October 1928
585
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
The Life That Blossoms Red B y the E ditor - in -C h ief
HE life that blossoms red is the life o f the cross issuing in resurrection, power and victory. It is the more abundant and uncommon life that Jesus Christ came to make a reality in the life o f every one who is willing to accept it in the only way in which it can be experienced. It is the supreme need o f the average Christian o f our day. Men everywhere are recognizing a fatal lack in their own experience and in the experience of the church as a whole. The words o f the Apostle Paul, “ Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me out o f the body o f this death?” were the language of a defeated and fruitless lifte and they often spring to our lips in the consciousness of our own failure and restlessness. Men and women know they are not experiencing that abundant and uncommon life spoken of by Jesus. When Paul cried he,cried for a pur pose. The point and end o f the great story of his letter to the Romans is not in chapter seven, but in what fol lows. It is not the story o f drought, sterility and failure, but of life, fruitage and victory—a story o f confidence and power. It is the story of the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, making him free from this law of sin and death and meeting his .needs in a way in which they were not met in the old life. In the old life the emphasis was put on the law and formalism, as expressed in the exter nals of life. The new life finds its source'and secret of power, as well as of victory, in the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which always emphasizes, not the things without, but the things of the spirit and the inner life. It is the way of the cross through which alone life blossoms red in fruitage and victory. “ O cross that liftest up my head, I dare not ask to fly from Thee; I lay in dust life’s glory dead, And from the ground there blossoms red Life that shall endless be.” The reason that we are failing today is that we do want to escape the cross, and, like the men o f Christ’s day, we are trying to meet the needs of life, that can only be met by the cross, through mere forms and shibboleths. The men of His day were willing enough to say, “ Lord, Lord,” but He told them that this is not enough, for it is not the way o f life. If men would know the uncommon life that blossoms red they must do the will of the Father who is in heaven. This is not salvation by works, but it is the works o f a salvation through faith in Christ. The men of that day were correct in their forms, rituals and creeds. They prayed,- gave alms and brought gifts to the altars of the temple, according to the accepted rules. But Christ said: “ Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness o f the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no wise enter the Kingdom o f Heaven.” s These things in the life that blossoms red are not done to be seen of men but are the expression of an impelling
life that is rooted in an inner relation with God. The men o f that day also thought that righteousness was to be secured and established through material power, but Jesus said that those who take the sword, the weapon of mate rialism, and follow its methods, Shall perish by the sword. He reminded them that, on the contrary, the weapons of His warfare.are spiritual. Paul understood what Christ meant, for, when he comes to describe the Christian weapons, he clearly shows they are, all weapons that are related to the experience o f the inner life, the life of the Spirit in Christ Jesus. All of this life of mere talk and form and force is clearly an expression o f the self life. It gives the self a chance to boast and put on airs, but it does not bring the deep satisfaction of the soul and it lacks spiritual power. C orrect C reed W ithout L ife Recently an honored servant o f God preached a won derful sermon manifesting a good deal of knowledge about certain theories of the Bible prophecies. A fter the service was over an earnest Christian was heard to say, “ It may be all very true, but there is nothing in it to help me to live a better life this week;” , The tragedy of the men o f Christ’s day was that they had correct forms and creeds but they rejected Jesus Christ and His offer of the life more abundant. They did not understand Him and they did not want Him. That does not mean that they lost their interest in reli gion ; on the contrary they were so tremendously interested •that they would encompass land and sea to make a convert and were willing to destroy all who differed from them in their interpretation of God and His Book.. How unlike the life that blossoms red in love, patience and sacrificial service, seeking not its own but always the things of other's. It is not altogether pleasant to bring our lives and activities to the test of these standards, but it is of tre mendous importance that we should do so. We are thor oughly convinced that our failures, restlessness and lack of power are due to the fact that we are still in the exter nals of religion and not carried on by the boundless tides of the life that blossoms red. While we are talking much about Jesus Christ and loyalty to Him, we are simply deliberately refusing to obey Him in the most real and tremendous things that He revealed and commanded. Where we are going wrong Paul went right, and there fore he could speak the gripping words o f a living expe rience through the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which actually made him free, not in theory but in reality, from the law of sin and death. No man can frankly accept Christ as Paul accepted Him and not know something o f the satisfaction, confi dence, conscious power and fruitage o f that wondrous life that blossoms red.
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