Abide

In my last post I indicated I wanted to consider the word 'abide', so this post is entitled Abide.
In the Bible there is a passage that records the words of Jesus where He deals with the subject of abiding in Him.
This is found in the book in the Bible of John chapter 15.
If you have access to a Bible I really would encourage you to read it. Don't let the fact that we are reading from the Bible get to you. The Bible has been given a lot of bad press mainly by people who have never really read the Bible; at least I don't believe they have read it with an open mind (or heart) but rather have read it through a lense that has seriously distorted their view.
The Bible is a love story, the greatest love story ever known, the story of the love of God for His creation. It's a love story and it is brim full of good stuff. Please allow me to encourage you to be open to it. I'm not asking you to do anything else, in fact, God doesn't ask you to do anything else but be open. If you will allow it God Himself will come and begin to peel back the layers. My wife became a Christian having never read the Bible in her life and was completely entranced by this book. One day she says to me "This book is like an onion...layer after layer of stuff that makes me cry with joy!"
Okay...abiding.
When I was younger I was encouraged to read the Bible and in fact I sat under Bible teaching for most all of my formative years. I have read John 15 many times.
Abiding in Christ I always believed was something I had to do. For many years I lived under the frustrating misapprehension that my Christian life and walk was based around what I did (or didn't) and that my acceptance by God was very much dependant on my actions. You know I have come to realise today that many people that believe in Jesus Christ are living a life of quiet frustration because they believe that their 'Christianity' is dependant on them. Maybe that is you?
So I thought that when Jesus encouraged me to abide in Him it required significant effort on my part, and my significant effort without exception resulted in my frustrated failure. I couldn't abide in Him to the level or standard that I felt was expected. I tried really hard but I just couldn't make it. When I failed a voice would speak into my ear and this voice would criticise my effort and make the suggestion that I may as well give up. Many times I thought to give up and for a long period of my life I did.
Now listen to the statement Jesus made in John 15...

"Abide in Me, and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 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."
"If you abide in Me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you." John 15: 4, 5, 7
 

 I think it probably important that we gather an understanding of what it actually means when Jesus said to "Abide in Me." Various translations of the Bible interpret 'abiding' and try to grasp its meaning by translating it as 'dwell in,' 'live in,' 'remain in,' and 'remain united to.' This is where my difficulty, and perhaps yours, comes from because when using these words of two persons the words are describing one person persevering, trying hard, making a great effort to remain in a union with another.
However for us to undersatnd what it means to adide in Christ we need to see a totally different relationship than one where we strive hard to achieve and maintain the relationship. Don't get me wrong it is right to persevere to maintain a union of fellowship and communion between two people but this is not the abiding that we see in John 15.
To begin our understanding we need to gather a glimpse of the relationship of Jesus with His Father. This relationship He describes is one of mutual indwelling, a union where abiding is translated as 'dwells.'

"Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say I do not speak on My own inititaive, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me..." John 14: 10, 11
 

Okay what does this mean for us? Well the bottom line is this, if we want to grasp even a little the magnitude, wonder and mystery of our position as Christ followers under the terms of the New Covenant then we need to grasp a little of the relationship Jesus has with His Father. Hang on a minute! Are you suggesting that the relationship is the same? Yes that is it exactly!
The heart of the New Covenant is the awesome and wonderful union that exists: Christ is in the believer, the believer is in Christ, Christ is in the Father as the Father is in Him. If you want a verse that succinctly ties it all together then listen to this...

" For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." Colossians 3: 3
 

So then how does one abide in Christ? Well it isn't about me striving for it. Listen to this one...

"Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him." 1 John 4: 15, 16

Pretty straightforward don't you think?
That revelation sure lifted a burden off me!
There is Life with a capital 'L' in that...simply the 'abiding' was done when I confessed that Jesus is the Son of God...the day I accepted Jesus as the way, the truth and the life that was the day I abided in Him for that was the day His Spirit came to dwell in me. Wow! No need for me to strive, work hard, toil, struggle to achieve a position of abiding in Him...He came to abide in me the moment I believed. It doesn't rely on me because I can't make it but it relies on Him and He has made it.

Now here is a verse for you to contemplate...

"Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us." 1 John 3: 24
 

Okay what is your interpretation of that?
You could easily read the first statement of the verse in isolation and believe that abiding in Him relies upon me keeping His commandments but that is not what it says. My dear friend you abide in Him because He abides in us and we have a very real and very powerful deposit within us as to the voracity of our position of abiding...we have His Spirit who He has given to us! Yeehah!
Now we could now go on and describe the intimacy of the vine - branch relationship but maybe that is for another time.
To close this thought I want you all to think about this. The Bible is made up of two sections. One is called 'The Old Testament' and the other 'The New Testament.' They could perhaps be more accurately entitled 'The Old Covenant' and 'The New Covenant.'
I could talk for long time about this but I won't but I want to sow this seed in you.
The Old Covenant was the one established through Moses which successfully revealed the need of man before God.
But God saw to establish the new;  a new covenant between Himself and man. God is God but man is man. Man is notoriously unable to keep the terms of any covenant so we needed a man who could do it. Who was our representative in the New Covenant? Why the second man of course, Jesus Christ. He satisfied all the requirements of the law of God to the letter and went in with His own blood and was accepted by a holy and righteousness God and we are set free from the curse of the terms of the 
old and brought us into the new.
I will say more about this another time as it is so important. For now though I will show you the terms of the two covenants.
The terms of the Old Covenant can be found in Exodus 20: 1 - 17...

• You shall...verse 3
• You shall not...verse 4
• You shall not...verse 5
• You shall not...verse 7
• Remember...keep...verse 8
• You shall not...verse 10
• Honour...verse 12
• You shall not...verse 13
• You shall not...verse 14
• You shall not...verse 15
• You shall not...verse 16
• You shall not...verse 17

Now for the terms of the New Covenant found in Hebrews 8: 10 - 12...please read this so slowly and so carefully.

"For this is the Covenant That I will make with the House of Israel. After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them upon their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be MY people. And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen and everyone his brother, saying 'Know the Lord,' for all shall know Me, from the very least to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."
 

The crux of is the final statement..."I will remember their sins no more."

Can you see the difference?
Do you not feel the liberation of the New Covenant?
It is liberating if only for the fact that no longer is it about what we do, or don't do, but we rejoice in the fact that we are established in a dwelling, abiding, remaining union with God, through Jesus Christ based not on our merit, not on our worth, not on our work, not on our striving but on Him and Him alone.
When He said "It is finished" He wasn't joking. He had done everything required and all we have to do is accept it. If you believe in Jesus then you are His and He abides in you and there is nothing you can do about it!

So to finish here is a question for you to ponder as you ponder the terms of the new Covenant...are you sitting or standing?

God bless you...will write again soon.