As I have stated before, the work of Oswald Chambers is highly underrated. There is a profundity in his writing that should not be overlooked.
This morning, as I read yet again, through his devotional classics, I encounter these words:
-
If my holiness is not drawing towards Him (Jesus Christ), it is not holiness of the right order, but an influence that will awaken inordinate affection and leads souls away in decided eddies.
-
A beautiful saint may be a hindrance if he does not present Jesus Christ but only what Christ has done for him. ‘What a fine character that man is’. ‘That is not being a true friend of the bridegroom; I am increasing all the time; he is not.’
I find this comment absolutely profound. The whole focus on the honor of Christ, rather than the honor of man, is so rich with spiritual possibility.
Chambers goes on, and he says something else that I find profoundly helpful:
-
…we have to be careful of the moral and vital relationship to him than of any other thing, even of obedience. Sometimes there is nothing to obey. The only thing to do is to maintain a vital connection with Jesus Christ, to see that nothing interferes with that. Only occasionally do we have to obey. When a crisis arises we have to find out what God’s will is, but the greater part of the life is not conscious obedience but the maintenance of this relationship-the friend of the bridegroom. Christian work may be a means of evading the soul’s concentration on Jesus Christ.
One might disagree with those last statements of Chambers. Clearly there is a posture of obedience which the Christian must maintain 24-7. But as a matter of emphasis, Chambers reminds us that life is not about obedience; it is about Jesus. If we keep the focus on Jesus, then the obedience will come.
