brokenness

The Calvary Road-
Book review

by Liviu berghian

Roy Hession, the author of “The Calvary Road”, lived in England throughout the most part of the 20^th century but found himself early in his life void of the power of God right at the peak of his successful evangelistic ministry. He died in 1992, at the age of 83. This book comes as a result of God’s work in his personal life which has eventually brought this simple, yet powerful concept of revival in the hands of millions of Christians throughout the world.

I find Hession’s work very practical and Biblical. The power of his argument is of course the concept of brokenness, which permeates this entire writing and which ties right into the concept of servant, or more exactly that of bondservant. At first, Hession seems to be talking about revival, of which he says that is “the life of the Lord Jesus poured into human hearts” (19), but slowly and surely the reader is pushed onward to understand that revival is the only way God ever wanted us to experience Christian life—as a continuous experience of conviction of sin, repentance, and confession; vision of the cross; willingness to be broken; a continuous joyful experience of the power of the blood of Jesus; fullness of the Holy Spirit and of His power to do His work, and through this only, experience the community of the saints.

Brokenness is the one notion with which Hession seems to connect everything else throughout the book from the very first chapter. It is identified here as the beginning of the revival. It is also the concept most connected to the idea of bondservant—which I will expand next. Just as a bondservant does not argue when called to do something—as he has no right to do so—a broken Christian does not argue when insulted, stepped-on, or not understood. A broken Christian sees every such occasion as a mean by which he/she can deepen the understanding of Jesus’ own passion and cross, cost of redemption, and the extent Jesus Christ himself was broken—not only so that He may become the Lamb of God, but also that He may become an example for us; who are to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him (Matt. 16:24). What is indeed interesting about brokenness is that to the extent that we are broken we are also true servants. The more broken we are, the better God can use us. There is no place for “I” in serving God—it seems to be the underlining truth here. As long as we are still fighting, God is not through with breaking us. He wants to work through us, and the best way for Him to do that is by breaking our will to His will. As long as we can still say I can do it, God’s power is not available to us. Christ emptied himself, and we are called to do the same (Phil 2:5-8). It is only when we are completely empty of our own ideas and desires that God can indeed fill us to overflow. When there is no more “I” left in us, Christ can take His rightful place right at the center of our being; on the throne of our life.

But brokenness as I see is not something for which we look, but something God is looking to do in us. In other words, the more we try to “be” broken or act broken, the less broken we actually are. Brokenness, as I came to understand through Hession’s writings, is the state in which no matter what comes over us, we accept it as God’s will. Thus, obedience to God becomes our highest goal through which God breaks us into what He wants us to become. Our readiness to be obedient through brokenness will refine our walk with God and set us on our way to experiencing authentic revival.

Hession expands upon the concept of bondservant in the eighth chapter. Bondservant’s have no rights, no wages, and no right to appeal his/her master’s decision. He goes on to say that “God made man in the first place simply that he may be God’s bondservant” (75). I must admit that some of these statements not only challenged my knowledge of the Bible but also the very meaning of being a Christian. He also says that “Man’s sin consisted in his refusal to be God’s bondservant. His restoration can only be, then, a restoration to the position of a bondservant” (75). There are some statements here that at times are very hard to swallow theologically. Please allow me to wrestle with some of them for a moment!

Although it is true that Adam and Eve refused to listen to God, disobeyed, and thus have fallen pray to Satan’s temptation, it is very hard to imagine Adam and Eve as bondservants in the full sense of the word. After all, they were free to do whatever they wanted, but…! What bothers me is that Hession insists on a bondservant relationship between us and God. It is theologically arguable whether God can create man in a bondservant relationship with Him in the full meaning of the word. It is either that man is bound or he is not. If he is not bound, then he is free to choose to obey or disobey God—and that we know indeed happened. But if he is bound, then he is not free to choose, for a bondservant can not choose to obey or disobey, in which case the idea of free will is thrown out the window.

But, the image of a bondservant as applied to brokenness does help us understand better to what level of brokenness God wants us. Jesus’ example also seems to very well fit that of a bondservant (Phil.2:6-8). Although possible, it is very hard for me to understand God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as having a bondservant relationship. Just as well, it is somehow out of character for God to have made bondservants unless He would have given them the chance to choose to place themselves in that position out of love, devotion, and obedience to Him. If that is true, and I believe it is, then God is indeed inviting us into a bondservant relationship out of love and obedience for Him. Then, man’s “refusal to be God’s bondservant” becomes man’s refusal to love God. John 14:15 says: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Of course that means one of the two: either we love and obey Him or we don’t. If we do, then we are indeed bound to become bondservants to Him indeed.

