"The Kingdom of His Beloved Son"

E. Stanley Jones was a missionary, a theologian, and a prolific writer. In his devotional book titled In Christ he brings out the tremendous fact that our redemption is in Christ, i.e., we experience it in our union with Him:

"'He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.' (Col. 1:13-14.) Note: 'In whom we have redemption,' not merely 'through Whom.' If you do not pass from the 'through Whom' to the 'in Whom,' there is no redemption. The 'through' is outside us in history, but the 'in' is inside us in experience. The historical must become the experiential or it isn't redemption, except in potentiality--not in actuality. I can accept the 'through Whom' without personal self-surrender; but I cannot accept the 'in Whom' without personal self-surrender.

"The unsurrendered self, acting as God, creates a 'dominion of darkness.' The self-centered live, move, and have their being in a dominion of darkness. They are fumbling and stumbling in the dark with this business of living. The universe doesn't back their being God, so none of their sums add up to sense--only nonsense.

"Then comes the great self-renunciation, self-surrender. We renounce self, and we receive God. Then He, and He only, delivers us from the dominion of darkness. He who made our selves can deliver us from the tyranny of making our selves God. The deliverer is God. We cannot pummel and beat and murder ourselves. We let go and let God. He delivers and He transfers us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son. There everything is light and everything adds up to sense.

"The center of that transference is 'the forgiveness of sins.' Many want redemption without forgiveness of sins. They would like to add virtue to virtue and thus be redeemed. It can't be done. That is trying to get blood out of a turnip--virtue out of an unsurrendered, hence unforgiven, self. The unsurrendered self invades all the added virtues and turns them into vices. The self and its sin must be surrendered. Then forgiveness, reconciliation, redemption, and the kingdom of His Beloved Son can be ours!"