Solomon's Porch: "Hang In There"

Whenever we put theology or a plan of salvation or any line of explanation...

• before a man’s personal relationship to God, 
• we depart from the Bible line, 
• because religion in the Bible is not faith in the rule of God, 
• but faith in the God Who rules. 

If we put our faith in a credal exposition of God... 

• and our creed goes to the winds, as, our faith will go too. 
• The only thing to do is to “hang in” in confidence in God. 
• “Then will I go . . . unto God, my exceeding joy.” 

The thing that really sustains is not that we feel happy in God, 

• but that God’s joy is our energy, 
• and that when we get out of this “shell” we shall find an explanation 
• that will justify our faith in Him.

We cannot think beyond the limits of birth and death; 

• if we are to know anything beyond them, it must be by revelation. 
• Jesus Christ said: “Let not your heart be troubled”—
• “My business is with the Hereafter.” 
• Our business is to live a godly life in the present order of things, 
• and not to push out beyond the durations God has placed as limits.

Within the limits of birth and death I can do as I like; 

• but I cannot make myself un-born, neither can I escape death, 
• those two limits are there. 
• I have nothing to do with placing the limits, 
• but within them I can produce what my disposition chooses. 
• Whether I have a distressful time or a joyful time 
• depends on what I do in between the limits of the durations.

For by Him were all things created” (Colossians 1:16). 

• Did Jesus Christ then create sin? 
• Sin is not a creation, 
• sin is a relationship set up in time between the creation called man and the being who became the devil, 
• whereby man took the rule over himself. 
• My claim to my right to myself—that is the disposition of sin.

The Bible reveals that God holds a man responsible for acts of sin he commits, 

• but not for the disposition of sin that he has inherited (see Romans 5:12). 
• God Himself has deliberately accepted the responsibility for sin, 
• and the proof that He has done so is the Cross of Jesus Christ.

In dealing with practical life...

• we find the fundament of tragedy underlying everything. 
• Fatalism means I am the sport of a force about which I know nothing; 
• faith is trust in a God Whose ways I do not know, 
• but Whose character I do know. 

The Bible point of view is that God is ruling and reigning, 

• and that His character is holy. 
• Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him”—
• that is the final heroism of a man’s relationship to God.

Adapted Excerpt From

Shade of His Hand

Oswald Chambers