Christ’s Pre-Ascension Message – Abide in Me

by | Posted April 23rd at 1:39pm

Jesus has two intimate calls to each of us: ‘Come to me.’—Matt. 11:28, and ‘Abide in me.’—John 15:4 

Perhaps you have heard and listened to the call of the Lord Jesus: ‘Come to me‘.  Just as important, is the ongoing invitation to stay close to the same loving Saviour and hear his admonition: ‘Abide in me.’ 

Many have never repented for not having come at the abiding call for a close union. You experienced that His Word offers the truth; all His promises He fulfils; He made you partakers of the blessings and the joy of His love. Was not His welcome to you most endearing, His pardon full, generously accessible, His love most sweet and precious?

Why do blessings we enjoy, the love and joy of your first meeting with your Saviour fade instead of deepening? Why do we become faint and feeble? 

What is the cause of our spiritual weakness?

At your first coming to Him, you had no reason to complain of disappointment: yet as time went on, somehow perhaps your expectations were not realized.  Often, you may wonder what the cause could be, that with such a Saviour, so mighty and so loving, your experience of salvation is still at a loss for a fuller true communing relationship. The answer is straightforward. You may have wandered from Him, or you may have rebelled.

The blessings He bestows are connected with His ‘Come to me’ and are only to be enjoyed in close fellowship with Himself. You may not yet fully understand, or did not rightly remember, that the call meant, ‘Come to me to stay with me.’ This union in a close relationship — was His object and purpose when He first called you to Himself. It was not to refresh you simply for a few days or months after your conversion, but with a continuum of the joy of His love and deliverance. He had destined you for something better than a short-lived blessedness — not an experience only to be enjoyed during one day in seven, or in times of particular need and prayer. We wander unbeknown in times due to stress, overwork, cultural influences, distractions, or of late: pandemic health fears.

We zig-zag emotionally at times, from desiring God to the pressing administrations of life’s business. Thus our joy diminishes or fully passes away. The anxieties and pressures of life can diminish our zeal.

Remember that Jesus has prepared for you a daily abiding indwelling of His Spirit. You can enjoy unbroken communion with His Spirit. It is this close fellowship He desired when he drew you tenderly: Come to me. Never forget that He added the conjoined call of loving Grace: Abide in me. — walking daily in close union, while allowing Christ’s Spirit to lead you. He will empower and direct you to live a vibrant, thriving life. As a result of this, the treasures of His presence will bring blessed rewards.

It was not that He said: Come to me and abide with me, but, Abide in me. Communion was not only to be unbroken but most intimate and complete. He opened His arms freely accept you, to press you to His bosom; He opened His heart, to welcome you there; He opened up all His Divine fulness of life and love, and offered to take you up into its fellowship, to make you wholly one with Himself. 

There is a depth of meaning to realize in His words: Abide in me.  He still pleads with a great lesson: Abide in me – without me, you can do nothing! By every motive that had induced you to come, did He not implore you and me to abide?

Was it the fear of sin’s curse that first drew you? The pardon you received by first coming can only be confirmed and thoroughly enjoyed while abiding in Him with all the blessings flowing from Him. Was it the longing to know and appreciate the Infinite Love that was calling you? Was it the weary longing to be made free from the bondage of sin, to become pure and holy, and thereby find rest, the rest of God for the soul? This entire calming union can only be realized as you abide in Him—only whilst walking in the Light with Jesus.

To enter into this promised inherited union in Christ is a foretaste of our promised glory. The presence of the Infinite One is granted only to those who abide in Him. This call is for you as it is for me: Abide in Him. You did well to come; you do much better to abide — share with Him in all the glory of His royal life and priesthood.

Some may have heard the words: Abide in me, yet did not know that such a life of abiding fellowship is possible and within reach. 

Others, though they believed that such a life was possible and sought after it, have never yet succeeded in discovering the secret of its attainment. And others, alas! will confess that it is their unfaithfulness that has kept them from the enjoyment of the blessing. When our Saviour would have kept them, they were not ready to stay; they were not prepared to give up everything and always, only, wholly to abide in Jesus.

What can you do now to abide in Christ?

To all such, now: in the name of Jesus, your Redeemer and mine, the blessed warning remains: Abide in me, lest you can do nothing. With its various aspects, the possibility, during wearying work and continual distraction, of keeping up with the world, instead of being kept in Christ’s abiding communion.

You and I cannot undertake to remove all anxious obstacles; this Jesus Christ Himself alone must do by His Holy Spirit via abiding close union with His Spirit to lead and guide you. Each man or woman must acknowledge the need, realizing that there can be no true allegiance to our Lord without simply and heartily accepting this as one of His commands.

Meditate on this word of His calling us into abiding union, with an eye fixed on Him alone. Let us set ourselves in quiet trust before Him, waiting to hear His holy voice,—breathing its quickening Spirit within us, as He speaks: ‘Abide in me.’ The soul that truly hears Jesus Himself speak the Word receives with the Word the power to accept and to hold the blessing He offers.

And it may please You, blessed Saviour, indeed, to speak to us; let each of us hear Your heavenly voice. May the feeling of our deep need, and faith in Your wondrous love, combined with the sight of the wonderfully blessed life You are waiting to bestow upon us, constrain us to listen and to obey, as often as You speak into our heart: ‘Abide in me.’ Let day by day the answer from our heart be more apparent and fuller: ‘Blessed Saviour, I do abide in Thee.’

This may also interest: What we have if we abide in Christ.

^{This study is a modern edit and expansion by Glen Jackman of Andrew Murray’s  Abide in Christ: Thoughts on the Blessed Life of Fellowship with the Son of God (pp. 13–20). (1895, now in the public domain)}

Article posted by Glen R. Jackman, founder of GraceProclaimed.org

Glen has optimized his eldership role to teach the full scope of the New Covenant of Jesus Christ without boundaries.
You can read his testimony.