THERE are two ways in which Scripture speaks of “abiding in Christ.” The first, which is a privilege, we find in John’s epistle. In the days in which John wrote there were two dangers: one was to go back to the Jewish order, and the other to think that Christ had introduced a system of religion (Christianity) which could be developed and advanced, as new systems are with men. Hence the force of John’s word, “Now, little children, abide in Him.” It is our great privilege; we must neither go backward nor forward, but abide.
Paul speaks in the same way to the Colossians, “Ye are complete in Him”; that is, that there is nothing for us outside of Christ (what a privilege, through grace!) and therefore if we are to have anything Divine ―Righteousness, Love, Life, Peace, Joy, etc.―we must have it in Him, not merely from Him, but in Him. Thus we are taught to abide in Him, for we find how empty we are, having nothing in ourselves.
The Gospel is really the message from God to us of the fullness of Jesus, and of the perfection of His finished work, so that the word of the truth of the Gospel reveals to us an ocean of righteous, holy love that we cannot get out of, it is so vast. Of course, if I am looking into myself for anything, I am, so far, getting away from the perfection in Jesus, where grace places the believer. I, a poor, empty, helpless, lost sinner, find that the God of all grace has invited me, and welcomed me into the apprehension of the fullness of Jesus and the perfection of His finished work. Well, then, I must not venture outside of that fullness and perfection, but abide there. If all is perfect―and it is―there can be no development of it to snit man’s taste.
The other way in which abiding in Christ is spoken of we find in John 15, where the Lord plainly shows His disciples, by the figure of a vine and its branches, the impossibility of a branch bearing fruit if it be apart from the vine. The disciples had been accustomed to regard Israel as the vine, but Israel only brought forth wild grapes (Isa. 5:44What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? (Isaiah 5:4)). The Lord was the true Vine, and hence He presses on His disciples the responsibility of abiding in Him; there could be no life in a branch if severed from the Vine, and to go back to Judaism was to leave the true Vine. So that there is with us a responsibility to be true to Christ and abide in Him, where grace has set us, for we must ever remember that it is by no effort of ours, but it is simply staying where God’s grace places those that believe. “Abiding” does not speak of effort, but of resting in grace.
“Walking in the light” is not the same as walking according to the light, though what the Lord said is verified, “If a man walks in the light, he does not stumble.” Now, Christ is the Light; He said so: “I am the light of the world;” and now that He is gone to heaven it says (2 Cor. 4:66For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)): “The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face (or person) of Jesus Christ.” If I see Jesus touching a leper, or letting a poor sinful woman kiss His feet, or any of His words and works, I can look below the garb of His human nature, and see that it was God manifest in the flesh―God’s grace and love and righteousness, and holiness, and truth shone in Him, so that we are in the light of God as we learn and know Jesus―that is, our souls are. We cannot unknow what we know; “We have known and believed the love that God path to us.” We know it by God sending His Son that we might live by Him; that He might be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4). It is true the light will show me how unlike I am to Christ as I walk in it; and the more I walk in it the more I shall see how little I have attained; but then the light will show what the value of the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, is; that it cleanses from everything that has the nature and character of sin. In the light I do not see my own estimate of that blood, but God’s estimate of it.
As to not “feeling so bad,” I understand it, because you have been sheltered from evil. It is difficult to believe that we are capable of doing certain evil things, and it is a mercy to be lowly and so kept from falling into outward sin. Peter would not believe that he could deny his Master; but he did, and wept bitterly. What sort of hearts are ours, do you think, that need God’s grace continually to keep us abiding in Christ, or else they would easily wander from Him and neglect Him? To wander from Christ or neglect Him is about as black ingratitude as there can be. It is not so much what we have done perhaps, but what our hearts are capable of that shows we are “so bad.” When we know that, we say continually―
“O Lamb of God, still keep me
Close to Thy trusted side;
’Tis only there in safety
And peace I can abide.”
T. H. R.