IN answer to yours, I send you a further word on “abiding in Christ.” First of all, it is a great thing to see that “in Christ” is where God has put every believer in Him. Secondly, I think you put, so to speak, the cart before the horse in your mind; that is, you take 1 John 3:99Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. (1 John 3:9) as if it were written, Whosoever does not practice sin abides in Him, rather than as it is written. Abiding where grace has put us is the way not to sin. It is clear that Christ and sin cannot go together; grace has led us to the precious Saviour; there we are in safeguard, and learn to abandon our, own will and way through having Him as the spring of our life.
But there is a third thing which we have to take into account, namely that the Spirit of God does not speak to us in any other way than as truth really is―He could not lower it to our experience. We may say we ought to be this or that, and then have to admit that we are not, but truth must abide what it is, and Christ is the truth, and hence we have before us that which is Divinely perfect. We must not confuse between abiding in Christ, which is our settled place, and growing up into Christ. A child is a child abiding in its father’s love and care as its own place, though it may grow in the apprehension of its privilege.
Of course, if we were always consciously abiding in our privileged place, not sinning would practically characterize us, and this is what is before you. But God makes it to be characteristic of a Christian, though it is evident from chap. 11, that He has made provision for us in the advocacy of Jesus Christ the Righteous if we do sin. John writes to us about what has come to light in God and in Christ, so that we should not sin„ and though it is true, as James says, that “in many things we all offend,” yet we are to walk in the light that shines in Jesus, and there is healing in those beams, though they will show us every inconsistency―everything not suited to Christ.
This light of God shows us His estimate of the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son. It cleanses from everything that has the nature and character of “sin.” Then, if we have the sense of how clean the blood of Jesus has made us in God’s sight, we are careful not to get spotted. We need to be watchful and careful, remembering that our responsibility as well as our privilege is to keep close to the trusted side of Jesus.
The advocacy of the Lord is to the end that we should be kept in the sense of where grace has put us. When the Lord foretold Peter of his fall, He did not pray for him that he should not be sifted, but that his faith (in Christ and in His grace) should not fail. Do not be discouraged at what you find in yourself. It was just because you are what you are that Christ died for you and intercedes for you. His intercession it is which keeps us “close to His trusted side” in the sense of His great salvation. How often should we leave Him but for that, though we may little have had the consciousness of His intercession.
Remember God is the God of all grace.
T. H. R.