As I’ve been reading Abide in Christ: A 21-Day Devotional For Fellowship with Jesus each day this week, my eyes have been opened to an important truth. Abiding is Christ is primarily a decision to surrender.
When we come to Jesus Christ, we come with open arms, to be received by the open arms of our Savior. Abiding in Christ is not some great thing we do. It isn’t a discipline we perfect. It is simply recognizing my own weakness and entrusting myself to the One who is absolutely trustworthy. As Andrew Murray wrote:
“Abiding in Him is not a work that we have to do as the condition for enjoying His salvation, but a consenting to let Him do all for us, and in us, and through us. It is a work He does for us,—the fruit and the power of His redeeming love. Our part is simply to yield, to trust, and to wait for what He has engaged to perform.”
Abiding in Jesus begins with acknowledging, apart from the Lord, I have no good thing (Psalm 16:2). As Paul said in Romans 7, when I lean on my own strength I end up doing exactly what I don’t want to do.
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” Romans 7:15
But I am “in Christ” so I don’t have to lean on my own strength. Through the indwelling power of Christ, I can do everything that is the will of God – and that includes abiding in Christ.
“I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:13
A second truth has stood out as I’ve read this week’s devotionals. Jesus first mentioned abiding in connection with the parable of the Vine.
“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. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:4-5
As we study this parable, we learn that the union between the branch and the Vine is a living union. Life flows from the Vine, Jesus Christ, into us, the branches. If anything happens to stop the flow, the branch will eventually die and be thrown into the fire to be burned.
Second, Andrew Murray describes the union between the branch and the Vine as a complete union. The words mutually beneficial come to my mind. Without the Vine, the branch can do nothing. It will literally dry up and die. But without the branch, the Vine is also unable to fulfill its purpose. A vine without branches can bear no fruit. God has called us to be His fruit bearers, bringing glory to Him as we demonstrate His character and fulfill His purposes in our lives.
Abiding begins with acknowledging my weakness and inability to please God in my own strength. It happens when I make the decision to entrust my life to Jesus Christ, and surrender to His loving hands. Do you want to live a fruitful life? Stay attached to the Vine so His life can flow through you to those He has allowed your life to touch. This is the key to abiding, to having a life worth living.
As each year nears an end, I come to the Lord Jesus Christ in prayer, asking Him what One Word He would have me focus on in the coming year. As we moved toward 2020, I clearly heard God’s voice. The word was ABIDE.
For the month of January, I will be doing blog posts at least a few times a week as I go through a devotional book by Andrew Murray. Today’s devotional in Abide in Christ: A 31-Day Devotional For Fellowship with Jesus begins with two very familiar Scriptures. The first is found in Matthew 11:28.
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
To those who have heard and responded to this call to Come, a new invitation has been given. This invitation is the call to not just come, but to go deeper, to draw closer to our Savior. It is found 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.
Andrew Murray says all the blessings that are connected with the call to “Come” are only to be enjoyed as we enter into close fellowship with Jesus. Jesus is saying, “Cometo me to stay with me.”
Jesus has prepared for you “an abiding dwelling with Himself,” where we live not just for a short time as we have our morning quiet time but every moment of the day in the presence of our Savior and Lord. As we go about our daily lives, doing our daily work, His desire is that we would enjoy unbroken communion with Him.
We are to run to His open arms, receive His welcome, and remain there as He opens up all His life and love to us. We are to live daily in the truth that NOTHING can separate us from His love.
My prayer as you and I begin 2020 is that this will be a year of abiding in Christ, of continual communion with the One who loves us so much that He was willing to lay down His life to make a way for us to be forgiven and restored to relationship with our heavenly Father.
One of the devotions I use regularly during my personal quiet time chose 1 Corinthians 15:10 as the key verse for Monday’s devotional. (All verses in ESV unless otherwise noted.)
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”
I always look up the verse in my Bible to see the context in which it was used, and with this verse I sensed it was time for some more in-depth study. This passage begins with a reminder of the gospel message in a nutshell. Written by the apostle Paul, in verses 3 – 5 he says:
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.”
Then next four verses tell of the appearances of the resurrected Christ to His apostles, ending with Paul’s own visitation on the road to Damascus. In verse 9, he identifies himself as “the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle“, because of being a persecutor of the church prior to his conversion. And then Paul speaks of the grace of God in verse 10.
After studying a verse in context, one of my favorite online resources for gaining a clearer understanding of a verse or passage of Scripture is the website preceptaustin.org, which often has a detailed commentary and other resources to help me see the verse in light of the whole of Scripture. I decided to check that out today, and found some help getting a clearer understanding of what Paul was trying to communicate in this verse.
First, this resource gives the verse being studied in a variety of translations. As I read through the list, one version stood out to me for it’s clarity, one I seldom use in my personal study. In the Barclay translation, this verse reads:
“It is by the grace of God that I am what I am, and his grace to me has not proved ineffective, but I have toiled more exceedingly than all of them, but it was not I who achieved anything but God’s grace working with me.”
The commentator on this passage, who is a retired physician, points out that grace is used “intriplicate” in this verse. He compares 1 Corinthians 15:10 to a prescription from God, written in triplicate, for “spiritual health” in both our personal lives and in our ministry to others.