As brokenness is the beginning of revival, revival itself means being filled with the Holy Spirit. It means we have that “constant peace of God ruling in our hearts because we are full to overflowing ourselves and sharing it with others” (26). This “cup running over”, is presented here as the only way of experiencing victorious living, but it comes as a price to brokenness. As we present our cups empty to Him, He is filling them to the overflow with the Holy Spirit; if He finds them clean, that is. Therefore, if we are to experience continuous revival “we must learn to keep our cups clean” (27).

A great parallel is drawn here between the Holy Spirit as the Dove, and the Lamb of God as Jesus. Hession understands here that because Jesus was the Lamb of God—meek, humble, and spotless—the Dove could descend on Him. In the same way, the Dove will rest on us as well if we become a lamb—simple, silent, docile, broken, and spotless through the Blood of Jesus. The implication here is that we can only experience the power of the Holy Spirit when we walk humbly, meekly, simply, as The Dove does not rest but on humble, meek, simple, and broken.

In 1John 1:5-10, the apostle tells us how we are to “walk in the Light”. In the light every dark spot will be seen and cleaned. Hession refers to this in chapter three as “The Way of Fellowship”. Because we walk in the light, we can see each other’s dark spots and can address them in humbleness and brokenness, and so, real fellowship can take place. We have fellowship when we live in the light, when we do not hide ourselves, so that God and our fellow brothers can point out what may be wrong in us. Our fellowship is therefore as deep as it is open, and as lasting as it is broken.

This is like a mouth of fresh air for small churches which feel they can not compete with other huge “successful” churches. But what happens in these so called “mega-churches” is that people learn to live comfortably without ever having to open up to somebody else. The question unfolds here: are they really opening up to God without ever learning to open up to their brothers in Christ? Or yet, are they experiencing unity in Christ? “Love God and your neighbor” has more to speak to us then we might think. If we are to “live in the Light”, then surely our brokenness will spill over and we become an open book to our fellow brother just as we are to God. I really think that’s what Hession had in mind when he said: “we are willing to give up our spiritual privacy, pocket our pride, and risk our reputation for the sake of being open and transparent with our brethren in Christ” (35). Outstanding! Give up our spiritual privacy! Yes, become one body in Christ! That’s one sure way of suffering and rejoicing with one another. But if we never suffer together, how can we experience joy together? If we don’t experience oneness in Christ it is because we are not willing to pay the price; which is to be broken; broken before God and before our brothers. When we are not willing to pay this price in our relationship with our brothers, Hession refers to it as the sin of overreacting; judging others in contrast to our own “innocence”. What happens is that we don’t see our own sin, and then we look to fix somebody else’s “mote”.

In the mote and the beam chapter Hession describes the sin of reacting to the wrong in the wrong way. We are perhaps offended by someone else, but instead of considering it an occasion from God to be broken in a certain area of our life, we immediately react in an unloving way. We need then to immediately walk in the light and bring that wrong reaction, that sin, before the blood of Jesus to be cleaned, and allow God to break us where we need to be broken. Then, we can go and confess our sin to our brother, who in return will see our true intention and might be compelled to change as well. So many times we are “offended” by our brother’s sin and don’t bother to see the “beam” in our own eye. But, ultimately, we are responsible for our own sins and not for somebody else’s sin.

This “way of fellowship” should surely be the goal of every church, but it must begin with one heart hungry for more, dissatisfied with the state of the church and of himself; a heart willing and expecting that God might lead him on the road of Calvary first.

Closing Thought

What makes this book both unique and simple is its emphasis on the need to keep ourselves clean, washed in the blood of the Lamb. The only sure way to experience revival, which is walking in the fullness of Christ, would be to constantly walk in the Light, so that whatever the Light reveals, we can bring under the blood of Christ, be cleaned, and constantly experience revival in our life. Joy then comes out of the continuous cleansing from all sin. Through this comes the liberty to enter the Holy of Holies of God’s presence, rejoicing in the fellowship of the saints, and experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit in and through our lives.

Paranthetical Reference

Hessions, Roy. 1950. The Calvary Road. Pennsylvania: CLC Publications.