Abide in Christ — New Life
God has provided new life for those who abide in Christ. This new life is not what everyone in the world is living. It is more than a socially excepted morality. This new life is much more than doing good deeds or being kind to others. The world does not possess the one thing that makes a person a Christian. This new life is the presence or possession of Christ in you. It is a result of God freely giving.
John 3:16 NKJV For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
When God looked down on the world’s condition, something caused Him to reach out to help us. He saw our poverty, destitution, and helplessness. He saw our weakness, failure, sickness, and pain. He saw that we were without hope in this world. As a result of what God saw, He took action to rescue us from what bound, held and destroyed us. Each of us have a history of things that have identified our lives. We have been identified by our character, actions, successes and failures. Each of us have known varying degrees of sin, sickness, and death. We have had to deal with all of our failures, weaknesses, and helplessness. We have been distinguished by our character. God our Father has taken action to rescue you from the one who seeks to destroy your soul.
Colossians 1:13–14 AMP The Father has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, In Whom we have our redemption through His blood, which means the forgiveness of our sins.
Consider the depth of God’s love that reached down to rescue you from the dominion of darkness. In return for what God has done, He expects something from you. God wants you and He wants fruit that testifies of Christ. He came of His own accord and at His own expense. He came to freely and totally deliver us out of the power and control of darkness. This is the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He not only delivered us, He has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have our redemption.
In the Old Testament, there is a story of a woman who was rescued by a kinsman redeemer.
The story of Ruth is a beautiful example of how Christ rescues the sinner and gives new life.
Ruth was a poor young widow that forsook her old life to move to Bethlehem Judah with her mother-in-law Naomi. She was a foreigner and stranger in the land. She was homeless, hungry, without income, and destitute. When Boaz found her, everything changed. When he became her kinsman redeemer, she did not have to give up her poverty, she took his wealth. She did not give up her loneliness, she received his fellowship. She did not give up her weakness, anxiety, and fear, she received his abundance, protection, and care.
This is how God works in our lives.
God comes to us and asks us to receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. When you receive Christ, He makes a difference in your life. He becomes your Redeemer, strength, provider and protection. In Him you are blessed with every spiritual blessing. You are enriched with His riches and made alive with His life. We receive… everything He is, everything He has, and everything He does is for us. We receive His life, healing and righteousness. Because we receive Him, we are brought into a new dominion. His kingdom is a dominion of righteousness and goodness. It is the dominion of Christ and His victory, joy, and peace. This is an act of His grace, mercy and love. Jesus has become our light and salvation. He has become our deliverance, sanctification and righteousness.
Consider the joy of abiding in Christ.
John 15:4-5 NKJV Abide in Me, and I in you. As the 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.
What does it mean to abide?
The word “abide” [μένω (menō)] means to stay, remain, abide, wait for, to remain in place, and expect something in the future. To abide is to remain in the same relationship with Christ. To abide is to remain in identification with Christ. This is the key to abundant Christian living.
In Romans 7, the Apostle Paul spoke about his personal struggles with weakness and sin. He used the words “me, my, and I” 36 times to demonstrate his wretched condition. In Romans 8:1-17, he referred to God, the Holy Spirit, the Son, and Christ 26 times. In these verses, he defined the believer’s life of victory in Christ. In Romans 7, he could not find a way to overcome the problems in his life and his downward tendencies and negative characteristics. In Romans 7, he was wretched and without Christ. In Romans 8, he became more than victorious through Christ as the Holy Spirit was working in him.
The moment we come to Christ, God not only forgives our sins, He also gives us all we need to live a victorious Christian life.
There is more than enough in Christ if we continually hold on to His provision by faith. What God has provided for you in Christ is sufficient to cause you to have a fruit-filled life. You can have full faith and confidence in the abundant supply that is in Him.
On our own is weakness.
We are the sinners. We have much pain and sickness. We are weak and have much distress.
Consider what Christ has brought into our life.
From Him comes all of the strength and might. From Him comes the life and the liberty. He came to us so that we might come to Him. He became weak so that He may make many strong. We do not come to Him on the basis of our worthiness, but on the basis of His goodness. It is not our work but His. It is not our strength but His. It is not our goodness but His. It is not our holiness but His.
Galatians 2:20 NET I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
When we abide in Him and enjoy this union with Jesus, He covers our deficit. Our penalty and punishment has been paid. He has satisfied the demands that were against us and He has put away the claim of sin.
Everyone in Christ has become a partaker of His victory.
Romans 6:11 NKJV Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The word reckon is the key. We must reckon or consider ourselves to be alive in Christ Jesus.
Do you know that the Lord has rescued and claimed you to be His own?
Start identifying yourself with His life, authority, power, victory, blood, and person. By faith, confess victory in Christ. This is not a feeling, it is trust and faith in Him. Consider yourself to be in Christ and victorious over sin. This is fully trusting Him and rolling all of your care on Him.
We have to choose to yield our lives in His hands.
A person in a river can fight its force or yield to the current and go where the river goes.
What do we have to do to yield to the Lord?
Yielding is obedience from the heart and full surrender to His will. It means to stop resisting and start serving Him. It means to fully trust Him and have confidence in His power, wisdom, goodness, riches, and greatness.
Psalm 37:3–4 NIV84 Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.
The key to this abundant life is to delight yourself in the Lord and make Him your pleasure. Set your focus on the Lord and realize that something good is coming to you from Him.
Psalm 37:5–6 NIV84 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
Look closely at this. We abide where we are committed. This commitment is a testimony of where we draw our life and strength.
Psalm 37:7 NIV84 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him
Psalm 37:34 NIV84 Wait for the Lord and keep his way. He will exalt you…
Waiting on the Lord is the process of drawing your life source from Him. When we wait on the Lord, what is in Him comes into us. He gives us His strength, vitality and life. When the Apostle Paul attempted to live in this victory on his own, he was a failure. All he could see was his sin, weakness, and past failures. When he started trusting in the Lord everything changed.
Romans 8:1–2 NET There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.
