The Psychology of Redemption

I have rough notes of these lectures as given in their first form at the Perth Convention in 1914. I sat enthralled at the beauty and power of the truth being given to us. The essential message of this book was expressed then in these words: “In the Life of our Lord.... as Son of Man, when He transformed innocence into holiness by a series of moral choices, He gave the pattern forever of how a holy character was to be developed.” It is a basic book. It reminds me of Henry Scougal’s Life of God in the Soul of Man, a volume that greatly influenced Whitfield and the Wesleys. That Aberdeen Professor wrote in 1668, “The power and life of religion may be better expressed in actions than in words .... They are perfectly exemplified in the Holy Life of our Blessed Saviour, a main part of whose business in this world was to teach by His practice what He did require of others; and to make His own conversation an exact resemblance of those rules which He prescribed. So that if ever true goodness was visible to mortal eyes it was then when His Presence did beautify and illustrate this lower world.”

Oswald Chambers here shows us the parallel between our Lord’s wondrous life on earth and our life lived in His Name. The psychology of the sanctified life is perfectly illustrated in our Lord’s life as set forth in the Gospels. The First Adam mishandled and disarranged his human nature. The Last Adam restored Human Nature to a right working relation to God. When through the Atonement and the New Birth we are lifted into the shared life of our Risen Lord, the same laws of development operate for us as with Him. And “Christian psychology is not a knowledge of man, but a knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” To profit by this book demands concentrated thought, with Bible in hand, and with a humble eagerness to “act on the Word, instead of merely listening to it and deluding yourselves,” James i. 22, Moff. This book meets a timely need because it shows how “holiness” works out in human nature as we know it. It shows how sin has taken possession of human nature, but that sin is abnormal. Sin is the outcome of a relationship which God never ordained. Our Lord in His Human Nature cancelled that wrong relationship through His Cross; and established a new relationship. It is in that new relationship we work out that holiness of life and thought and feeling and purpose and service which is the fulfilment of the New Covenant promise. Hebrews viii. 10–12.

I pray that the book may prove as great a blessing to many thoughtful students as it has been to some of us for years, bringing them to the Apostolic climax of confession, “For to me to live is Christ.”