The Philosophy of the Fall—i - Chambers, Oswald
The quotations are from the book entitled Theologian germanica .
Chapter II
Boundless inheritance of covetousness
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, i had not known sin, but by the law: for i had not known lust, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet. (Romans 7:7) it is said, it was because Adam ate the apple that he was lost, or fell. I say, it was because of his claiming something for his own, and because of his i, mine, me and the like. Had he eaten seven apples, and yet never claimed anything for his own, he would not have fallen: but as soon as he called something his own, he fell, and would have fallen if he had never touched an apple.
What is true of Adam is true of every man and woman, and not all mankind could amend his fall, or bring him back from going astray. This inheritance of covetousness is the very essence of the fall, and no praying and no power of man, singly or banded together, can ever avail to touch it; the only thing that can touch it is the great atonement of our lord jesus christ. Lust and covetousness are summed up in the phrase, i must have it at once and for myself. It is an absolute flood in the nature of man, it overtakes his spirit, it overtakes his soul and body. In some natures the spirit of covetousness works through the body and is seen in sordid ways; sometimes it is kept back and only in mans reason is it manifested; and sometimes it is held still further back and suppressed, but it is there. The background of the whole thing is the lust of possessing according to my affinities.
(a) birth of death
Or in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (genesis 2:17). Death is the inheritance of the whole human race; since adam, no man has ever been alive to god saving by the supernatural act of re-birth. Do not get the idea that because man did not die sud- denly physically, he is not dead. The manifestation of
Death in the body is simply a matter of time, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. The birth of death was in that moment; not the birth of death for one man, but the birth of the death of the whole human race. Gods attitude revealed in the bible towards men is that they are dead in trespasses and sins; no touch with god, not alive towards god at all, they are quite indifferent to gods claims.
(b) the bye-law of death
For if by one mans offence death reigned by one . . . (romans 5:17). A bye-law is a supplementary regu- lation, and the bye-law of death is a supplementary regulation on account of disobedience. For i was alive without the law once, said the apostle paul, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and i died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, i found to be unto death (romans 7:910). We are all alive apart from god in our own con- sciousness, and when preachers talk about being dead in trespasses and sins, good worldly-minded men and women are amused at our being so stupid as to tell them they are dead. They say, i am alive, my body is alive; my mind and heart and soul and spirit are alive; what do you mean by being dead? But immediately a soul comes into contact with jesus christs standard, instantly the realisation comes of what death means.
(c) branded by death
For the wages of sin is death (romans 6:23). Every natural virtue is death-branded, because the natural virtues are remnants of a ruined humanity, they are not promises of an evolving perfection. Take the life of the intellect or of the spirit, where does it end? He that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. Love produces such pain (apart from a knowledge of god) that it makes the sensitive soul wonder if it is worth- while to love. Death is everywhere, on the attainments of the mind, of the heart and spirit. When you try to approach god in prayer and draw near to him, you find the curse of this disposition of covetousness i must have this for myself, i want to be right with god for my own sakeand it saps the energy out of devotion, out of communion with god and christian service, until the soul is almost wrung to despair. It is that kind of thing which made the apostle paul say sold under sin. We have to get down to this aspect of sin which is not familiar to us as a rule. Talk about conviction of sin! I wonder how many of us have ever had one five minutes conviction of sin. It is the rarest thing to know of a man or woman who has been convicted of sin. I am not sure but that if in a meeting one or two people came under the tremendous conviction of the holy ghost, the majority of us would not advocate they should be put in a lunatic asylum, instead of referring them to the cross of christ. We are unfamiliar nowadays with this tremendous convic- tion of sin, which paul refers to as being sold under sin, but it is not a bit too strong to say that when once the spirit of god convicts a man of sin, it is either sui- cide or the cross of christ, no man can stand such conviction long. We have any amount of conviction about pride and wrong dealing with one another, but when the holy ghost convicts he does not bother us on that line, he gives us the deep conviction that we are living in independence of god, of a death away from god, and we find all our virtues and goodness and religion has been based on a ruinous thing, viz. , the boundless inheritance of covetousness. That is what the fall means. Let it soak into your thinking, and you will understand the marvel of the salvation of jesus christ which means deliverance from covetousness, root and branch. Never lay the flattering unction to your soul that because you are not covetous for money or worldly possessions, you are not covetous for anything. The fuss and distress of owning anything is the last remnant of the disposition of sin. Jesus christ possessed nothing for himself (see 2 corinthians 8:9). Right through the warp and woof of human nature is the ruin caused by the disposition of covetousness which entered into the human race through the fall, and it is this disposition which the holy spirit convicts of.
Beatific incarnation (romans 5:111)
But how shall my fall be amended? It must be healed as adams fall was healed, and on the self-same wise. . . . And in this bringing back and healing, i can, or may, or shall do nothing of myself, but just simply yield to god, so that he alone may do all things in me and work, and i may suffer him and all his work and his divine will.
The atonement means that in the cross of jesus christ god redeemed the whole human race from the possibility of damnation through the heredity of sin. Jesus christ never applied the words children of the devil to ordinary sinners, he applied them to religious disbelievers. Nowhere is it taught in the bible that we are by nature children of the devil; paul says we were by nature the children of wrath. How many men and women do we know who have seen what jesus christ came to do, who really knew he came to save them from sin and who have deliberately said, no, i wont let him? The majority of men are sheep, as jesus said, and the bias of the fall leads them astray.
