On Abiding in Christ
Last Sunday, Ps Andrew preached on Jesus being the true vine and exhorted us to abide in Him. Here, Eric Lui shares some thoughts on this teaching from Andrew Murray’s book titled, “Abiding In Christ”.
“Abiding in Christ” or “in Christ” is one of the most important teachings in the New Testament. It was first taught by Christ himself before He departed from this world, as recorded in John 15:4, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” The purpose of abiding in Him is to bear much spiritual fruit as Jesus says in John 15:1–2: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch does bear fruit he prunes, so that it may bear more fruit.”
Andrew Murray, in his book, Abiding in Christ, gives us deeper insight into what it means to abide in Christ.
1. By Abiding in Him, He Is Our Redemption
“Of Him [God] you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” (1 Cor. 1:30)
Christ is made redemption for us by God. He had been redeemed by God to be our redemption. Murray writes, “The word [redemption] invites us to look upon Jesus, not only as He lived on earth, teaching us by word and example, as He died, to reconcile us with God, as He lives again, a victorious King, rising to receive His crown, but as, sitting at the right hand of God, He takes again the glory which He had with the Father, before the world began, and holds it there for us. There His human nature, His human body, freed from all the consequences of sin to which He once had been exposed, is now admitted to share the divine glory. As Son of Man, He dwells on the throne and in the presence of the Father; the deliverance from what He had to suffer from sin is complete and eternal. Complete redemption is fulfilled and revealed in His own Person; what He as man is and has in heaven is the complete redemption. He is made of God to us redemption.
We are in Him as such…As our communion with Him becomes more intimate and intense, and we let the Holy Spirit reveal Him to us in His heavenly glory, the more we realize how the life in us is the life of One who sits upon the throne of heaven. We feel the power of an endless life working in us. We taste eternal life; we have a foretaste of the eternal glory.”
2. We Should Abide as Christ Abides in the Father
“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” (Jn 15:9–10)
Murray explains that a similar thought to John 15:9–10 is given in John 6:57, “As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.”
He elaborates that, “Think first of the origin of that life of Christ in the Father. They were ONE—one in life and one in love. In this His abiding in the Father had its root. Though dwelling here on earth, He knew that He was one with the Father; that the Father's life was in Him, and His love on Him. Without this knowledge, abiding in the Father and His love would have been utterly impossible for Christ. In the same way it is only in this knowledge that you can abide in Christ and His love. Know that you are one with Him—one in the unity of nature. By His birth He became man, and took your nature that He might be one with you. By your new birth you become one with Him, and are made partaker of His divine nature. The link that binds you to Him is as real and close as the one that bound Him to the Father—the link of a divine life.
And as it is the union of a divine life, it is one of an infinite love. In His life of humiliation on earth He tasted the blessedness and strength of knowing himself to be the object of an infinite love, and He dwelt in it all through His days; from His own example He invites you to learn that in this the secret of your rest and joy can be found. You are one with Him…”
3. By Abiding in Christ, Your Joy May Be Full
“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (Jn 15:11)
What is Christ’s own joy? It is the joy of His resurrection life. Murray writes that this is evident from John 16:22, “I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.” He notes that “It was only with the Resurrection and its glory that the power of the never-changing life began, and only in it that the never-ceasing joy could arise…That joy of His was the joy of a work fully and forever completed, the joy of the Father’s presence regained, and the joy of souls redeemed. These are the elements of His joy, and abiding in Him makes us partakers of them… there is the joy of undisturbed dwelling in the light of the Father’s love. And then, with this joy in the love of the Father, as a love received, we experience the joy of loving souls, as love going forth and rejoicing over the lost.”
Murray explains that, “There is no proof of the reality of God’s love and the blessing He bestows, which people so quickly feel the strength of, as when the joy of God overcomes all the trials of life... With a heart full of joy no work can make us weary and no burden can depress us; God himself is our strength and song.”
4. By Abiding in Christ That We Might Not Sin
“In Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin.” (1 Jn 3:5-6)
Murray states, “It is Christ’s personal holiness that constitutes His power to accomplish this purpose.” As long as we abide in Him, we share in His disposition and life, and we will not willingly fall into sin. Murray gives an analogy of a zoo keeper who is able to keep down a young lion by the look of his eyes. The lion “would crouch—his savage nature still unchanged, thirsting for blood—trembling at the keeper’s feet. You might even put your foot on his neck so long as the keeper was with you. But to approach him without the keeper would be instant death.” So it is with our sinful human nature. Murray continues, “In faith, the believer can entrust himself to the keeping, the indwelling, of the Son of God; as he abides in Him, he can count on Jesus to be there for him. It is union and fellowship with the Sinless One that is the secret of a holy life.”
5. It Is Not in Ourselves To Have Life
“In me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells.” (Rom 7:18)
Murray writes, “To have life in himself is the prerogative of God alone, and of the Son, to whom the Father has also given it. To seek life, not in itself, but in God, is the highest honor of the creature. To live in and to himself is the folly and guilt of sinful man; to live to God in Christ is the blessing of the believer. To deny, to hate, to forsake, and to lose his own life: such is the secret of the life of faith. ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me’ (Galatians 2:20); ‘Not I, but the grace of God which was with me.’ (1 Corinthians 15:10). This is the testimony of each one who has found out what it is to give up his own life and to receive instead the blessed life of Christ within. There is no path to true life, to abiding in Christ, other than the way taken by our Lord before us—through death… Unless this life of self, with its willing and working, can be displaced by the life of Christ, with His willing and working, abiding in Him will be impossible.”
6. God Himself Will Establish You in Him
“He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God.” (2 Cor 1:21)
For believers whose faith is shaken as their spiritual life goes through ups and downs, Murray exhorts them to look to and trust the Vinedresser. He writes, “What they need is simple faith in the fact that establishing us in Christ, day by day, is God’s work—a work that He delights to do, in spite of all our weakness and unfaithfulness, if we will but trust Him for it”
“What peace and rest to know that there is a Vinedresser who cares for the branch, to see that it grows stronger, and that its union with the Vine becomes more perfect, who watches over every hindrance and danger and supplies every need!”
“He accomplishes it by stirring us to watch, wait, and work. But this He can do with power only if we stop interrupting Him by our self-working, as we accept with faith the dependent posture that honors Him and open the heart to let Him work.”
“Could it be that you have not committed to the Father’s care this matter, daily remembering to renew your entire surrender? … The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of recollection. Jesus said, ‘He will bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you’ (John 14:26). It is for the purpose of establishing us that the Holy Spirit has been given. God’s blessed promises, and your unceasing acts of faith and surrender that accept them—He will enable you to remember these each day. The Holy Spirit is—praise be to God—the memory of the new man.”
Quotations used in this article are all taken from The Essential Andrew Murray Collection, published by Bethany House.