Once again circumstances have converged to make me think
about a particular topic, in this case, what is abiding in Christ? One trigger
was an email from Pastor Matt and the other was the book Growing in Grace, by Bob George. What they said was that abiding in
Christ (John 15:4), abiding in the Vine (John 15:5), abiding in the Word (John 8:31),
abiding in love (1 John 4), and abiding in the truth (2 John) are all essentially
the same thing. But only one of those things really tells us something we can do to abide, and that is to abide in the
Words of Scripture. As Pastor Matt said, “Reading them, meditating on them,
reminding ourselves and each other of them is
abiding in Jesus and allowing His words to abide in us.” And that is certainly
something we ought to pursue.
Bob George gives the
illustration of a baby in the womb. It is abiding there, with all its needs provided,
and there’s nothing it can do or needs to do to maintain the connection with
its mother. If you’re like me, it’s hard to believe that abiding in the Vine
doesn’t take some real effort to hold on. But as I thought about it, I realized
that several of those verses that talk about abiding in Him also say that He
abides in us (John 6:56, John 15, 1 John 2, 1 John 3:24, 1 John 4). Even if we
could somehow fail to abide in Christ, we can’t force Him to stop abiding in
us. John 10:27-29 says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they
follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will
snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater
than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” (ESV). Other
good images are found in Deuteronomy 33:27, “The eternal God is your dwelling
place, and underneath are the everlasting arms,” and Psalm 37:23-24, “The steps
of a man are established by the Lord, when He delights in his way; though he
fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand.”
Now I’m not advocating a laissez
faire, do-nothing attitude. I think Scripture is pretty clear that we
should endeavor to resist sin (Romans 6:1-2), draw near to God (James 4:7-8),
study the Word (2 Timothy 3:16-17), and assemble together to encourage one
another (Hebrew 10:25). But we can tend to make things harder than they need to
be. Sometimes we fall back into the trap of thinking we need to earn our way or
we believe the lie that “God helps those who help themselves.” Then too we can
start second guessing God and take matters into our own hands if He doesn’t
seem to be working fast enough or doing what we think needs done. So it’s hard
to abide and rest when we’re waiting for something to happen.
In a recent Christianity
Today blog, Mark Galli says this about the pursuit of holiness:
“Then, in one of [Paul’s] last
letters, he says he is the ‘worst’ of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15). I don’t know that
we can chalk that up to false humility. I think Paul, the older he got, the
more he saw all those layers of sin and wickedness in himself and realized that
for all the progress he might have made, in the end, he knew he felt like the
greatest of sinners. This is not a picture of the ‘victorious Christian life.’
Yet so much preaching and teaching in American churches seem to suggest that if
we just do this or that more fervently—always depending on the grace and power
of the Holy Spirit!—we can make significant progress in the life of holiness.
We Americans are a very optimistic bunch with a can-do spirit. But I’m
wondering if we’re overpromising, with the result that we’ll eventually
underdeliver. This can only lead us into despair… Our real hope—and the real
reason for our lack of despair and our continuing joy—is the promise of future
transformation in Christ. ” (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/may-web-only/real-transformation-happens-when.html)
I struggle to discover some balance between “trying” and “abiding.”
Scripture indicates that God has done all that is necessary for our salvation
and eventual sanctification, but as Galli points out in this article, the vast
majority of our sanctification will take place after the Second Coming of
Christ, not during this earthly life. That’s both reassuring and frustrating.
It’s wonderful to know that we are saved by grace and not by our attempts to be
good enough. But it’s also humbling to realize that we may have to face the
same temptations and struggles for a lifetime. We’re forced to cling to our
hope for that soon-coming day when God’s grace will be fulfilled and we’ll
abide with Him forever in perfect holiness.
“Behold, the dwelling
place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people,
and God Himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:3).
