The will In discipleship - Chambers, Oswald
Luke 9:61–62
Beware of thinking of will as a faculty. Will simply means the whole nature active. We talk about people having a weak will or a strong will, it is a misleading idea. When we speak of a man having a weak will, we mean he is without any impelling passion, he is the creature of every dominating influence; with good people he is good, with bad people he is bad, not because he is a hypocrite, but because he has no ruling passion, and any strong personality knits him into shape. Will is the essential element in gods creation of a man. I cannot give up my will: i must exercise it.
The want to lord
, i will follow thee . . .
Want is a conscious tendency towards a particular end. My wants take shape when something awakens my personal life. An invalid if left alone has no wants, he wants neither to live nor to die; but when he sees a person full of bounding physical health, a want to be like him is instantly awakened. Whatever awakens my person awakens a want. In this incident the presence of jesus awakened a conscious want to follow him, a want to be like him.
(a) the want in conscience
The first appeal was to conscience, and could be expressed in this way: follow him, he is thy supreme lord. The presentation of jesus christ always awakens that desire, the presentation of abstract ideals never does. You can present morality, good principles, the duty of loving your neighbour, and never arouse a mans conscience to want anything; but when you present jesus christ, instantly there is a dumb awakening; a want to be what he would like me to be. It is not conviction of sin, but an awakening out of the sleep of indifference into a want. There are some things that are without meaning for us. For instance, to be told that god will give us the holy spirit if we ask him, may be a dead proposition; but when we come in contact with a person filled with the spirit of god we instantly awaken to a want. Or again, if you tell half a dozen clean-living, upright, sterling men that god so loved them that he gave his son to die for them, only their good breeding will keep them from being amused why should jesus christ die for me? It is not a living proposition to them, not in the sphere of their life at all. Their morality is well within their own grasp, they are clean living and upright, all that can be desired; they will never be awakened in that way; but present them with jesus christ, or with a life that is like his life, and instantly there will awaken in them a want they were not conscious of before. That is why jesus said, if i had not come . . . , they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. You can never argue anyone into the kingdom of heaven, you can- not argue anyone any where. The only result of arguing is to prove to your own mind that you are right and the other fellow wrong. You cannot argue for truth; but immediately incarnate truth is presented, a want awakens in the soul which only god can meet. Conscience is that faculty of the spirit which fits itself on to the highest a man knows; and when the light of jesus christ is thrown on what is regarded as the highest, conscience records exactly and the reason is startled and amazed (cf. Acts 26:9).
(b) the want in heart
The presence of jesus awakened a want in this mans heart. Heart is the centre of all the vital activities of body, soul and spirit. Never think of the heart in the way the old psychology thought of the will, viz. , as a compartment, a kind of hat-box into which you put all your convictions and dole them out occasionally when you lift the lid. The heart is the centre of a mans personality. For out of the heart proceed . . . , said our lord. You can never tell from a mans life to date what he is going to want next, because the real element of want is not logical. A mans reasoning is based on something more than reason, there is always an incalculable element.
(c) the want in desire
The want in conscience and in heart urges a man to immediate action: lord, i will follow thee. It was the finest, profoundest element in the man that made him say it. In his conscience, in the deep depths of his personality, there was awakened the desire to follow jesus and to be like him. The measure of a mans want is seen in the nature of the power that awakened it. No man can stand in front of jesus christ and say, i want to make money. He can stand before a successful commercial man and find the desire awakened in him to be like him and make money. This man was in contact with the prince of persons, the lord jesus christ, consequently the deep desire of his heart was for the very highest, lord, i want to follow thee; and i not only want to, but i will.
The wish to a wish is often of an abstract character, directed towards some single element into a concrete event, without reference to accompanying circumstances. Mackenzie4 when i see jesus christ i simply want to be what he wants me to be. A wish is more definite than a want, which is inarticulate, something i am conscious of and that is all. Contact with a personality will always harden our wishing into a clear initiative along certain lines. For example, when a boy sees a soldier he wishes to be a soldier; when he sees an engineer he wishes to be an engineer, and so on. We have to select the domain of our wishes. At a time of religious awakening when jesus christ is in the ascendant and i come into close contact with him, i wish to be a christian. I have never known conviction of sin, never seen the need for the removal of the wrong disposition and identification with jesus, but i wish to be like him. The wish to simply sees the end of the desire and takes no account of the means to that end.
(a) re-sensitised sympathy
Our wishes move in various domains. We cannot hold ourselves in a handful for we are never sure what is going to happen in the domain of our wishes. We may have all our wishes in a certain domain and be perfectly master of them, with everything clear and simple; then a bereavement comes, and instantly the domain of our wishing is completely altered, we are suddenly put into sensitive sympathy with things we never thought about before. When jesus christ is in the ascendant the wish moves in the domain in which he lives, the sensitiveness of our wishing answers to him in a general softening of our whole nature. We are not conscious of wishing to possess any particular virtue, of wishing to be this or that; we simply wish to be in perfect sympathy with him and his purposes. The only point of rest is for a man to have his sympathies sensitised by jesus christ, because the basis of our nature is always open to let us into some unsuspected hell until we have been dominated by our lord. When our lord speaks of discipleship he catalogues the other loves (see luke 14:26), and says that our love to him must be the dominant love of all, because any of those other loves may be a trap-door to something entirely removed from gods purposes.
