The self-consciousness of Jesus—I - Chambers, Oswald
His Baptism
All things are delivered unto me of my father: and no man knoweth the son, but the father; neither knoweth any man the father, save the son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him. Matthew 11:27.
There is a self-consciousness that is more or less of a disease, arising from unstrung nerves or from personal conceit; we cannot apply the term to our lord in that sense. By the term the self-consciousness of Jesus is meant the state of being conscious of his personal self. I would like to warn against the modern literature which says that we can understand the self-consciousness of Jesus Christ by examining our own. Jesus says emphatically, no one knoweth the son, save the father. Any teaching regarding the personality of Jesus that gives the lie to what he says about himself is anti-Christ, it dissolves by analysis (see 1 john 4:13).
In attempting to deal with the self-consciousness of Jesus we must remember that we are dealing with a revelation, something we have not as natural men, although through the experience of regeneration, we can have the mind of Christ; but the experience of new birth must take place first. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5). But we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16).
In these studies, the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem stands for a presentation of the experience of sanctification in which the soul is put into a state of spiritual innocence before god, a state of untried, untested innocence; then we have to develop that innocence into holiness by a series of moral choices whereby we sacrifice the life of nature to the will of god. The majority of us only know the experience of sanctification, we do not press on to transform innocence into holiness until all our powers are matured for god. Insubordination too often marks the beginnings of the sanctified life because we will not submit to the normal development that god demands; as soon as we enter the sanctified life we expect we are going to be giants for god. We are in danger of becoming fanatical instead of developing along the great, sane, majestic lines that Jesus developed on.
The distinction between a saved soul and a disciple is fundamental. The stern conditions laid down by our lord for discipleship are not the conditions of salvation; discipleship is a much closer and more conscious relationship (see Luke 14:2627, 33). The secret of discipleship is the cross of our lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 6:14; 1 Corinthians 2:2). Just when maturity is reached spiritually we cannot say, all we know is it depends entirely on obedience. After they were baptised with the holy ghost, the early disciples evidently reached the point of spiritual maturity, for we read that they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. They could not be appealed to on any other line than that marked out for them by Jesus, it could not be tyrannised out of them or martyred out of them. The baptism of our lord represents this point of amazing maturity; we are faced with a revelation we cannot understand, but must accept.
1. The innate realisation to Jesus himself ( john 1:2634)
The experience of Jesus at his baptism is as foreign to us as his incarnation. Read the so-called lives of Jesus, and see how little is made of his baptism, the reason being that most of the writers take the baptism to be something to teach us, or as an illustration of the rite of baptism. In the new testament the baptism of Jesus is not taken as an illustration of anything which we experience, it is recorded as a manifestation of who Jesus was. He stands forth consciouslyson of god, son of man, god-manhaving come for one purpose, to bear away the sin of the world. We have been dealing with our lords child- hood, and with the silent years of which nothing is recorded; now at his baptism he emerges, a full out- standing personality with a tremendous maturity of power that never wilted for one moment. There was no ambiguity in our lords mind as to who he was, or as to the meaning of the step he was taking; he was no longer maturing, he was mature. He is not manifested here as our example, but as god incarnate for one purpose to be identified with the sin of the world and to bear it away. Jesus fully felt himself to be all that john the baptist expected he would be. Take time to find out from the old testament what john did expect him to be, and then realise that Jesus was consciously that and you will understand why he said, no man knoweth the son, save the father.
The reason we have no counterpart in our experience of the baptism of Jesus is because of his innate realisation of who he was. The Jesus of the new testament is a being who made napoleon say, i know men, and jesus Christ is not a man. What he meant was that in Jesus Christ he had come across a pre-eminent master of men.
2. The extraordinary revelation (mark 1:911)
Beware of bringing to the study of Jesus anything that does not belong to the new testament. If we bring preconceived notions of our own we shall never look at the facts. If we are being taught as the truth in Jesus, we shall accept the revelation that his baptism was an extraordinary experience to our lord, extraordinary even to him. When Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptised by john, it was a tremendous epoch in the purpose of god almighty. Who among us could presume to say what jesus experienced when he was baptised? Jesus came forth at the threshold of his public ministry in the full consciousness of who he was; from that moment he manifested himself as being here for one purpose only, to be identified with the sin of the world and to bear it away. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. Who was Jesus? God incarnate. Watch what he says of him selfi do not work from my right to myself (see john 5:19, 30); i do not think or speak from my right to myself (see john 8:28; 12:49); i do not live from my right to myself (see john 6:38): i work and think and live from my fathers right to me. Lo, i come . . . To do thy will, o god.
3. The enduement regally (Luke 3:2122)
We read that Jesus was in communion with his father at the time of his baptism Jesus also having been baptised, and praying (RV ), an inconceivable communion, and what happened? The heaven was opened, and the holy ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, thou art my beloved son; in thee i am well pleased. It was a purely personal experience. The holy ghost descended upon Jesus, and the voice of the father spake to him thou art my beloved son. This man, who was known to men as the humble Nazarene carpenter, is almighty god presented in the guise of a human life. Opened heaven to our lord means opened heaven to every man. The holy ghost descending as a dove is symbolical of the holy-spirit life that Jesus can communicate to every man. The new testament records two personal descents of the holy ghost: one on our lord as son of man at his baptism, the other on the day of pentecost 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). By right of his death and resurrection and ascension our lord can impart holy spirit to any and every man (see Luke 11:13; john 20:22).
