Abiding in Christ
The Essence of Christianity - a daily devotional
From
the Introduction
In
John 15, Jesus says, “If ye
abide in me…” (vv.4-5). Notice that He does not say, “If I
abide in you,” but “If you
abide in me” (emphasis added). Before our conversion to Christ, we
can say that Jesus chose us, for He said, “Ye
have not chosen me, but I have chosen you…” (John 15:16). The
whole process of salvation began with God and not with man, as John
also says in his epistle, “Herein
is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son
to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
But
after we are born of God, the choice for our intimate relationship
with Christ is with us and not with Him. The fact of and the working
out of our salvation is in our continually choosing Him: His will, His
ways, His holiness and His fellowship. Once we stop choosing Him, once
we stop seeking “first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matt. 6:33); once we stop
abiding in Him, we cut ourselves off from God to become fruitless
branches only worthy to be cast into the fire (John 15:6).
We
must see the imperative of abiding in Christ. It is for this purpose
that we are born of God. We must come to the end of the misconception
that once Christ has chosen us to be His own that He will continue to
choose us, regardless of our behavior, our moral soundness, and
self-gratifying plans.
Both
the Old and New Testaments are saturated with God’s continued call
upon His people to respond to Him in order to stay in fellowship with
Him. Everything after God’s choosing us depends very much on whether
we keep choosing Him. It is with this that the whole history of the
Hebrews begins. God chose Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, but how
Abraham fared after that depended upon how he responded to the One who
called him at every turn of events. Here begins God’s
“if…then” theology. We see it repeated throughout the
Scriptures: Ex. 19:5-6; Lev. 26: 18, 23-24; Deut. 7:12; Matt. 6:14-15;
John 14:15; 15:7; Rom. 8:13; 1 Thess. 3:8.
When
Jesus said, “If you abide in
me,” He merely continues to stress our responsibility, hence,
His love call to abundant and everlasting life is continuous. It is
absolutely necessary that our response to it also be continuous, that
we “abide in Christ.”
So,
you ask, how do we abide in Him? The missing link that connects us to
abiding in Christ, that allows His living waters to flow through us,
is Self-denial. Jesus said to His disciples, “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his
cross, and follow me” (Mark 8:34). Jesus died on the cross to
save us, but we need to die on our cross to keep what He has given us.
Only then can we grow “unto
the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph.
4:13).
This
crucifixion of the old Adamic nature is a choice that we must keep
making, as Paul says, “I die
daily” (1 Cor. 15:31). A day is made up of twenty-four hours,
and hours are made up of minutes, and minutes of seconds. We must
choose moment-by-moment submission to Christ. But the moment we allow
Self-will to have its way, we cease to abide in Christ, fruit-bearing
discontinues, our spiritual branches – the fruit of the Spirit –
dry up and wither, and the poison of the fruit of the flesh begins to
enter our life.
True
Christian living is only found as we are abiding in Christ. It is this
life that produces purity, fellowship, fruitfulness, and joy
unspeakable and full of glory. This precious life of abiding will be
free from criticism, fault-finding, anger, jealousy, envy, the lust of
the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.
At
the heart of this devotional is an earnest cry of this needy servant
to every Christian that, now, after Christ has chosen you, you will
choose Christ as a place of everlasting residence. As you read through
the pages of this book, I trust you will find yourself breaking
through the overcast of disappointments, discouragements, and
spiritual paralysis into the light of God’s promises He has destined
for you to experience.
Reimar
A. C. Schultze
