Can I live in Christ permanently? - only in Christ can I bear fruit (PART 2)

by David Leach
(Temecula, Ca)

Murray states: "A second objection (to abiding in Christ) has reference to our sinfulness. Christians are so accustomed to look upon sinning daily as something absolutely, that they regard it as a matter of course that no one can keep up abiding fellowship with the Savior: we must sometimes be unfaithful and fail. As if it was not precisely because we have a nature which is a very fountain of sin, that the abiding in Christ has been ordained for us as our only and sufficient deliverance!

As if it were not the Heavenly Vine, the living, loving Christ, in whom we have to abide, and whose almighty power to hold us fast is to be the measure of our expectations! As if He would give us the command, "Abide in me," without securing the grace and the power to enable us to perform it! As if, above all, we had not the Father as the Husbandman to keep us from falling, and that not in a large and general sense, but according to His own precious promise: "Night and day, every moment!"

Oh, if we will but look to our God as the Keeper of the Christian, of whom it is said, "The Lord shall keep you from all evil; He shall keep your soul," Psa. 121:7 we shall learn to believe that conscious abiding in Christ every moment, night and day, is indeed what God has prepared for them that love Him. Take for the rule of your daily experience the language of faith: "l the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day." And be assured that, if God keeps the branch night and day, and waters it every moment, a life of continuous and unbroken fellowship with Christ is indeed our privilege".

To remain in Christ and bear fruit I must surrender all of my natural abilities to God

Rom 12:1 I APPEAL to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of all the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies, presenting all your members and faculties as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is ... your spiritual worship. AMP

Murray states: "lncalculable harm has been done to the deeper spirituality of the Church, by the idea that when once we are God's children the using of our gifts in His service follows as a matter of course. No; I must see how all my gifts and powers are, even though I am a child of God, still defiled by sin, and under the power of the flesh. I must see that they are most dangerous to me, because through them the flesh, the old nature, self, will so easily exert its power. ln this conviction I must part with them, giving them entirely up to the Lord.

When He has accepted them, and set His stamp upon them, I receive them back, to hold them as His property, to wait on Him for the grace to use them aright day by day, and to have them act only under His influence.

Believer, would you abide in Christ, see here the blessed path. Nature shrinks back from such self-denial and crucifixion in its rigid application to our life. But what nature does not love and cannot perform, grace will accomplish, and make to you a life of joy and glory. Do you but yield up yourself to Christ your Lord; the conquering power of His incoming presence will make it joy to cast out all that before was most precious.

And the secret of a life of close abiding will be seen to be simply this: As I give myself wholly to Christ, I find the power to take Him wholly for myself; and as I lose myself and all I have for Him, He takes me wholly for Himself, and gives Himself wholly to me".
John 15:4-5 (Jesus) Live in me and let me live in you.,.and you shall bear much fruit