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THE LIFE OF THE CHRISTIAN

E. C. Burr

I have been impressed, beloved brethren, to say a word about the life of the christian. It is not a matter on which I could or would seek to lecture anybody, it is a subject in the knowledge of which I myself would be glad to grow; but even as thinking of oneself and observing others I believe that the Lord would ask us what is the quality of our life as christians. There are many believers who cling to a long-established belief in Christ; they accepted Him as their Saviour a very long time ago. I remember once preaching on the subject of repentance and being spoken to by a sister afterwards who said to me, ‘They must be terrible people where you came from—I repented years ago’. You can see where her present life was not.

Many cling to a place and part in some particular circle or company and go on as if the mere presence at, and to some extent belonging to, such a company was sufficient for the life of a christian. Many there have been, and I trust are not now, who even seemed to think that the life of the christian lay in inheritance and in that their fathers and grandfathers were believers and devout and godly men, and that their life was in some sense an overspill from the life of the previous generation; but this is not so.

The life of the christian lies in what is current to the christian in his own day and a christian is not one in whom things are dead or moribund or quiescent. A christian is one in whom there is a well of water springing up into eternal life. The absence of vitality and vigour in some believers is, I think, very much due to the shallowness of their appreciation of Christ as Saviour and that in itself springs from shallowness in their apprehension of their need of Him as a Saviour. It is not for nothing that it is often observable that those who in some sense, as most people would acknowledge, have a great deal to repent of, are found afterwards as the most vigorous and energetic and lively of christians. I think the woman of whom it was said “Her many sins are forgiven” (Luke 7: 47) went away from that occasion living Christ, whereas ones who thought that they had not much to be forgiven would go away with a sense that they had not particularly been set forward.

It is not that in any sense we charge one another with sin, or with a history of sin—I trust that that kind of thing is over—but each knows his own heart and, as the Scripture says, each knows “the plague of his own heart” (1 Kings 8: 38). Each knows the quality and character of the order of life and activity and conduct from which the death of Christ has saved him, which death has been necessary if he was to be saved at all. Each knows that, each has had to come to Christ himself to find salvation and the power of salvation working as available for him and therefore effective in him. It is the apprehension in, the soul of the majesty of God which produces that conviction of the need of Christ as Saviour which establishes something in the soul that is firm and, if I may use the word, powerful.

Therefore the first essential—if there is to be life of the quality that Paul is speaking about in these two scriptures—is some apprehension of the greatness of who God is and of what His demands in relation to men righteously are. The apprehension of what God is in perfection of righteousness and holiness, being “of purer eyes than to behold evil”

(Habakkuk l: 13), brings upon man the challenge of what his own life before God is, if he is brought before God as One who has a right to assert things in relation to the qualities of His own character and nature. If man as a sinner is brought before God whose standard is only perfect holiness and righteousness, the more, the deeper, the apprehension the soul has of who God is in those distinguishing qualities, the deeper will be his apprehension of his need of that which will satisfy God. In a certain sense the more the terror of the Lord, by which Paul would persuade men, is known in the soul as bearing on it as brought before God as the One who in the end has the right to judge, the deeper will be the sense of apprehension in love of the One who has borne everything in order that that judgment might not fall upon oneself.

Therefore I say that the initial steps in the quality of the life of the christian depend on his apprehension, even as a sinner, of the greatness of God and God’s abhorrence of sin, and therefore of His abhorrence of sin as known in men and women; and the more that abhorrence on God’s part is apprehended the more there will be the sense of thankfulness and appreciation of the One who has borne the judgment that otherwise would fall on me as a sinner, to make me fit for the presence of such a God as that. In the cry of a man who says,

“O God, have compassion on me, the sinner” (Luke 18: 13), there is the foundation of the life of a convicted christian who will be here in testimony, a man who can go down to his house justified and by his life will justify the salvation that is his.

The sense of “Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched out his hand” (Matthew 14: 31, 32), is the foundation of a life which is powerful for God—as Paul says, “powerful according to God” (2 Corinthians 10: 4)—the foundation of a life such as that is found in one who has an apprehension of what God is and therefore of what He may require from man and what He may demand, even of the sinner. If God demands what is required of the sinner, the sinner will find that the wages of sin is death, and God has a right to require that penalty from the sinner. But, on the other hand, He has provided that which will relieve the sinner from judgment and give him the liberty to be before God according to what man ought to be for God.

The sense of relief in the soul, and affection for the One who has provided the means by which iniquity may be taken away and sins may be atoned for—the sense in which such a one is apprehended lays the basis for a quality of christian life which is not intended to be given up. The sorrowful thing with many of us is that we have had experiences in conversion, perhaps many years ago, and we have allowed the accumulation of time and of experience to overlay the freshness and the vitality which belonged to us in that day. The Lord would, I am sure, speak to us to revive us so that there may be a quality in our christian life now which corresponds to that of which Paul is speaking here.

