Lesson 68: The All-Inclusive Condition, part 2
In the growing life of abiding in Christ, the first stage is that of faith. As the believer sees that, with all his weakness, the command is really meant for him, his great aim is simply to believe that, as he knows he is in Christ, so now, even with unfaithfulness and failure, abiding in Christ is his immediate duty, and a blessing within his reach. He is specially occupied with the love, and power, and faithfulness of the Savior: he feels his one need to be believing.
It is not long before he sees something more is needed. Obedience and faith must go together. Not as if to the faith he has, the obedience must be added, but faith must be made obvious in obedience. Faith is obedience at home and looking to the Master: obedience is faith going out to do His will. He sees how he has been more occupied with the privilege and the blessings of this abiding than with its duties and its fruit. There has been much of self and of self-will that has been unnoticed or tolerated: the peace which, as a young and weak disciple, he could enjoy in believing goes from him; it is in practical obedience that the abiding must be maintained: “If you keep My commands, you shall abide in My love.” As before his great aim was through the mind, and the truth it took hold of, to let the heart rest on Christ and His promises; so now, in this stage, the chief effort is to get his will united with the will of his Lord, and the heart and the life brought entirely under His rule.
And yet it is as if there is something missing. The will and the heart are on Christ’s side; he obeys and he loves his Lord. But still, why is it that the fleshly nature has yet so much power, that the spontaneous motions and emotions of the inmost being are not what they should be? The will does not approve or allow, but here is an area beyond control of the will. And why also, even when there is not so much of positive commission to condemn, why so much of omission, the lack of that beauty of holiness, that zeal of love, that oneness with Jesus and His death, in which the life of self is lost, and which is surely implied in the abiding, as the Master meant it? There must surely be something in our abiding in Christ and Christ in us, which he has not yet experienced.
Prayer: You say: Abide in me! O my Master, my Life, my All, I do abide in You. Help me grow up into all Your fulness. It is not the effort of faith, seeking to cling to You, nor even the rest of faith, trusting You to keep me; it is not the obedience of the will, nor the keeping the commandments; but it is You living in me and in the Father, that alone can satisfy me. It is Your self, my Lord, no longer before me and above me, but one with me, and abiding in me; it is this I need, it is this I seek. It is this I trust You for.
You say: Ask whatsoever you will! Lord, I know that the life of full, deep abiding will so renew and sanctify and strengthen the will that I shall have the light and the liberty to ask great things. Lord, let my will, dead in Your death, living in Your life, be bold and large in its petitions.