will be my disciplethose are the conditions. Jesus christ always talked about discipleship with an if. We are at perfect liberty to toss our spiritual head and say, no, thank you, that is a bit too stern for me, and the lord will never say a word, we can do exactly what we like. He will never plead, but the opportunity is there, if . . .
After all, it is the great stern call of jesus that fascinates men and women quicker than anything. It is not the gospel of being saved from hell and enjoy- ing heaven that attracts men, saving in a very shallow mood; it is christ crucified that attracts men; jesus said soi, if i be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. Jesus christ never attracts us by the unspeakable bliss of paradise; he attracts us by an ugly beam. We talk about getting down to the depths of a mans soul: jesus christ is the only one who ever did. If once a man has heard the appeal of jesus from the cross, he begins to find there is something there that answers the cry of the human heart and the problem of the whole world. What we have to do as gods servants is to lift up christ crucified. We can either do it as gramophones, or as those who are in fellowship with him.
Many of us have heard jesus christs first follow me to a life of liberty and joy and gladness; how many of us have heard the second follow me deny your right to yourself and do to death in your- self everything that never was in me?