Oswald Chambers Sin and Sins

Oswald ChambersTaken from 'Conformed to His Image"Part 1Sin Today the Bible revelation of sin as a positive thing has been revolted against, and sin is dealt with only as something that is ostensibly wrong. The Bible view is that there is something profoundly wrong at the basis of things. Sin is a revelation fact, not a commonsense fact. No natural man is ever bothered about sin; it is the saint, not the sinner, who knows what sin is. If you confuse sin with sins, you belittle the redemption, make it much ado about nothing. It is nonsense to talk about the need of redemption to enable a man to stop committing sins- his own willpower enables him to do that; a decent education will prevent him from breaking out into sinful acts, but to deny that there is a heredity of sin running straight through the human race aims a blasphemous blow at the redemption. The only word that expresses the enormity of sin is Calvary.Guilt remains guilt; you cannot bully God into any such blessing as turns guilt to merit, or penalty to rewards. Ibsen Ibsen saw sin but not Calvary, not the Son of God as Redeemer. If it cost God Calvary to deal with sin, we have no business to make light of it. God created Adam innocent, that is, he was intended to develop not from evil to good, but from the natural to the spiritual by obedience. It was to be a natural progress. Adam switched off from God's design. Instead of maintaining his dependence on God he took his rule over himself and thereby introduced sin into the world. Sin is not wrong doing, it is wrong being, deliberate and emphatic independence of God."Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned" (Romans 5:12). It is not now a question of development. The problem is that an opposing force has come in that always says "I won't" and never can be made to say "I will". I won't is not the imperfect tense I will; it never develops into I will, its very nature is shan't and won't. Sin is mutiny against God's rule - not vileness of conduct, but redhanded anarchy. When you get sin revealed in you, you know that that phrase is not to strong. It is not that men are conscious anarchists - the devil is the only being in whom sin is conscious anarchy - but that a man perceives that that is the nature of sin once the light of God is thrown upon it. It is enmity against God, not at enmity, it is enmity. This opposing principal is abnormal. It was not in human nature as God designed it. The exposition of the nature of sin rarely enters into my human conciousness. When it does I know there is nothing in my spirit to deliver me from it, I am powerless; "sold under sin," wrote Paul. Jesus said, "Whoever commits sin is a slave to sin" (John 8:34).Cont...

Oswald Chambers cont..Part 2 Bear in mind that it requires the Holy Spirit to convict a man of sin. Any man knows that immorality is wrong, his conscience tells him it is; but it takes the Holy Spirit to convince a man that the thing he most highly esteems, that is, his own self-goverment, is an abomination in the sight of God. There is nothing more highly esteemed among men than self-realization, but it is the one thing of which Jesus Christ is the enemy because its central citadel is independence of God. If man can stand on his own feet morally - and many a man can - what does he want with Jesus Christ and His salvation? with forgiveness? Some men are driven to God by appaling conviction of sins, but conviction of sins is not conviction of sin. Conviction of sin never comes as an elementary experience. If you try to convict a man of sin to begin with, you draw him to a plan of salvation but not to Jesus Christ. The essence of sin is my claim to my right to myself. It goes deeper down than all the sins that ever were commited. Sin can't be forgiven because it is not an act; you can only be forgiven for the sins you commit, not for a heredity. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins" (1 John 1:9); sin must be cleansed by the miracle of God's grace. It does not awaken antipathy in a man when you tell him God will forgive him his sins because of what Jesus did on the Cross, but it does awaken antipathy when you tell him he has to give up his right to himself. Nothing is so much resented as the idea that I am not to be my own master. "If anyone desires to come after Me," said Jesus, "let him deny himself" (Matthew 16:24), that is, deny his right to himself, not merely give up external sins - those are exercrations. The point is, am I prepared deliberately to give up my right to myself to Jesus Christ? prepared to say, "Yes, take complete control"? If I am, Jesus Christ has gained a disciple. We don't go in for making disciples today, it takes too long; we are all for passionate evangelism - taken up with adding to the statistics of saved souls, adding to denominational membership - taken up with the things that show splendid quantifiable success. Jesus Christ took the long, long trail - "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself." Take time to make up your mind. People are not to be swept into the kingdom on tidal waves of evangelism, nor to have their wits paralyzed by supernatural means. They are to come deliberately, knowing what they are doing. One life straight through to God on the ground of discipleship is more satisfactory in His sight than multitudes who are saved but go no further. Over and over again men and women who should stand in the forefront for God are knocked clean out. When a crisis comes, the reason is not external wrongdoing, but something that has never been given up; there is something in which Jesus Christ has not had His right of way, and the discipleship is marred. God will give us ample opportunity of proving whether we have ever really given up the right to ourselves to Jesus Christ. The one who has offers no hindrance to the working of the Holy Spirit through him.Oswald Chambers