Abide With Me # 3

Abide With Me # 3

As we must trust Jesus, so we must identify our cause with His. Christ and His people are one. As the branch and the vine are one, as the members and the head are one, as the building and the foundation are one - so Christ and His people are one. He has identified Himself with them - and they should identify Him with themselves. He has identified His cause with theirs - and they should identify theirs with His. Jesus takes an interest in all that concerns them and theirs - and they should take an interest in all that concerns Him and His. "You are not your own, you are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your bodies and in your spirits, which are His."

Christ says, "My person, My obedience, My grace, My Spirit, My Word, My wealth, My glory - is yours! You shall taste My sorrows now - and share in My throne, kingdom, and glory by and by." We therefore should say, "My person, my property, my time, my talents, my influence, my all - is Yours. You, O my Saviour, shall be honored by my poverty or wealth, my adversity or prosperity, my sickness or health, my life or my death.

I will be for You, and for You alone now - as I hope to be with You and like You forever!

Beloved, let us think of Christ more, let us read of Christ more, let us commune with Christ more, and let us identify ourselves with the cause of Christ - so shall we abide in Him.

What will abiding in Christ secure?

1. It will secure our safety. Noah was no so safe in his ark; Lot was not so safe in Zoar; the man-slayer was not so safe in the city of refuge - as the true believer is in Christ. Abiding in Christ, to Him there is no condemnation; every sin is pardoned; the whole, the perfect, the glorious righteousness of Christ is his! All the glorious perfections of His nature are thrown around the man who abides in Him. He is safe from satan, who cannot destroy him; safe from sin, which shall not have dominion over him; safe from men, for no weapon formed against him shall prosper; and safe from death, for Jesus has said, "he who keeps My sayings shall never taste of death." In Christ! his person is secure.

2. Abiding in Christ - all things work together for his good. Happy believer, no one shall ever pluck you out of your Redeemer's hands, or sever you from your Saviour's love! Abiding in Christ will not only secure our safety - but our happiness! Happy, thrice happy is the man who is in Christ. He is not only pardoned - but justified; not only justified - but accepted and pleasant in the sight of God; not only accepted - but adopted, and is God's beloved child; not only a beloved child - but an heir of God, and a joint heir with Christ!

It is not enough to make a man happy, to know that God has blotted out all his sins; has given him a glorious, eternal inheritance; and never looks upon him, but as in Christ, nor treats him otherwise than as a beloved child?

3. Abiding in Christ not only fixes us in a happy state - but secures our supplies. All that we need for the body and for the soul, for life and in death - is provided for us, secured to us, and will be conferred upon us - as we need it. O how precious the Apostle's words to the Philippians: "My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus!" Well may our beloved Lord say, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself." (Matt. 6:34).

Beloved, the God who has numbered the very hairs of our heads; the God who has redeemed our souls from everlasting death; the God who has made us one with His Son, that we are forever united with Him - this God has provided for all our needs, has promised to supply all our needs, and will be as good as His Word.

4. Abiding in Christ will also secure our usefulness. We long to be useful, and by our usefulness to glorify our God, and honor our beloved Saviour. Usefulness does not depend on great gifts, on exalted station, or bodily vigor; but it does depend very much on our union to Christ, communion with Christ, and abiding in Christ. "He who abides in Me," says Jesus, "and I in him, the same thing brings forth much fruit." Not only fruit, you see - but much fruit. O if we were living in close and intimate fellowship with Jesus, if we were abiding in Him as the branch in the vine - then how useful we should be!

Let us then be deeply impressed with the consideration that our safety, happiness, supplies, and usefulness - depend on our abiding in Jesus! And just in proportion as we wish to realize our safety, enjoy solid happiness, live without care and anxiety, and to be useful in our day and generation - shall we endeavor to abide in Jesus.

~James Smith~

(continued with # 4)