From Oswald Chambers: The Philosophy of Sin p 17-20
”How much more shall the Blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Heb 9:14)
As
we go on with God, the Holy Spirit brings us back more and more to
the one absorbing theme of the New Testament, viz, the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ and its meaning from his standpoint. Our right to
ourselves in every shape and form was destroyed once and for ever by
the death of Jesus, and we have to be eductaed into the realization
of what it means in all its fulness. We have to come to a
relationship to the cross in thought as well as in life.
”How much more..” How much more is there to know, for instance, after sanctification? Everything! Before sanctification we know nothing, we are simply placed in the place of knowing; that is, we are led up to the cross, in sanctification we are led through the cross- for what purpose? For a life of outpouring service for God. Thde characteristic of a saint after the identification with the death of Jesus is that he is brought down from the ineffable glory of the heavenly places into the valley to be crushed and broken in service for God. We are here we no right to ourselves, for no spiritual blessing for ourselves, we arre here for one purpose only- to be made sewrvants of God as Jesus was. Have we as saints allowed our minds to be brought face to face with this great truth? The death of Jesus not only gives us remission from our sins, it enables us to assimilate the very nature of Jesus until in every detail of our lives we are like him. ”How much more” does the death of Jesus mean to us today than it ever has before? Are we beginning to be lost in wonder, love and praise at the marvelous loosening from sin, and are we so assimilating the nature of Jesus that we bear a strong family likeness to him?
”How much more..” How much more is there to know, for instance, after sanctification? Everything! Before sanctification we know nothing, we are simply placed in the place of knowing; that is, we are led up to the cross, in sanctification we are led through the cross- for what purpose? For a life of outpouring service for God. Thde characteristic of a saint after the identification with the death of Jesus is that he is brought down from the ineffable glory of the heavenly places into the valley to be crushed and broken in service for God. We are here we no right to ourselves, for no spiritual blessing for ourselves, we arre here for one purpose only- to be made sewrvants of God as Jesus was. Have we as saints allowed our minds to be brought face to face with this great truth? The death of Jesus not only gives us remission from our sins, it enables us to assimilate the very nature of Jesus until in every detail of our lives we are like him. ”How much more” does the death of Jesus mean to us today than it ever has before? Are we beginning to be lost in wonder, love and praise at the marvelous loosening from sin, and are we so assimilating the nature of Jesus that we bear a strong family likeness to him?
”...Shall
the Blood of Christ..”. It was not the blood of a martyr, not
the blood of goats and calves, that was shed, but ”the blood of
Christ”. The very life of God was shed for the world - ”the
church which he purchased with His own blood.” (Acts 20:28) All
the perfections of the essential nature of God were in that blood;
all the holiest attainments of man were in that blood. The death of
Jesus reaches away down underneath the deepest sin human nature ever
comitted. This aspect of His death takes us into a spsiritual domain
beyond the threshold of the thinking of the majority of us. The cry
on the cross; ”My God, my God , why hast thou forsaken me?” is
unfathomable to us. The only ones - I want to say this very
deliberately – the only ones who come close to the threshold of
understanding the cry of Jesus are not the martyrs, they knew that
God had not forsaken them, His presence was so wonderful; not the
lonely missionaries who are killed or forsaken, they experience
exultant joy, for God is with them when men forsake them: the only
ones who come near them are men like Cain - ”My sin is greater than
I can bear”, men like Esau, ”..an exceeding bitter cry.”, Men
like Judas.
Jesus Christ knew and tasted to a fuller depth than any man could ever taste what it is to be separated from God by sin. If Jesus was a martyr, our salvation is a myth. We have then followe3d cunningly devised fables if Jesus Christ is not all that this cry represents him to be – the incarnate God becoming identified with sin in order to save men from hell and damnation. The depth of this cry of Jesus is deeper than any man can go because this is the cry from the heart of God. The height end depth of our salvation are only measured by God Almighty on His throne and Jesus Christ in the heart of Hell. The most devout among us are flippant about this great subjecy of the death of Jesus Christ.
When we stand before the cross, is our every commonplace pious mood stripped off, or do we get caught up by the modern spirit and think of the cross only as delivering us from sin or as i type of sanctification? Thank God for salvation thorugh the cross, for sanctification through the cross, but thank God also for insight into what it cost God to make that salvation and sanctification possible. God grant that the pulsing power of identification with the death of Jesus may come again into our testimony and make it glow with devotion for Him for His unspeakable salvation.
