"When I Saw Him" by Roy Hession, part 2

Roy Hession wrote in his book, When I Saw Him, about the experiences of Isaiah, Saul, the Disciples, and Joshua and then writes, “What Is Your Vision?”

   When the Disciples saw Him, they had a vision of the blood. Seeing Him risen from the dead and seeing His hands and His side, the sad were made glad. Jesus risen from the dead and He was brought again from the dead through the blood of the everlasting covenant.

   “There are three aspects to what may be called the victorious life.

   First, and most basic, there is His victory over me. Victorious life is not me conquering sin, but Him conquering me and breaking me each time that sin comes in, and taking me to the Cross.

   Then there is His victory for me, in setting me free from the hangover of guilt and self-accusation. This is not celebrating the attainment by the saint of some higher ground of sanctification, but the victory over guilt, self-recrimination, and sadness-which the most sinful of us may have when we see the blood of Jesus again.

   The third aspect of the victorious life is His victory in me; that is, Jesus Christ living His life again in me. It is illustrated by the Lord’s parable of the Vine and the branches. We naturally begin by making the mistake of trying to be the vine ourself, by doing our best to produce those fruits which we imagine a Christian ought to produce. We fail utterly, because ‘in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing.’ Rom. 7:18 But Christ is the Vine, not us, and we but His branches. When, weary of our attempts to be a good vine, we take our place as branches and begin to abide (or dwell) in Him, He promises to abide (or dwell) in us. And what can be more victorious than Jesus dwelling in us? That which is produced is now not characteristic of the branch but of the Vine, who dwells in the branch by the sap, that is, but the Holy Spirit.

   This aspect of the victorious life, however, is based on the first two aspects. Only as we are willing for Him to be breaking us and bringing us to the cross, and only as we are finding peace as sinners through His blood, does He give to us through His life within what we confess we otherwise lack so completely.”

   When Joshua saw Him as Captain. Joshua 5:12-6:3 “A falling on his face before the Captain of the host and an attitude of positive faith in Jehovah were the two effects of this vision on Joshua.”

   “’And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship.’ This was the most crucial moment in the whole campaign in which Israel was engaged, when their leader prostrated himself before the Captain of the hosts of the Lord. Before the walls of Jericho could fall, Joshua had to fall. In doing so, he vacated his own place and surrendered completely to the captaincy of the Captain of the hosts of the Lord, confessing the sin and folly of trying to be captain himself.”

   God lets us know that our victories are His… They are not from our self-will, self-effort, or self-glory… “When Jesus is allowed to be Captain in a situation, the victory is never in doubt, not for a moment. When we see Jesus as Captain of the hosts of the Lord, ours it is to fall on our faces before Him and worship-that is to confess the self-will, self-effort, and self-glory that have dominated us and deeply surrender to Him as the Captain, and be willing for Him to make the decisions, give the orders, and be the doer of the work. This is ever the turning point in our lives and in the enterprises we are engaged upon. We cannot be too low at His feet if He is to cause the walls of our Jericho to fall. He will have no difficulty with those walls if He can get us to fall first.”

      “What is it that we have that others may not have? Our discovery is simply that we are bigger sinners than we thought we were and that Jesus is a bigger Saviour than we thought He was-no cause for pride in that, surely. Let us not fear, then, to see the need and blindness of those around us, for we shall not otherwise get the Lord’s vision for them. Our vision for them is, first, that they might know that they don’t know, that they might begin to realize there is something lacking; then, that they might see the hidden things about themselves that God would have them see; and then, that they may know Jesus coming to them to cleanse them from their sin and take over, as symbolized in the live coal.

   Do not fear, then, to look around you with complete realism I the light of what you have seen in yourself. Your fellowship group, your church, your minister, the other churches throughout the land and, closer at hand, the dear ones in your own family-everywhere you look people are going on in this double blindness, not knowing, and not knowing that they don’t know. And then get God’s loving vision for them, that He wants to open their eyes and bring them to a new reality and liberty.”