Victorious Living. E. Stanley Jones
What did he mean by being “born from above” (the alternate translation of the Greek term)?
According to modern psychology, life can be “born from below.” The instincts and drives that reside in the unconscious can control the conscious mind, in which case life is literally “born from below.” And let it be remembered that these instincts may not be merely the raw material of human life; they can be warped and twisted by what we might call a “sin-bias”: the nesting place of fears, inhibitions, a sense of guilt. To be born from below would, at its best, make us animal; at its worst, it would make us beastly, and, mind you, guilty.
Over against this stands what English botanist Sir Arthur Tansley called “the ethical self.” The Christian would say that this “ethical self” is the beginning of the operation of a higher environment, namely, the kingdom of God. The pressure of a higher kingdom is producing an “ethical self”: the place where the higher ideals and motives reside.
Now life depends upon correspondence to environment. To which environment? Shall we make life correspond to the environment that arises from below—in which case we shall have to sacrifice and slay the ethical self at the shrine of the Beast? Or shall we make life correspond to the higher environment, the ultimate order for human living, the kingdom of God—in which case we shall have to slay our sins and offer our instincts as a living sacrifice upon the altar of the new creation?
The choice is in your hands. In the quietness of your heart, you must make that choice between the high and the low. I said that once to a student, and he replied, “I have no quietness of heart.” And neither he nor you will ever have quietness of heart in the deepest, fullest sense until you decide that your life shall be born from above.
O Christ of the gently pressing kingdom, we open our hearts to it and to you. We cannot go back to the beast, we must go forward to the new creation. We do. Amen.
Week 7 Wednesday
Empty
Matthew 12:43-45; Luke 13:6-9
It may be that some of you do not feel the need of a change because of the uprush of clamoring instincts. The lower-born storms do not drive you to the feet of Christ, for you feel no such storms. Life to you is not the Great Struggle, but the Great Emptiness. Your difficulty is not the innate but the inane. Jesus had a word for this type of person. He told of a house that was “swept and garnished” and “empty” (Matt. 12:44 KJV). Modern civilization is “swept.” It has banished superstitions held by its ancestors. It is “swept”—it doesn’t believe in this, that, and the other—it is freed from magic and superstition.
It is also “garnished”—with intellectual facts and mechanical toys. Look at our achievements in science and culture and comfort! Our stores and shops are crammed with the mechanical, and we are urged to buy the latest toy, which will be sure to bring us final happiness.
Yes, modern civilization is both “swept and garnished.” But—and this is the point—it is also “empty,” empty of any constructive philosophy of life. We are all dressed up and don’t know where to go! We look with disdain on the barbarous, superstitious ages “swept” away; we point with pride to our “garnished,” not to say garish, civilization and its achievements; and yet modern civilization is empty—and it knows it!
This pagan magnifies a mindless world
And searches there for rest,
He is like an infant tugging at
A lifeless mother’s breast.*
Why do I say modern civilization is empty? Let’s bring it closer to home; perhaps you are empty. You need to be reborn just to know what life is. Moreover, I know this emptiness will not last long. Modern civilization is drawing to itself the seven devils—unrest, jazzy pleasure, exploitation, materialism, selfishness, war, and crime—to fill the emptiness. So will you. Nature and the soul both abhor a vacuum. To fill the emptiness you must choose between these (or some other seven devils) and Christ.
O Christ, I choose you. My house, my soul is empty. I cannot fill it with other than you. I loathe emptiness and I fear devils, but I can trust you. I do. Amen.
* Source unknown.
Week 7 Thursday
Is Conversion a Manifestation of the Sex Urge?
1 Corinthians 5:9-11; Galatians 5:16-17
Some modern psychologists trace almost everything to the sex-instinct, including the phenomenon called conversion. They point out that most conversions take place in adolescence, and, as this is the period of the awakening of the sex-instinct, conversions are caused by it and are founded on it.
The answer is obvious. Adolescence is not only the period of the awakening of the sex-instinct; it is the period of the awakening of the total personality. The self-instinct, with its restlessness with and revolt against authority, and the herd-instinct, with its tendency to form gangs, are also awakened along with the sex-instinct. It is the period of the awakening of the whole of life.
Now, religion, as we saw, is a cry for life—for complete, fuller, more qualitative life. It is therefore not strange that youth, feeling the awakening of life, should turn to religion to guide and complete and satisfy that life-urge. That turning to religion often means conversion. It does not come out of the sex-urge, but out of the life-urge. Of course, it does come partly out of the sex-urge, which is the creative urge. The sex-urge, sublimated by conversion, creates on higher levels; it turns life to higher creative channels. The sex-urge is a part of it, but it is not the whole of it. Moreover, religion holds the sex-urge in restraint. How, then, could it be identified with it?
If religion were a manifestation of the sex-urge, then when life ripens into old age and the sex-urge dims, we should expect the religious side of life to dim with it. But does it? Just the opposite. Youth and old age are the most religious periods of life. Why? In youth we want fuller life; in old age we want lasting life. In each it is the cry for life.
O Christ, you are creative Life moving upon lesser life and awakening it. Make me into a new person, with a new goal and a new power to move toward that goal. Amen.
Week 7 Friday
Do Conversions Conform to One Pattern?
Matthew 18:3; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11
This has bothered a great many souls, for they have seen a type of conversion that greatly moves them, and they are dissatisfied because they cannot find that pattern in their own lives. This is a mistake. No two conversions are exactly alike, for no two persons are exactly alike, and no two persons come up under exactly the same circumstances. After God made you, God broke the pattern. You are unique. Your conversion will therefore be unique.
Nevertheless, conversions do fall into two great categories—the gradual and the sudden—with shades between. After questioning groups of Christian workers in many lands, I find the usual proportion is about 60 percent gradual and 40 percent sudden.
The gradual types usually come out of the home, where from childhood they are taught to know and love Christ. They cannot tell where they crossed the line, for they have seen no line. It has always been so. They have opened like a flower to the sun. That they do belong to Christ they are sure. When they began to belong to him they are not sure. But their lives are different from the life around them. They belong to the converted.
Then there are others—and I am among them—to whom conversion came all of a sudden. I had come up through a religious childhood with constant attendance at Sunday school and church, but like some vaccinations, it didn’t “take.” Then there came the Great Change. Nothing after that was the same, except perhaps my name. My wandering planet had swung itself into a new orbit, forever caught by a Love that would not let it go.
Which of these is the valid type? Either one may be. It is not the phenomena that surround conversion, but the facts that underlie it and the fruits that come from it make it valid.
O Christ, who calls to the child in its innocence and the older ones in their iniquities, we all come