(b) reflection of sublimity
Abstract principles have no more power to lift a man than a man has to lift himself; but any man, no matter how sunk in sin, will answer to jesus christ when he is presented. To tell a man who is down and out to get up and do the right thing can never help him; but when once jesus christ is presented to him there is a reflected wish to be what jesus wants him to be. It is appalling how many books and sermons there are to-day that simply present abstract truths. Jesus christ appeals to the highest and the lowest, to the rich young ruler type of man, and to the man whom no ethics or moral principles can touch. Always keep jesus christ in the front; he says himself he is to be there. I, if i be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
(c) recession of second thought
Lord, i will follow thee; but . . .
The wish ought to be followed by immediate obedience. I must take the wish and translate it into resolution and then into action; if i dont, the wish will translate itself into a corrupting power in my life instead of a redeeming power. This principle holds good in the matter of emotions. A sentimentalist is one who delights to have high and devout emotions stirred whilst reading in an arm-chair, or in a prayer meet- ing, but he never translates his emotions into action. Consequently a sentimentalist is usually callous, self- centred and selfish, because the emotions he likes to have stirred do not cost him anything, and when he comes across the same things in the domain where things are real and not sentimental, the revenge comes along the line of selfishness and meanness, which is always the aftermath of an unfulfilled emotion. The higher the emotion, the purer the desire, the viler is the revenge in the moral character unless the emotion is worked out on its right level. It is better never to have seen the light, better never to wish to be what you are not than to have the desire awakened and never to have resolved it into action. Always do something along the line of the emotion that has been stirred; if you do not, it will corrupt that which was good before. The curbing of the outward action revenges itself in a meaner5 disposition on the inside, and the higher the religious emotion, the more appalling is the reaction unless it is worked out on its own level. There are those whose language and habits are coarse, yet they are not vile in their inner disposition, and suddenly they manifest graces and beauties of character that amaze you. They answer to the call given by jesus christ, while others of the pharisee type do not answer (cf. Matthew 21:2832). Jesus Christ said it was impossible for the man who is self-centred in his particular impression of himself to believe in him ( john 5:44).
The will to . . . And jesus said unto him, no man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of god. The will to, means i must act; it is not sufficient to want to, to wish to, i must act on the wish instantly, no matter what it costs. Whenever the conviction of gods spirit comes there is the softening of the whole nature to obey; but if the obedience is not instant there will come a metallic hardening and a corrupting of the guidance of god. (a) the inspired instinct whenever you stand in the presence of jesus christ, as he is portrayed in the scriptures and made real to you by the holy spirit, the instincts of your heart will always be inspired: let them lead. We read that when jesus preached his first public sermon, all the people wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth ; their hearts were inspired as they listened to him, their instincts turned in the right direction; then their prejudices came in the way and they closed down the witness of their hearts, broke up the service and tried to fling him over the brow of the hill (luke 4:1630). Always let the instinct that rules you in the presence of jesus lead. That is why it is so necessary in an evangelistic meeting to push people to an issue of will. It is a terrible thing to awaken people up to a certain point and never give them the chance to act in the same atmosphere. If i preach a particularly searching discourse and never give the people a chance to act according to their inspired instincts at the time, their blood is on my head before god. If i make the issue clear and give them the opportunity to act, i clear my soul from their blood, whether they answer or not. The devils counterfeit for this is wanting to see how many people we can get out to the penitent form. As preachers and teachers we have to bring people to the point of doing something. (b) the inverting impulse no man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back . . . Never postpone a moral decision. Second thoughts in moral matters are always deflections. Give as many second thoughts as you like to matters of prudence, but in the presence of god never think twiceact. Our lord puts it very clearly in Matthew 5:2324, when you are at the altar, i. E. , in the presence of god, and your heart answers to the conviction of the spirit of god, you know exactly what you must do: first go. There is no mid way. If you say i dont mind going half-way, but i was not altogether in the wrong, gods touch is gone instantly. The slightest revision of what i know god is telling me to do is the first element in the damnation of my character in that particular (see john 3:19). Immediately i see what god wants me to do when i am in his presence, i must do it and care nothing for the consequences. Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. The reply of jesus sounds harsh, but remember the mans meaning was that he must stay with his father till he died. It was a point of view that put jesus christ right out of court. So with the rich young ruler, the wish to be all that jesus wanted him to be awoke as soon as he came in contact with him, but when it came to the first step of the will in acting it out, to become a mere conscious man, separated from all his wealth, dead fundamentally to the whole thing, then his countenance fell and he went away sorrowful. It is better never to have had the light than to refuse to obey it. (c) the intrinsic incapacity . . . Is fit for the kingdom of god. Not fit does not mean, not good enough, it means out of the machine. We can never earn our place in the kingdom of god by doing anything. Immediately we obey the instinct born in us of gods spirit we are fitted into the kingdom of god. Always act according to the wish that is born in you by the spirit of god. Take the initiative to obey, never wobble spiritually. Wobble means that we bring in other considerations that ought never to bemean6 the presence of god, because those considerations mean that jesus has not thought things out properly; he has forgotten i have a duty to my father and mother; that i have this thing the matter with my body; he has forgotten my circumstances. All these things are unconscious blasphemy against the wisdom of god. We must always get to the point of acting on the want and the wish born in us when we are in the presence of Jesus christ.