Building on the Atonement

[Jim Watt]

"*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE" MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*Tel: 253.874.4265 -- Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*Web: www.2rbetter.org*

*2008-10-09
<http://www.2rbetter.org/>*


   *2008-10-09 Oswald Chambers - Building on the Atonement*

*(From "My Utmost for His Highest")*


 "*... present ... your members as instruments of righteousness to God."
(Romans 6:13)*


 I cannot save and sanctify myself; I cannot make atonement for sin; I
cannot redeem the world; I cannot right what is wrong, purify what is
impure, or make holy what is unholy. This is all the sovereign work of God.
Do I have faith in what Jesus Christ has done? He has made the perfect
atonement for sin. Am I in the habit of constantly realizing it? The
greatest need we have is not to *do* things, but to *believe* things. The
redemption of Christ is not an experience, it is the great act of God which
He has performed through Christ, and I have to build my faith on it. If I
construct my faith on my own experience, I produce the most unscriptural
kind of life - an isolated life, with my eyes focused solely on my own
holiness. Beware of that human holiness that is not based on the atonement
of the Lord. It has no value for anything except a life of isolation - it is
useless to God and a nuisance to man. Measure every kind of experience you
have by our Lord Himself. We cannot do anything pleasing to God unless we
deliberately build on the foundation of the the atonement by the Cross of
Christ.


 The atonement of Jesus must be exhibited in practical, unassuming ways in
my life. Every time I obey, the absolute deity of God is on my side, so that
the grace of God and my natural obedience are in perfect agreement.
Obedience means that I have completely placed my trust in the atonement, and
my obedience is immediately met by the delight of the supernatural grace of
God.


 Beware of the human holiness that denies the reality of the natural life -
it is a fraud. Continually bring yourself to the trial or test of the
atonement and ask, "Where is the discernment of the atonement in this, and
in that?"



 *NOTE*: Through the years (since 1962) I have noted the unusual
understanding Oswald Chambers had of God and man, and the things pertaining
to them both. He died at 43, with some 50 books under his belt, over 47 of
them published posthumously by his wife Biddy.


 *Redemption* based on Atonement is the great theme around which he built
his understanding. Obedience - complete obedience to God - on his part -
established a conduit through which God could reveal simple but deep
insights.


 Through the years I have marveled at the extraordinary insight God was able
to reveal to this man. He died in 1917 serving as a YMCA chaplain to British
troops in Zeitoun, Egypt. By all means read his biography by David
McCasland, "Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God."


 Soldiers, students and believers who set themselves to understand and walk
in a parallel path with God as this man, likewise entered into a dimension
far about the average. Our age in America desperately needs to let God lift
it up by its bootstraps into that same level of understanding, that Chambers
reached. He reached it through travail of soul almost unto death. But -
isn't this what Jesus said was necessary for a true disciple? *"If any would
* *come after me, **let him deny himself**, and take up his cross, and
follow me" (Mark 8:34b, NNT). - *Jim Watt




 *TO SUBSCRIBE -- Please Email:
mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org<mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org?subject=Just%20hit%20send%20be%20automatically%20subscribed>
*


 *TO UNSUBSCRIBE -- Please Email:
mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org<mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org?subject=Just%20hit%20send%20be%20automatically%20unsubscribed>
*


 *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES -- Web: http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/attachments/20081009/3558ed2c/attachment.htm>