Abide
In Christ by Andrew Murray
Day
24
Obeying
His Commandments
“If
you keep my commandments, you shall abide in My love, just as I have
kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love” (John 15:10).
How
clearly we are taught here the place which good works are to occupy
in the life of the believer! Christ as the beloved Son was in the
Father's love. He kept His commandments, and so He abode in the love.
So the believer, without works, receives Christ and is in Him; he
keeps the commandments, and so abides in the love. When the sinner,
in coming to Christ, seeks to prepare himself by works, the voice of
the Gospel sounds, "Not of works." When once in Christ,
lest the flesh should abuse the word, "Not of works," the
Gospel lifts its voice as loud: "Created in Christ Jesus unto
good works" (Eph. 2:9). To the sinner out of Christ works may be
his greatest hindrance, keeping him from the union with the Savior.
To the believer in Christ, works are strength and blessing, for by
them faith is made perfect (James 2:22), the union with Christ is
cemented, and the soul established and more deeply rooted in the love
of God. "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and My Father
will love Him” (John 14:23). "If you keep my commandments,
you shall abide in My love."
The
connection between this keeping the commandments and the abiding in
Christ's love is easily understood. Our union with Jesus Christ is
not a thing of the intellect or sentiment, but a real vital union in
heart and life. The holy life of Jesus, with His feelings and
disposition, is breathed into us by the Holy Spirit. The believer's
calling is to think and feel and will just what Jesus thought and
felt and willed. He desires to be partaker not only of the grace, but
also of the holiness of His Lord. He sees that holiness is the chief
beauty of grace. To live the life of Christ means to the believer to
be delivered from the life of self; the will of Christ is to him the
only path of liberty from the slavery of his own evil self-will.
To
the ignorant or slothful believer there is a great difference between
the promises and commands of Scripture. He counts the promises of
Scripture as his comfort and his food; but to him who is really
seeking to abide in Christ's love, the commands become no less
precious. The commands are the revelation of the Divine love as much
as the promises. They guide into the deeper experience of the Divine
life and are blessed helpers in the path to a closer union with the
Lord. The seeking believer sees how the harmony of our will with His
will is one of the chief elements of our fellowship with Him. The
will is the central faculty in the Divine as in the human being. The
will of God is the power that rules the whole moral as well as the
natural world. How could there be fellowship with Him without delight
in His will? It is only as long as salvation is to the sinner nothing
but a personal safety, that he can be careless or afraid of doing
God's will. No sooner is it to him what Scripture and the Holy Spirit
reveal it to be — the restoration to communion with God and
conformity to Him — than he feels that there is no law more natural
or more beautiful than this: Keeping Christ's commandments is the way
to abide in Christ's love. His inmost soul approves when he hears the
beloved Lord make the greater measure of the Spirit, with the
manifestation of the Father and the Son in the believer, entirely
dependent upon keeping His commandments (See John 14:15-16, 21,23).
There
is another thing that opens to him a deeper insight and secures a
still more cordial acceptance of this truth. It is this, that in no
other way did Christ Himself abide in the Father's love. In the life
which Christ led upon earth, obedience was a solemn reality. The dark
and awful power that led man to revolt from his God, came upon Him,
too, to tempt Him. To Him as man its offers of self-gratification
were not matters of indifference; to refuse them, He had to fast and
pray. He suffered, being tempted. He spoke very distinctly of not
seeking to do His own will, as a surrender He had continually to
make. He made the keeping of the Father's commandments the distinct
object of His life, and so abode in His love. Does He not tell us, "I
do nothing of myself, but as the Father has taught me, I speak these
things. And He who sent me is with me. The Father has not left me
alone; for I always do those things that pleases Him” (John
8:28-29) He thus opened to us the only path to the blessedness of a
life on earth in the love of heaven; and when, as from our vine, His
Spirit flows in the branches, this keeping the commands is one of the
surest and highest elements of the life He inspires.
Believer!
If you would abide in Jesus, be very careful to keep His
commandments. Keep them in the love of your heart. Do not be content
to have them in the Bible for reference, but have them transferred by
careful study, by meditation and by prayer, by a loving acceptance,
by the Spirit's teaching, to the fleshy tables of the heart. Do not
be content with the knowledge of some of the commandments, those most
commonly received among Christians, while others lie unknown and
neglected. Surely, with your New Covenant privileges, you would not
be behind the Old Testament saints who spoke so fervently: "All
your precepts concerning all things I consider to be right” (Psalm
119:128). Be assured that there is still much of your Lord's will
that you do not yet understand. Make Paul's prayer for the Colossians
yours for yourself and all believers, "that you may be filled
with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding" (Col. 1:9), and that of wrestling Epaphras, "that
you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God" (Col.
4:12). Remember that this is one of the great elements of spiritual
growth — a deeper insight into the will of God concerning you.
Do
not imagine that entire consecration is the end of the truly holy
life. It is only the beginning. See how Paul, after having taught
believers to lay themselves upon the altar, as whole and holy
burnt-offerings to their God (Rom. 12:1), at once proceeds to tell
them what the true altar-life is: being ever more and more "renewed
in their mind to prove what is the good and perfect and acceptable
will of God” (Rom. 12:2). The progressive renewal of the Holy
Spirit leads to growing like-mindedness to Christ; then comes a
delicate power of spiritual perception — a holy instinct — by
which the soul "quick of understanding in the fear of the Lord”
(Isa. 11:3), knows to recognize the meaning and the application of
the Lord's commands to daily life in a way that remains hidden to the
ordinary Christian. Keep them dwelling richly within you, hide them
within your heart, and you shall taste the blessedness of the man
whose "delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he
meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:2). Love will assimilate into
your inmost being the commands as food from heaven. They will no
longer come to you as a law standing outside and against you, but as
the living power which has transformed your will into perfect harmony
with all your Lord requires.
And
keep them in the obedience of your life. Has it not been your solemn
vow to no longer tolerate even a single sin? "I have sworn, and
I will perform it, that I will keep Thy righteous judgments” (Psalm
119:106 KJV). Labor earnestly in prayer to stand perfect and
complete in all the will of God. Ask earnestly for the discovery of
every secret sin — of anything that is not in perfect harmony with
the will of God. Walk in the light you HAVE faithfully and tenderly,
yielding yourself in an unreserved surrender to obey all that the
Lord has spoken. When Israel took the vow at Sinai (Ex. 19:8; 24:7),
it was only to break it all too soon. The New Covenant gives the
grace to make the vow and to keep it too (Jer. 31:31-34). Be careful
of disobedience even in little things. Disobedience dulls the
conscience, darkens the soul, deadens our spiritual energies.
Therefore keep the commandments of Christ with implicit obedience. Be
a soldier that asks for nothing but the orders of the commander.
And
if even for a moment the commandments appear difficult, just remember
whose they are. They are the commandments of Him who loves you. They
are all love, they come from His love, they lead to His love. Each
new surrender to keep the commandments, each new sacrifice in keeping
them, leads to deeper union with the will, the spirit, and the love
of the Savior. The double recompense of reward will be yours — a
fuller entrance into the mystery of His love and a fuller conformity
to His own blessed life. And you will learn to prize these words
among your choicest treasures: "If you keep my commandments, you
shall abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments
and abide in His love."
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