Paul is not boasting in these scriptures; he is not saying, I will tell you what a good christian I am, but, This is what is normal to me; this is not something I have put on for the occasion, this is something that is normal to me, that “I live by faith … of the Son of God” and “for me to live is Christ”.

One reflects on these things, beloved, not in any sense critically of other people, but critically of oneself, because I feel that there is a need in the present day of our being here in the vitality of life, that is not only a testimony to others but is the only real source of satisfaction to ourselves. The sense of being here as a person who ought to be living as a christian and is not, is one of the most self-defeating experiences that men and women can have. The sense of being a kind of failed christian is one of the most disheartening experiences that a soul can have. The sense of being here in the vitality of “for me to live is Christ” is one of the most uplifting and edifying experiences that any man or woman can have or be sustained in.

Therefore, beloved, the Lord would appeal to us, just a few of us here this afternoon, young and old. Perhaps we here embrace as wide a range of age as you would find in any gathering of people on a Lord’s day, but “for me to live is Christ” is open to any of us, and I think the Lord would appeal to us as to whether we are prepared to be here on this basis. In Philippians Paul gives no reason for what he says, in Galatians he does, “I live by faith, the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”. This goes back to what I was saying, that it is the apprehension in the soul of the fact that the Son of God has given Himself for us where otherwise God would have had to demand from us, ourselves, the penalty that our sins and the state of our lives demands as before Him. The Son of God loves him, not only loved him, but loves him and gave himself for him.

We would find, even in human things, that if, for instance, a man is in danger of drowning and someone plunges in and rescues him, for ever afterwards his life is characterised by gratitude to the man who rescued him from such a fate. If the man who had rescued him was spoken ill of he would rise up in his defence. If the man who had rescued him was forgotten he would see that people were reminded of him. How much more then with Jesus!

It is not that He rescued you from drowning, but He saved you from the judgment of God. If He is ill spoken of, do you rise up in His defence? If you do not, you cannot say, “For me to live is Christ”. If He is forgotten, do you remember Him and see that He is remembered? If you do not, you cannot say, “For me to live is Christ.”

The Lord would impress us I think this afternoon with the essentiality of being stimulated in the fact that the Son of God loves us still and He delivered Himself up for us. He is not delivering Himself up for us still, that is a work that He did once, and once for all. It not only does not need to be repeated but cannot be repeated. He cannot come back into the conditions in which He laid down His life as a Man and give Himself again. It is a work that has not only been done once for all but it cannot be repeated. But it was done, and thank God it was done, and thank the Lord Himself that He was willing to do this, not only for God but for you and me, in order that there might be a basis laid for God on which sin could be taken out of the way. So Paul had a lively sense in his own soul that the Son of God did this for him.

There is a hymn that says—

‘Teach me that if none other had sinned but I alone—
Yet still, Thy blood, Lord Jesus, Thine only, must atone’

If there had been only Paul who was a sinner then the Son of God would have had to deliver Himself up for him. And if there had only been me, or if there had only been you, He would have had to deliver Himself up for me or for you, and He has done it. You and I know that we were not the only sinners there had ever been, but we cannot procure salvation for anybody else; each obtains it for himself by faith in the Son of God who did this for him.

You go back again to the illustrations of those who have made sacrifices in order to secure and preserve the lives of others and you come back to this, ‘Am I still kept in the lively sense of responsive love to Him who gave Himself for me, or has love grown cold in me?’

You go round the towns and villages in England and in nearly all of them you will see war memorials and on them the names of the local men who died during wars for the country.

Sometimes they put texts on them—sometimes they put, ‘They gave themselves that we might live’. When these monuments were first put up, some of them now fifty-five years ago, and some of them about twenty-five years ago, people were warm in their remembrance.

They thought how devoted these men had been, and what a sorrowful thing it was if anyone forgot them. I can well remember when, on the day on which the end of the war was remembered, and therefore the deaths of the men who died in it were remembered, all the traffic stopped. Men would stop their cars and get out and stand by them for two minutes in order that there might be a manifestation of remembrance of those who sacrificed themselves for others. Does that happen now? Have any of you boys ever seen that happen on Remembrance Day in November? Have you ever seen a man stop what he was doing to remember those who died for their country? I am not saying whether they should or whether they should not, what I am drawing out is the change that there has been, and it is the same in relation to the Lord Jesus.

Immediately after His death, as we can see in the book of the Acts, He was warmly remembered by those who knew He had given Himself for them, and as you come down to the present day you find it is as it says in the psalm, “I am forgotten in their heart as a dead man” (Psalm 31: 12). Not with Paul, “I live by faith”; “For me to live is Christ, and to die gain”. I am not talking this afternoon about dying. Paul says, “To die gain”, but Paul also says, “But if to live in flesh is my lot, this is for me worth the while”. Why is it worth while? Because “for me to live is Christ”—that is why it is worth while. Many believers you have to take account of, many professing christians, then you have to say to them, ‘Is it worth while?’ I look at you and I say, ‘Is it worth while?’ and you look at me and you say to me, ‘Well, I look at you, are you a manifestation that it is worth while?’ But it was worth while for Paul, “For me to live is Christ”.

