“If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: old things have passed away; behold, all things are become new.” – 2 Corinthians 5:17
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” – John 15:4
Entering into a relationship with Jesus Christ is a fairly simple matter. I ask Him into my life, He forgives my sins, and He makes me into a brand new person. I discover that I now have a love relationship with God, and with His Son, Jesus. This is truly tremendous! But somewhere along the line another question arises in my mind. Now that I have this relationship, how do I keep it going? Just how do I maintain and cultivate my walk with God? It’s at this point that our thinking easily becomes entangled.
The mere arousal of this question is an indication that something is a little “out-of-sorts” in our experience. We don’t feel the way we think we should feel, or God doesn’t seem as real or as close us as He did yesterday, or last week, or last year.
When this question of maintaining our daily walk with the Lord Jesus does arise in our minds, our thoughts most naturally turn to the things which we do. “Perhaps reading the Bible is the key.” “Maybe if I only pray more I’ll get back to where I was.” “I know that if I just commit myself to witnessing to 3 people a day I’ll be blessed.” Now these things are of extreme importance to our daily walk with God, but as important as they are, they are secondary to some other considerations, such as right motive and right belief. In this area we must take care not to get the spiritual cart before the horse.
The truth of scripture indicates that the maintenance of our walk with the Lord is actually a result – an outcome – of having the proper relationship itself. The natural result of a truly “right-on” relationship with Jesus Christ is that we do those things which maintain the relationship, not vice-versa. This can be illustrated by a marriage relationship. As long as the two partners have a healthy love relationship, they will naturally do those things which continue the relationship – those things which are the outworking of love. It is only when the love relationship itself begins to suffer, when the partners (or a partner) allows their love to grow cold, that the things that maintain the relationship begin to fail. The same is true of our relationship with Christ, but His love for us never fails or grows cold.
So we understand that we can never obtain or maintain a relationship with God by doing anything. But if we enter into a relationship with God by faith, and continue in that relationship by faith, we find ourselves doing the things that God truly requires of us – mercy, and not sacrifice. We love one another, we bear one another’s burdens. We bear in our lives the fruit of the Spirit. This is abiding in Christ. We love, because He first loves us, and that love produces fruit in our lives.
Abiding in Christ is a major theme of the New Testament, although it is spoken of in various terminologies. The word that is most often translated “abide” in the New Testament can also be translated as “remain” or “continue.” We must continue and remain in a right relationship with Jesus Christ, and this can only be done in one way, that is, by faith. Just as we enter into this relationship by faith, so we must also abide in this relationship by faith. It is not by anything which we do, but by believing in the Person and work of Jesus Christ for our total forgiveness of sins – our justification – and for our total renewal into His image – our sanctification. (See Galatians 3:1-7)
Thus, when we find ourselves in a position where we know that our relationship with Christ is not what is should be, we can have that “right on” love relationship restored in an instant; not by doing more things, or by doing more of any one thing, or by resolving to do better, but by simply exercising our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ once again. Then we receive the fullness of His grace, and the overflowing of His love. Just as we have been justified by faith and have peace with God, so we continue in this walk by the same faith. As the scriptures say, “The just shall live by faith” Galatians 3:11. “We walk by faith, not by sight” 2 Corinthians 5:7. “And this is the victory which has overcome the world – our faith” 1 John 5:4.
Does this mean then that I only believe and do nothing? No. But the believing must precede the doing. And I’ll find that if I simply believe what God has said, He’ll be more than able to take care of the doing. That’s why God calls it fruit, because it’s a natural result of abiding in the vine. And it’s so easy to abide in the vine by faith when we realize the wonder of the depth of God’s love for us, the magnitude of His mercy toward us, and the never ending abundance of His grace to meet our needs. When we abide in Christ, our yoke is easy and our burden is light. See Matthew 11:28-30. If we work our way, the wall between us and God is insurmountable. Let’s abide in Him!
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
(John 15:5)”
Bob Howell
Reprinted by permission from New Wine Press #2, December 27, 1981, a publication of Light of the World Fellowship