Victorious Living. E. Stanley Jones
confess I shrink from the idea of the grace of God being almost mechanically dispensed. Nevertheless, even this may be a phase of that collective witness where men and women and children have arisen from every tribe and tongue, and people, in every walk of life, from the peasant to the professor, from every stage of human development from the ripened sage to the ransomed sinner, and have whispered into the ear of the seeker, “Go on, brother or sister, we give you our collective assurance. We have tried it, and it works.”
O Christ of the emerging new humanity, we thank you that there are millions whose hearts you have touched and lighted and who lay their grateful tribute at your feet and at ours. We joyfully join their ranks. Amen.
Week 8 Wednesday
The Assurance That Comes through New Moral Power
Psalm 32:1-2; Romans 8:1, 9-10; 1 John 3:9-10, 14; 5:4-5
We have heard the assurance of two: the Word and the collective witness. There is another—the fact of new moral power over sin. God shows within you in your heightened moral power.
A man came to me one day and said: “I went out of the meeting last night determined to do just what you asked us to do, namely, to take Christ into our lives. I took him as you asked us to take him—by faith. I felt no change at the time. But the next day when I went out into the old surroundings, amid the old temptations, I found to my astonishment that the old temptations had lost their hold on me. I simply didn’t want them. Then I woke up to the fact that there was a new power in my life. Christ was there.” He was, and that new moral power was a sign of his presence.
Another man did much the same thing—took what I said on faith without any consciousness of change. But he said afterward, “I was a bad-tempered man. If anyone crossed me, I easily flew into a temper. But the next day when someone did me a wrong, instead of anger I felt only pity. I was astonished beyond words at myself. Then I knew I was a new man. Christ must be within me.” He was.
When we begin to show forth the fruit—“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23)—then we know that we are connected with the root, Christ. The new life is at work within us. I do not mean that these things will be there in maturity, or perhaps even in purity; but I do say that they will be there in the beginnings. Let that fact assure you. The bud is the prophecy of the flower.
O Christ, I thank you that already I feel within me the stirrings of a new life. I make the first unsure steps, but I make them. I begin this walk with you, a walk that will take me down through the years and the centuries, and the ages. I begin it feebly, but I begin it. And as I walk, my legs will grow stronger and the moral power now begun within me shall ripen into perfect strength. I thank you. Amen.
Week 8 Thursday
The Assurance of the Creative Impulse
Psalm 51:1-3; Acts 5:20; 8:4; 13:1-3
There is another source of assurance that the new Life is within us. We will be conscious of the impulse to share something, yes, to share Christ.
Life manifests not merely in a desire for more life for itself but also for more life for others. The two sides of religion are love to God and love to humanity, and the moment we touch God, we will have an impulse to touch people. If, therefore, we are not sure of our love to God, we may be assured of it, if we find our love to people increase.
If nothing else had assured me that the new life was working within the converted Chinese engineer, this fact would have assured me, “And, moreover, I have been talking to my wife, and she is wanting it too.” Now, the wife had been a nominal Christian and he a Confucianist, but the moment the new life came, he wanted to share it apart from the question of labels.
The moment I arose from my knees after surrendering myself to Christ, I wanted to put my arms around the world and share this with everybody. There was an almost irresistible impulse to give this precious fact. I felt that everyone should know it and experience it. I feel that way still.
It may be that you have no such overwhelming impulse; it may be very feeble, it may be just the timid peeping of the buds through the yet partly frozen ground of your reserves, and yet it is there. Act on it today.
You may be rebuffed as I was rebuffed, when the next day I spoke to my companion in the law library of what had happened: “What? I’ll knock that out of you in two weeks.” He didn’t; he only knocked it deeper. It is the very life of God within you when you have an impulse to share. Take its assurance.
O Christ, your love is conquering me, for I would conquer others for you. O let this feeble love flame, until I shall rest not, until I have found my brothers and sisters. Amen.
Week 8 Friday
The Most Intimate of All Assurances: The Assurance of the Spirit
Romans 8:16; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22; 1 John 3:24; 5:11-12
You say, these assurances are good, precious beyond words, but shall I not see him face to face? You shall.
I cannot feel that God would give the intimations of presence by giving gifts, but would withhold the divine self. Would you as a father, a mother, do that to your child? Then, “If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” (Luke 11:13 CEB). Being love, it would hurt God as much as us to withhold his divine self.
Listen to these words: “It is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” The Spirit; our spirit. They come together. Now there is nothing between.
Hush! God speaks, so gently, so intimately: “Child of mine, you shall never know how far I have come to find you. I came seeking you through a cross. But that is gone now. I have found you. You have thrown down the barriers. That is what I’ve waited for. Now throw away that lingering doubt and fear. It is I. Be not afraid. When that last fear is gone, then we shall talk together. All you have is mine; you have said it. And now all I have is yours; I say it. Draw on me for what you need. My resources are adequate, inexhaustible. Tell me all your troubles, even the little ones, and I will tell you some of mine. It costs to be God. We shall share together. And as we share together you shall grow, and some day, my child, I want you to be like my other Child. I can think of nothing better for you, and so I can wish for nothing less. You know by my coming that all your sins are forgiven. I blot them out of the book of my remembrance forever. I will not remember them, and you must not.”
O God, my Lord, I bow in speechless adoration. I, the once vile, am now fully accepted. Amazing grace! I bow and kiss your feet, but as I do, I feel your love enfolding me to your heart. I thank you. Amen.
Week 8 Saturday
Is This Assurance Based on Feeling?
2 Corinthians 5:4-5; Philippians 1:9-11; Colossians 2:6-7
We now have the fivefold strands of assurance binding themselves about our hearts: the assurance of the Word, the collective witness, the assurance through new moral power, through the creative impulse, and the direct witness of the Holy Spirit to our spirits. Surely, this should give the strongest assurance that can be given to any mortal on any matter whatever. These lines of assurance all converging give not only a spiritual, but an intellectual certainty as well. For the mind, gathering up the facts in experience and the universe around one—facts which seem to approve and work in behalf of the new life—comes to a mental satisfaction from the resultant sense of wholeness.
But is all this dependent on how I feel about the matter? If my feelings change, what then?
It does depend partly on feeling, but only partly. We should not be afraid of emotions, for they are a part of us, an integral part. They give driving force to the soul. But they are liable to fluctuation, according to the state of physical health and many other things. The spiritual life must use them, but it must not be founded on them. It must be centered in the will. You have made what is called in psychology “a permanent choice.” It is one of those choices that does not have to be made over again every day. The lesser choices