Chapter Five

Nov 28

As You Came to Him, by Faith

“As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him: rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, abounding in it.” – Colossians 2:6–7

Faith Is the Foundation, From Beginning to End

In these words, the apostle teaches us a vital truth: it is not only by faith that we first come to Christ and are united to Him, it is also by faith that we are to be rooted and established in our union with Him. Faith is just as essential for the ongoing progress of the spiritual life as it is for the very beginning of it. Abiding in Jesus can only happen by faith.

A Common Misunderstanding Among Sincere Believers

There are sincere Christians who do not grasp this truth, or if they accept it in theory, they fail to live it out. They are passionate about the free gospel, about accepting Christ and being justified by faith alone. But after that initial step, they believe everything depends on their own diligence and faithfulness.

They firmly hold to the truth that “the sinner is justified by faith,” yet they have little room in their thinking for the larger truth: “the righteous shall live by faith.” They have never fully understood what a perfect Savior Jesus is, that He will do for the believer each day exactly what He did on the very first day. They do not yet see that the life of grace is always and only a life of faith, and that the one daily and unceasing duty of a disciple is to believe, because faith is the only channel through which divine grace and strength flow into the human heart.

The old nature of the believer remains sinful to the very last. It is only as we come daily, empty and helpless—to our Savior, to receive His life and strength, that we can bring forth the fruits of righteousness to the glory of God. And so the call remains: “As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him: rooted in Him, established in the faith, abounding in it.” As you came to Jesus, so abide in Him, by faith.

How Faith Works in Abiding, Just As It Did at the Start

If you want to understand how faith is to be exercised in abiding in Jesus, how to be rooted more deeply and firmly in Him, simply look back to when you first received Him. You remember the obstacles that seemed to stand in the way of your believing.

There was your sense of guilt and unworthiness, it seemed impossible that the promise of pardon and love could be for someone like you. Then there was the felt weakness: you didn’t feel the inner strength needed to surrender and trust as you were called to do. And there was the fear of the future, you dared not commit to being a disciple of Jesus when you felt so certain you would quickly fall away again. These difficulties seemed like mountains in your path.

How were those mountains removed? Simply by the Word of God. That Word compelled you to believe that, despite your guilt in the past, your weakness in the present, and your feared unfaithfulness in the future, the promise was sure: Jesus would accept you and save you. On that Word you ventured to come. And you were not disappointed. You found that Jesus did indeed accept and save you.

Apply That Same Faith to Abiding in Him

Now apply that same experience to the question of abiding in Him. The temptations that would keep you from believing are just as real now as they were then. When you think of your sins since you became a disciple, your heart sinks with shame, and it seems far too much to expect that Jesus would truly receive you into the fullness of His love and intimacy.

When you remember how utterly you have failed in keeping your most sacred commitments, your sense of present weakness makes you tremble at the very thought of answering the Savior’s call with the promise, “Lord, from this day forward I will abide in You.” And when you picture the life of love and joy, holiness and fruitfulness that is meant to flow from abiding in Him, it only makes things feel more hopeless. You know yourself too well. You think: a life fully and wholly abiding in Jesus is simply not for someone like me.

But dear soul, learn from when you first came to the Savior! Remember how you were led, against all your experience, all your feelings, and even your own sober judgment, to take Jesus at His word. And how you were not disappointed.

He Saved You Then; He Will Keep You Now

He did receive you. He did pardon you. He did love you and save you, you know it. And if He did all this when you were still an enemy and a stranger, how much more will He fulfill His promise now that you are His own? Come, and begin simply to listen to His Word and ask only this one question: Does He really mean that I should abide in Him?

The answer His Word gives is both simple and certain: By His almighty grace, you are now in Him. That same almighty grace will enable you to abide in Him. By faith you became a partaker of the initial grace. By that same faith, you can enjoy the continuous grace of abiding in Him.

What to Believe: He Is the Vine

If you ask exactly what it is you need to believe in order to abide in Him, the answer is not complicated. Believe first of all what He says: “I am the Vine.” The safety and fruitfulness of a branch depend entirely on the strength of the vine. Don’t think so much of yourself as a branch, or even of abiding as your duty, until you have first filled your soul with faith in what Christ as the Vine truly is.

He will be to you everything that a vine can be, holding you fast, nourishing you, and making Himself every moment responsible for your growth and your fruit. Take time to know this. Set yourself wholeheartedly to believe: My Vine, on whom I can depend for all I need, is Christ. A large, strong vine bears the feeble branch, and holds it more securely than the branch holds the vine. Ask the Father, by the Holy Spirit, to show you what a glorious, loving, mighty Christ this is, in whom you have your place and your life.