4. The eminent redeemer (Matthew 3:1315)
Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan unto john, to be baptised of him (rv). What was johns baptism? The baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Jesus was baptised by that baptism, not by a baptism like it. What did john regard Jesus as? The lamb of god, which taketh away the sin of the world. At his baptism Jesus took on him his vocation; it was the public manifestation that he became part of fallen humanity; that is why he was baptised with johns bap- tism of repentance. Beware of saying that Jesus took on the sin of the human race by sympathy. It is being said nowadays that Jesus had such a profound sympathy for the human race, he was such a pure noble character and realised so keenly the shame and horror of sin, that he took our sin on himself by sympathy. All through the bible it is revealed that our lord bore the sin of the world by identification, not by sympathy. If Jesus only took on the sin and wrong of human nature by sympathy, i can only take on his holiness by sympathy, all i can say is, yes, i mourn over my sin and wrong- doing and i wish i were better; i do accept the life of Jesus as very beautiful and holy, but that holiness is not mine. The new testament says Jesus became literally identified with the sin of the human race. Him who knew no sin (here language almost fails) he made to be sin on our behalf for one purpose onlythat we might become the righteousness of god in him (RV). Repentance to be true must issue in holiness, or it is not new testament repentance. Repentance means not only sorrow and distress for the wrong done, but the acceptance of the atonement of Jesus which will make me what i have never been holy.
Ask god to awaken in your heart and conscience a realisation of what identification with sin on the part of Jesus meant. He did not come to manifest what god was like only; he came to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself so that men might see god in him he that hath seen me hath seen the father. The manifestation of Jesus as god incarnate and in his holy manhood are incidents connected with the one great purpose of his coming, which was a vicarious identification with sin.
As saved and sanctified saints, have we ever realised that our vocation is a vicarious identification with the life of the world that is not right? One of the subtlest snares is the idea that we are here to live a holy life of our own, with our eyes fixed on our own whiteness; we are here to carry out gods will as jesus carried it out. Jesus carried out the will of god as the saviour of the world; we are to carry out his will as saints. Jesus Christ was a vicarious sufferer for the sin of the world, and we have to be vicarious sufferers, filling up that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ. Have we ever realised that through the atonement we can take on ourselves a vicarious attitude before god, a vicarious penitence, knowing the fellowship of his sufferings? Take it
On the line of intercession, have we ever realised that we can hold off the curse and the terror of evil and sin from people who do not know god? May god save us from the selfish meanness of a sanctified life which says, i am saved and sanctified, look what a wonderful specimen i am. If we are saved and sanctified we have lost sight of ourselves absolutely, self is effaced, it is not there. The sacrifice of the sanctified self is the lesson to be learned. We are saved and sanctified for god, not to be specimens in his show- room, but for god to do with us even as he did with Jesus, make us broken bread and poured-out wine as he chooses. That is the testnot spiritual fireworks or hysterics, not fanaticism, but a blazingly holy life that confronts the horror of the world with a fierce purity, chaste physically, morally and spiritually, and this can only come about in the way it came about in the life of our lord.
Beware of the subtle insinuations which come in the guise of light, that we are to be like Jesus in the sense of sharing in his great mediatorial work; we are not. Jesus Christ came into the world to deliver men from sin; we do not. He was god incarnate; we are not. Jesus said that he came to do the will of his father, and he sends us to do his will. As my father hath sent me, even so send i you. What is the will of Jesus? That we make disciples, after we ourselves have become disciples. The emphasis to- day is being put on the fact that we have to save men; we have not. We have to exalt the saviour who saves men, and then make disciples in his name. Jesus says, i, if i be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. If i lift up jesus where the new testament lifts him up, on the cross, i. E. If i present him as being made sin and putting it away by the sacrifice of himself, jesus says he will draw all men unto him, and there will come the surprising illumination of the spirit . . . So is every one that is born of the spirit. The so refers to the infinite surprise of the spirit of god at work in the souls of men bringing the amazing revelation i know who Jesus is. We have unconsciously usurped the place of the holy ghost; we present a series of argumentative doctrines and say, if you believe this and accept that, some- thing will happen. It never happens in that way, but always as a tremendous surprise.
The touchstone of the holy spirits work in us is the answer to our lords question: who do men say that the son of man is? Our lord makes human destiny depend on that one thing, who men say he is, because the revelation of who Jesus is is only given by the holy spirit. The sign that we have received the holy spirit is that we think rightly of Jesus. Jesus bases membership in his church on the revelation of who he is thou art the Christ, the son of the living god. That is the rock on which Jesus builds his church, viz. , the revelation of who he is and the public confession of it. (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:3).