Meeting Thomas Chalmers of Scotland

Tony Cooke

As I was preparing for our recent trip to Scotland, my study-focus was on John Knox, and there was much to absorb regarding his life and ministry. I was also pleased to learn that Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847), who had also ministered in Edinburgh had been honored in 1878 with an impressive statue there. I didn’t know much about Chalmers, but I knew about one excellent sermon he had preached

The Chalmer message I’m referring to is “The Explusive Power of a New Affection.” That’s hardly a catchy, easy-to-remember title, but the principle he shares is extremely powerful. In essence, he teaches that if you want to “expel” something negative from your life, you don’t do it by focusing on the negative that you want to remove, but by embracing and focusing on something positive, and letting it (what he called “the new affection”) become so dominant that you are drawn toward it instead of the negative.

Here are a couple of Chalmers’ quotes:

“The best way to overcome the world is not with morality or self-discipline. Christians overcome the world by seeing the beauty and excellence of Christ. They overcome the world by seeing something more attractive than the world: Christ.”

“The best way of casting out an impure affection is to let in a pure one; and by the love of what is good, to expel the love of what is evil.”

Chalmers had opened that particular message with a familiar verse: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15 NKJV).

Having read Chalmers’ statements, it gave me a new perspective on that. I wondered how many people, me included, had focused on not loving the world and worldly things, but had not put enough emphasis on having the love of the Father in us. I wondered, “Can you get so full of God that you don’t have room for anything else?”

In a sense, this is not a new thought at all. We’ve all probably heard the song from 1922 with the lyrics, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”

Renowned missionary, E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973) echoed this when he said, “You are dead to sin to the degree you are alive to God. That is the positive element—alive to God. As long as I am alive to God—alive to His suggestions, His urges, His leadings, His love—I am by that very expulsive fact dead to sin. The higher expels the lower. I don’t fight sin. I expel it by preoccupation with the Higher. Looking at Him I am spoiled for anything less.”

Let me be perfectly clear that I am not against morality and self-discipline, but if we have a Christianity that only focuses on the don’ts — “Don’t do this, and don’t do that” — how is that not mere legalism? The Bible, even the New Testament definitely has some don’ts in it, but the don’ts are not the main thing; Jesus is the main thing. Think about the following three passages:

“Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16 NKJV).

“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7 NKJV).

Speaking to Jesus, the Father says, “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness” (Hebrews 1:9 NKJV).

Notice that for every “don’t” (or negative) there is a corresponding “do” (or positive). If a person tries to comply — not doing the negatives — without embracing and doing the positives, I think he or she would be working in the power of the flesh.

Chalmers also referred to “a new affection.” This reminded me of David saying, “I delight to do Your will, O my God” (Psalm 40:8 NKJV). We should ask ourselves, is there a genuine delight in my relationship with God?

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), the great New England pastor during America’s first Great Awakening, wrote an entire book on Religious Affections. In it he said, “True religion, in great part, consists in holy affections… For although in true religion there must be something else besides affection; yet true religion consists so much in the affections, that there can be no true religion without them.”

Going back to the text (1 John 2:15) with which Chalmers began his message, I need to ask myself, “Is the love of the Father in me?” There are many don’ts in the Bible, including the New Testament, but when Jesus was asked which was the great commandment in the law, he didn’t respond with any don’ts. Rather, he said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind,” and then he said, “This is the first and great commandment” (Matthew 22:37).

Think once again about Chalmers’ statement.

“The best way to overcome the world is not with morality or self-discipline. Christians overcome the world by seeing the beauty and excellence of Christ. They overcome the world by seeing something more attractive than the world: Christ.”

Have you seen that principle work in your life? Have you ever been frustrated because you were focusing more on not doing the don’ts, without having a more powerful affection operating in your life toward God? Christian author Richard Foster captured the same idea, I believe, as Chalmers, when he said, “Real prayer comes not from gritting our teeth but from falling in love.”