We are tested as we grow older as to these things and as to how much Christ is now a reality to us. Often when we are young we are fresh in the remembrance of the Lord Jesus. Some preaching or some preacher has made an impression on our soul and we are lively in the sense that He died for me and I will live for Him—and there are few things more attractive than a young christian who is set to be here for the Son of God. And we grow old, and we look back over our days, and we find that things have grown cold and have diminished. There is another hymn that says, ‘Through many a deed of shame, we learn that love grows cold’.

Love grows cold, and the Lord may lay us aside. He may do any different thing with us. He may ensure by one means or another that we have a time in which we are tested as to whether Christ is our life, or whether something else is, or whether nothing is.

It is a sorrowful thing to meet anybody that is really old and find that you could not say that Christ is their life. You could not say that the world was their life, perhaps you could not say anything more than that they themselves were their life. But, beloved, we are tested as we grow old and the only way for a christian to grow old is “For me to live is Christ”—it is the only possible way. We have spent a long time and life goes very, very quickly. I do not know whether it is a sign of growing older oneself, but life seems to go quicker every week. The only way for a christian to live is, “For me to live is Christ”. It is the only way to get substance into the day.

There is a great deal of occupation, and necessary occupation, and there is a great deal that is done and done well. The question for us all, beloved, the question for me, is whether in all the doing Christ is my life. “For me to live is Christ, and to die gain”. Well, it only means that what is being experienced in the Spirit becomes actuality. “But if to live in flesh is my lot, this is for me worth the while”—it is a great thing as you grow older, however old you are, however young you are—every ono of us is growing older at exactly the same rate. Think of that when you are young; you think of old people and you say they get older and older; you are getting older at exactly the same rate. If you continue in the flesh, is it worth the while, or would something else be more worth the while? If Christ is not your life something else would certainly seem worth the while in your life. You may ask me what are the evidences of it, what are the tokens of it? I think we can test ourselves by what our minds and hearts and thoughts revert to when we are otherwise unoccupied. If you have nothing else to do, what do you do? Do you pick up something that belongs to the present course of things, or do you pick up something that relates to the course of things that is soon going to fill the world with His glory? That is the way, that is the token, that “For me to live is Christ”.

If you talk to somebody, does His name ever enter into your conversation? If “For me to live is Christ” is true of you it will never be left out. If you write a letter do people look in vain for some impression about the Lord Jesus? Do not forget, you profess to be a christian, you profess to owe everything to the Lord Jesus. If you speak, or if you write a letter, is He there, is He in it, is He mentioned in it, is He demonstrated in it? “For me to live is Christ”. He would have Himself demonstrated in everything that we do. Is any service done? For whose glory? For His? “For me to live is Christ”. Are the saints cared for? If “For me to live is Christ” is true of us, they will be cared for as He would care for them. Is sacrifice called for? He sacrificed everything and if “For me to live is Christ” is true, that same sacrificial spirit will mark you and me.

It does not exactly call for our dying. It may call for our laying down our lives, which is a very different thing. There is another hymn—these things seem to come back to my mind—that used to say this—‘Teach me to live, ‘twere easier far to die’. There are many people who can die and look forward to being with Christ whose life would be given a very different character if they found that to live was Christ at the present time.

Well, beloved, I just leave these impressions with the brethren, I do not want to be very long, I would sooner leave an impression than say a lot. I think that is what any preacher ought to be able to do; to leave an impression rather than say a lot. But I believe that the Lord would search us in the present position in which we are identified with the testimony as to whether there is a quality of life in us which is a testimony in itself. You may say, ‘Well, the pathway of separation does not leave much room for manifesting this to others’. A pathway of separation is the essential basis for manifesting christianity to other people. You do not manifest the truth of christianity to others by being one with them in everything that they do. Christianity belongs to a rejected Man and its truth is always compromised when rejection is surrendered. And rejection by the world and its order of things is a key that opens the door for us to find that “For me to live is Christ”.

“I live by faith”. Paul says. You have to live by faith. You cannot see Him at the present time.

He will soon appear and every eye shall see Him. For the moment we live by faith and if we live by faith we live by piety. A pious life is one in which “For me to live is Christ”. Piety is often defined by us as bringing God into all our circumstances, but piety actually is manifesting God in all our circumstances, and you do not manifest God unless Christ is your life.

Well, beloved, I just leave these impressions with the brethren. They have come to me during the day and I pass them on as much to myself as to others. Our brother prayed that the preacher might find the word was for him as much as to anybody else, and that would be true.

One wonders as we go on day by day how more really we can make it true that Christ is our life, and “For me to live is Christ”. It does not mean giving up all your other work and all your other occupations, it does not mean that you just retire into being a recluse and a meditative, but what it does is to bring some transforming power into everything else that you do, every conversation, every word spoken, every activity done, something new is brought into them if “For me to live is Christ”.

I think He would revive us in this and may He do so for His name’s sake.

Barnstaple
14 April 1973

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