ABIDE IN CHRIST THAT I MAY NOT SIN

“We, too, were once dead, and like Lazarus, were stinking in the grave of sin.  Yet Jesus raised us, and by His life we live.  Can we be content to live at a distance from Him” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Nov 21^st PM)?

“…there are degrees in the abiding.  With most Christians the abiding is so feeble and intermittent, that sin continually obtains the ascendency, and brings the soul into subjection” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p173).

“…unbelief, or unwatchfulness, opens the door for sin to reign.  And so the life of many believers is a course of continual stumbling and sinning.  But when the believer seeks full admission into, and a permanent abode in Jesus, the Sinless One, then the life of Christ keeps from actual transgression….Jesus does indeed save him from his sin—not by the removal of his sinful nature, but by keeping him from yielding to it….the believer can have sin  and yet not do sin.  The evil nature, the flesh, is unchanged in its enmity against God, but the abiding presence of Jesus keeps it down….’In Him is no sin; he that abideth in Him sinneth not’” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p173-174).

“When Christ commanded us to abide in Him…can He have meant anything but the healthy, vigorous, complete union of the branch with the Vine?…The abiding in Jesus makes it possible to keep from actual sinning; and Jesus Himself makes it possible to abide in Him” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p174-175).

“Do not…let you attention be diverted…Faith has ever only to deal with the present moment…’Jesus keeps me now, Jesus saves me now’…be kept abiding by His own abiding in you…renew your faith in an act of devotion: Jesus keeps me now….Let failure…instead of discouraging you, only urge you still more to seek your safety in abiding in the Sinless One….” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p175).

“Regard it as His work to keep you abiding in Him, and His work to keep you from sinning. It is indeed your work to abide in Him, but it is that, only because it is His work as Vine to bear and hold the branch” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p175).

“Gaze upon His holy human nature as what He prepared for you to be partaker of with Himself…of being filled with His fullness, and made the channel of showing forth His power, His blessing, and His glory” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p175-176).