By the grace of God that I am what I am
Most of us have a basic understanding of the meaning of grace. The Greek word for grace, “charis,” means undeserved favor given to us. There are two main kinds of grace taught in the New Testament, saving grace. This is the kind of grace spoken of in Ephesians 2:8-9.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Paul definitely acknowledged this kind of grace in his life, but this isn’t the kind of grace he is focusing on in this verse. The second type of grace has been called sanctifying grace. This is the daily grace God extends to us as Christians that empowers us to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Sanctifying grace is the ongoing work of the indwelling Holy Spirit that enables us to grow spiritually, so that we become better representatives of the Lord to those around us. It is the process described in Romans 8:29, and it will continue until the day we see Jesus face to face.
“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”
His grace toward me was not in vain
The proud Saul of Acts 7 who was rejoicing over Stephen’s stoning and who “was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison” in Acts 8:3 is gone. And more than his name was changed. He had been changed on the inside. And God’s grace was responsible for the change, first in bringing Saul to savinggrace and then in changing him into Paul through His sanctifying grace, a key instrument of God in spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth and author of much of the New Testament. The message for us here: The grace of God in our lives is effective in accomplishing His purposes in and through us.
His grace in our work and ministry.
The third mention of grace in this verse is the one that caught my attention. Paul worked diligently at the tasks God had called him to do. But the changed Paul took no credit for what he had accomplished. Instead, he acknowledged anything achieved in and through his life was the result of God’s grace. As Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8,
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Paul further explains this in Philippians 2:12-13,
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
Yes, we have a part in living the successful Christian life. Our part is choosing to walk in obedience. But total obedience isn’t something we can accomplish in our own strength. If so, Jesus wouldn’t have needed to send the Holy Spirit to empower us to live the life He calls us to live.
Grace is what brings us to Christ.
Grace is what helps us grow more like Jesus.
Grace is what empowers us to do the work of the Kingdom that God has prepared beforehand for us to do.
The Holy Spirit is the member of the Godhead who offers us saving grace and sanctifying grace, and He is also our source of empowering grace for the work God has called us to do.
Are you in need of God’s grace today? I sure am. If you don’t already know Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, if you haven’t put your faith in Him for forgiveness of sin, don’t put this life-changing decision off another day. You need God’s saving grace and the Holy Spirit you will receive the moment you surrender your life to Jesus.
If you already have become a Christian, did you know that sanctification is a work of grace, accomplished as we cooperate with the indwelling Holy Spirit? Or are you trying to change your “problem areas” in your own strength? Paul described the results of doing this is Romans 7:14-15, “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” We have a part in the process – renewing our minds in God’s Word, choosing to lay down our will and walk in obedience – but the needed power to walk out His will comes from the Holy Spirit within all believers. The Holy Spirit will bring both conviction concerning areas that need to change and the power to make those changes.
Are you struggling with seeing what purpose God has for this season of your life? Is there something you believe God is calling you to do but don’t have any idea how to get started? In this area too, God’s grace is the answer. The indwelling power of the Holy Spirit is given to make us God’s witnesses in the neighborhood and city where we live, the surrounding area, and even to the ends of the earth if that’s a part of God’s calling on your life.
My devotional reading this morning in BreakingFree Day By Day, by Beth Moore, began with the following question.
“Have you had a time when you were surrendered to Christ in the midst of real difficulty and you found His peace beyond understanding?”
This immediately brought to mind the day in November 2018 when I was in a small room in the emergency center of St. Luke’s Hospital in the Houston Medical Center. We had already been told that our son David was in critical condition, and while the medical staff was doing their best to stabilize him, his private duty nurse and supported home living aide and I were taken to a nearby room to wait. As I sat in that room, it became a sanctuary of God’s presence. The Lord clearly spoke to me that He was ready to take our son to heaven to be with Him. The words brought no fear, no fight, simply a deep willingness to surrender our precious son to the Lord.
For years, as we battled through one life-threatening situation after another in David’s life, I had dreaded the time when God would take him home. Even in recent years, fear of David’s death had been my biggest source of anxiety. Yet as we faced the time of surrendering our special-needs son to the Lord, there was no fear, no dread.
Concerning situations such as this one, Beth Moore said:
“When we are in crisis and finally give up trying to discover all the answers to the whys in our lives, His unexpected peace washes over us like a summer rain… Peace comes only in situations that are completely surrendered to the sovereign authority of Christ.”
Elisabeth Elliot said in the deepest valleys we walk through, we gain the deepest insights about our God. This deep valley has taught me much about God’s peace. The Greek word translated peace, as used in Philippians 4:7, refers to the sense of rest and contentment that comes from living in harmony with God, accomplished through the gospel.
As I read this brief devotional this morning, my eyes were opened to truth of why God spoke to me that day in the hospital. God was not asking my permission to take David home, I already knew that. In reality, He was inviting me to walk through this very painful situation in His peace. Through surrender to His clearly revealed will, I’ve walked through one of the most painful seasons in my life with a deep sense of peace. Yes, we miss our son. Yes, we have grieved his loss. But if I had to find one phrase to characterize these last four months it would be supernatural peace, that peace spoken of in Philippians 4:7 that makes no sense in the natural, that surpasses our human understanding and is a gift from God.
HOPE & LIGHT 