”Who through the eternal Spirit..” The life of Jesus portrays the handiwork of the Holy Spirit; we know what the Holy Spirit will be in us if we let him have His way. The underlying consciousness of Jesus was the Eternal God Himself; the eternal Spirit was behind all he did. It is not so with us. There is a fundamental difference as well as a similarity between the Spirit in Jesus and the Holy Spirit in us. The Eternal Spirit was incarnated in Jesus; he never is in us. By gegeneration and sanctification He energizes our spirits and brings us into Oneness with Jesus, so that our underlying consciousness is ”hid with Christ in God”. We are only acceptable to God by relying on the Eternal Spirit who was incarnated absolutely in Jesus Christ. The Spirit in us will never allow us to forget that the death of Jesus was the death of God incarnate. ” God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” 2 Cor 5:19
”..Offered Himself without blemish to God..” Who offered Himself? The Son of God. He was immaculate, without blemish, yet He was crucified. This rules out once and for ever the conception that Jesus died the death of a martyr; He died a death no martyr could touch. He died the death, not of a good man. But the death of a bad man, with the vicarious pain of God Almighty in his heart. Our hearts are wrung with pathos when we read of the offering of Issac and the sacrifice of Jephtah’s daughter, for they are both unbearably pathetic. The offering of Jesus we cannot begin to touch, is not pathetic in the tiniest degree; it is beyond all pathos.
There is something infinitely profounder than pathos in the death of Jesus; there is a mystery we cannot begin to touch. The death of Jesus is the death of God, at the hands of man, inspired by the devil. He gathered around him the rageing hate of humanity, and was crucified. He offered Himself through the eternal Spirit – he died in the Spirit in which he lived.
Are we being true to the cross in our preaching, putting first the Holiness of God that makes men know that they are sinners? When we preach the love of God there is a danger of forgetting that the Bible reveals, not first His love, but his intense, blazing Holiness of God, with his Love at the centre of that Holiness. The awful nature of the conviction of sin that the Holy Spirit brings makes us realize that God cannot, dare not, must not forgive sin; if God forgave sin without atoning for it our sense of justice would be greater than His.
Jesus Christ knew and tasted to a fuller depth than any man could ever taste what it is to be separated from God by sin. If Jesus was a martyr, our salvation is a myth. We have then followe3d cunningly devised fables if Jesus Christ is not all that this cry represents him to be – the incarnate God becoming identified with sin in order to save men from hell and damnation. The depth of this cry of Jesus is deeper than any man can go because this is the cry from the heart of God. The height end depth of our salvation are only measured by God Almighty on His throne and Jesus Christ in the heart of Hell. The most devout among us are flippant about this great subjecy of the death of Jesus Christ.
When we stand before the cross, is our every commonplace pious mood stripped off, or do we get caught up by the modern spirit and think of the cross only as delivering us from sin or as i type of sanctification? Thank God for salvation thorugh the cross, for sanctification through the cross, but thank God also for insight into what it cost God to make that salvation and sanctification possible. God grant that the pulsing power of identification with the death of Jesus may come again into our testimony and make it glow with devotion for Him for His unspeakable salvation.
”Who through the eternal Spirit..” The life of Jesus portrays the handiwork of the Holy Spirit; we know what the Holy Spirit will be in us if we let him have His way. The underlying consciousness of Jesus was the Eternal God Himself; the eternal Spirit was behind all he did. It is not so with us. There is a fundamental difference as well as a similarity between the Spirit in Jesus and the Holy Spirit in us. The Eternal Spirit was incarnated in Jesus; he never is in us. By gegeneration and sanctification He energizes our spirits and brings us into Oneness with Jesus, so that our underlying consciousness is ”hid with Christ in God”. We are only acceptable to God by relying on the Eternal Spirit who was incarnated absolutely in Jesus Christ. The Spirit in us will never allow us to forget that the death of Jesus was the death of God incarnate. ” God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” 2 Cor 5:19
”..Offered Himself without blemish to God..” Who offered Himself? The Son of God. He was immaculate, without blemish, yet He was crucified. This rules out once and for ever the conception that Jesus died the death of a martyr; He died a death no martyr could touch. He died the death, not of a good man. But the death of a bad man, with the vicarious pain of God Almighty in his heart. Our hearts are wrung with pathos when we read of the offering of Issac and the sacrifice of Jephtah’s daughter, for they are both unbearably pathetic. The offering of Jesus we cannot begin to touch, is not pathetic in the tiniest degree; it is beyond all pathos.
There is something infinitely profounder than pathos in the death of Jesus; there is a mystery we cannot begin to touch. The death of Jesus is the death of God, at the hands of man, inspired by the devil. He gathered around him the rageing hate of humanity, and was crucified. He offered Himself through the eternal Spirit – he died in the Spirit in which he lived.
Are we being true to the cross in our preaching, putting first the Holiness of God that makes men know that they are sinners? When we preach the love of God there is a danger of forgetting that the Bible reveals, not first His love, but his intense, blazing Holiness of God, with his Love at the centre of that Holiness. The awful nature of the conviction of sin that the Holy Spirit brings makes us realize that God cannot, dare not, must not forgive sin; if God forgave sin without atoning for it our sense of justice would be greater than His.
....p
23
I am convinced that what is needed in spiritual matters is reckless abandonment to the Lord Jesus Christ, reckless and uncalculating abandonment, with no reserve anywhere about it; not sad, you canno be sad if you are absolutely abandoned. Are you thankful to God for your salvation and sanctification, thankful that he has purged your conscience from dead works? Then go a step further; let Jesus Christ take you straight into identification with his death until there is nothing left but the light at the foot of the cross, until the whole sphere of life is hid with Christ in God.
Oswald
Chambers, (Best known for the book of daily meditations: ”My Utmost
for His Highest”
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