Faith in what Christ is, more than anything else, is what will keep you abiding in Him. A soul filled with great thoughts of the Vine will be a strong branch, abiding confidently in Him. Be much occupied with Jesus, and believe deeply in Him as the True Vine.

And Then: “I Am His Branch”

When faith can say with confidence, “He is my Vine,” let it go further and say, “I am His branch; I am in Him.” I speak to those who call themselves Christ’s disciples. I cannot press this point too earnestly: exercise your faith by saying, “I am in Him.” It makes abiding so simple.

If I clearly meditate on this and realize it, Now I am in Him, I see at once that there is nothing more required of me than simply to consent to remain where He has placed me. I am in Christ: this simple thought, carefully, prayerfully, and believingly held, removes all difficulty, as if the whole thing were some great attainment still to be reached. No. I am in Christ, my blessed Savior. His love has prepared a home for me with Himself, when He says, “Abide in my love.” And His power has undertaken to keep the door and to keep me in, if I will but consent.

I am in Christ. I have now only to say: “Savior, I bless You for this wondrous grace. I consent; I yield myself to Your gracious keeping. I do abide in You.”

What Such Faith Produces

It is remarkable how such a faith works out everything else implied in abiding in Christ. The Christian life certainly requires watchfulness and prayer, self-denial and striving, obedience and diligence. But “all things are possible to him who believes,” and “this is the victory that overcomes, our faith.”

It is the faith that continually closes its eyes to the weakness of the creature and finds its joy in the sufficiency of an almighty Savior, that makes the soul strong and glad. This faith gives itself up to be led by the Holy Spirit into an ever-deeper appreciation of that wonderful Savior whom God has given us: the Infinite Immanuel. It follows the Spirit’s leading from page to page of the blessed Word, with the one desire to receive each revelation of what Jesus is and what He promises as its nourishment and life.

In keeping with the promise, “If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you too will abide in the Father and the Son,” this faith lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God. And so it makes the soul strong with the strength of God, strong enough to be and do all that is needed for abiding in Christ.

Believer, you would abide in Christ: only believe. Believe always; believe now. Bow even now before your Lord, and say to Him in childlike faith that, because He is your Vine and you are His branch, you will this day abide in Him.

NOTE

“I am the True Vine.” He who offers us the privilege of actual union with Himself is the great I AM, the almighty God, who upholds all things by the word of His power. And this almighty God reveals Himself as our perfect Savior, even to the unimaginable extent of seeking to renew our fallen natures by grafting them into His own Divine nature.

“To realize the glorious Deity of Him whose call sounds forth to longing hearts with such exceeding sweetness is no small step towards gaining the full privilege to which we are invited. But longing is by itself of no use; still less can there be any profit in reading about the blessed results to be gained from a close and personal union with our Lord, if we believe that union to be practically beyond our reach. His words are meant to be a living, eternal, precious reality. And this they can never become unless we are sure that we may reasonably expect their fulfillment.

“But what could make the fulfillment of such an idea possible, what could make it reasonable to suppose that we, poor, weak, sinful creatures, full of failures, might be saved out of the corruption of our nature and made partakers of the holiness of our Lord, except the marvelous, unalterable fact that He who proposes so great a transformation is Himself the everlasting God, as able as He is willing to fulfill His own word.

“In meditating upon these utterances of Christ, containing the very essence of His teaching and the very concentration of His love, let us, at the outset, put away all tendency to doubt. Let us not allow ourselves so much as to question whether such erring disciples as we are can be enabled to attain the holiness to which we are called through a close and intimate union with our Lord. If there be any impossibility, any falling short of the promised blessedness, it will arise from the lack of earnest desire on our part. There is no lack in any respect on His part. With God there can be no shortcoming in the fulfillment of His promise.”

— The Life of Fellowship: Meditations on John 15:1,11, by A. M. James

For young or doubting Christians, it is worth noting that something more is needed than simply trying to exercise faith in each individual promise as it comes before us. What is of even greater importance is the cultivation of a trustful disposition toward God, the habit of always thinking of Him, of His ways and His works, with bright and confident hopefulness. Only in such soil can individual promises take root and grow.

Works such as James Kimball’s Encouragements to Faith (published by the Tract Society) offer many suggestive and helpful thoughts, all making the case for God’s right to be trusted. Hannah Whitall Smith’s The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life has also been a great help to many, with its bright and buoyant tone, its loving, unceasing reminder that we may indeed depend on Jesus to do all He has said, and more than we can think. It has breathed hope and joy into many a heart that was nearly ready to despair of ever making progress. Frances Havergal’s Kept for the Master’s Use carries the same healthful, hope-inspiring tone.

Marcus Meazzo