(a) ruined race
And i will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel (genesis 3:15). The prophecy here does not refer to the destruction of sin in the indi- vidual, but to the destruction of what the apostle paul calls the body of sin, symbolised in the first incarnation of the devil as a serpent. The body of sin stands as the counterpart of the mystical body of christ. The fountain head of the body of sin is the devil; the fountain head of the mystical body of christ is god. The disposition of covetousness which entered in at the fall, connects me with the body of sin; in the personal experience of sanctification this disposition of covetousness is identified with the cross of christ that the body of sin might be destroyed. The more people there are who enter into sanctification through jesus christ, the more is satans dominance ruined. The body of sin is maimed and paralysed by every being who enters into the mystical body of christ through his salvation. The carnal mind, which is enmity against god, is my connection with the body of sin; but the body of sin is something infinitely greater than the carnal mind, it is the mystical body of sin with the devil at its head, which jesus christ came to destroy (1 john 3:8), and in his sanctified children is manifested the bruising of satan and the enfeebling of the body of sin, until at the final wind-up of everything, the body of sin and the devil are absolutely removed, not only in the individual saints but from the presence of the saints. Satan is not removed now from the presence of the saints, but the saint is still kept in the world where the evil one rules, consequently the saint is continually being badgered by the evil one. Jesus prayed, not that we should be taken out of the world, but that we should be kept from the evil one (rv)
(b) realised right of saved souls (romans 6:1214)
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof (romans 6:12). Paul is strong in urging us to realise what salvation means in our bodily lives; it means that we command our bodies to obey the new disposition. That is where you find the problems on the margins of the sanctified life. Paul argues in romans 6:19, you are perfectly adjusted to god on the inside by a perfect saviour, but your members have been used as servants of the wrong disposition; now begin to make those same members obey the new disposition. As we go on, we find every place god brings us into is the means of enabling us to realise with growing joy that the life of christ within is more than a match not only for the enemy on the outside but for the impaired body that comes between. Paul urges with passionate pleading, that we present our bodies a living sacrifice, and then realise, not pre- sumptuously, but with slow, sure, overwhelming cer- tainty that every command of christ can be obeyed in our bodily life through the atonement.
(c) restricting remains of sin
What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? (romans 6:1516). A partial realisation on the part of a child of god of the salva- tion of jesus christ is the very thing satan delights in, because it leaves within that one the remains of the sinful disposition. In regeneration a twofold expe- rience ought to be ours: the introduction into a new kingdom by the incoming of the holy spirit and the realisation of forgiveness of sins; and then being borne on to a moral identification with the death of jesus whereby we know that our old man is crucified with him. Impaired lives, impaired judgements and expe- riencesall that makes us limp and compromising, comes about because we have realised only partially what jesus christ came to do, and the great rouser up out of that sleep of indifference is the apostle paul. Read his epistles, rely on the spirit of god, and let him drive home these truths to you.
I am the lord : that is my name: and my glory will i not give to another. (isaiah 42:8)
If i call any good thing my own, as if i were it, or of myself had power or did or knew anything, or as if anything were mine or of me, or belonged to me, or were due to me or the like, i take unto myself somewhat of honour and glory, and do two evil things: first, i fall and go astray as aforesaid; secondly, i touch god in his honour and take unto myself what belongeth to god only. For all that must be called good belon- geth to none but to the true eternal goodness which is god only, and whoso taketh it unto himself committeth unrighteousness and is against god.
The subtlety of satan as an angel of light comes just here, and we hear the saints, unwittingly and without any intention of doing it, taking the glory to them- selves. To say a thing is the sure way to thinking it. That is why it is so necessary to testify to what jesus christ has done for us. A testimony gets hold of the mind as it has hold of the heart; but the same thing is true of the opposite, if we say a wrong thing often enough we begin to think it. The only way to be kept from taking glory to ourselves is to keep stead- fastly faced by our saviour and not by the needs of the people. Did you ever notice how god lets you go down when you trust good people? The best of men and women are but the best of men and women, the only good is god, and jesus christ always brings the soul face to face with god, and that is the one great thought we have to be soaked with. The spirit of covetousness is a flood, and when the apostle paul talked about the spirit, his idea is of a flood, be [being] filled with the spirit, invaded by the personal passionate lover of god until we realise there is only one good,
And we have no time or inclination for any other kind of goodness. In all the world there is none but thee, my god, there is none but thee. Are we there? We will deal treacherously with the bible records if we are not soaked in the revelation that god only is good. We will put the saints on the throne, not god. There is only one unshakeable goodness, and that is god. It takes time to get there because we will cling to things and to people. Those of us who ought to be princes and princesses with god cling to the shows of gods goodness instead of god himself. The only influence that is to tell in a servant of god is god. Let people think what they like about you, but be careful that the last thought they get is god. When we have gone from them, there must be no beauty or fascination in us that makes them long for us, the only remembrance left must be, that woman was true to God; that man was true to God.