Abiding in Christ and walking like Christ: these two blessings of the new life are presented here in their essential unity. The fruit of a life in Christ is a life like Christ.

To the first of these expressions, abiding in Christ, we are no strangers. The wondrous parable of the vine and the branches, with the accompanying command, “Abide in Me, and I in you” (Jn. 15:4), has often been a source of rich instruction and comfort. And though we feel as if we have only imperfectly learned the lesson of abiding in Him, yet we have tasted something of the joy that comes when the soul can say: “Lord, you know all things. You know that I do abide in You.” And, He also knows how often the fervent prayer still arises: “Blessed Lord, do grant me the complete, unbroken abiding.”

The second expression, walking like Christ, is no less significant than the first. It is the promise of the wonderful power which abiding in Him will exert. As the fruit of our surrender to live wholly in Him, His life works so mightily in us that our walk – the outward expression of the inner life – becomes like His. The two are inseparably connected. The abiding in always precedes the walking like Him. The heavenly Giver will bestow the fullness of His grace if He sees that the soul is prepared to use it according to His design.

There are two vital lessons to be learned from these closely related truths:

The first lesson they teach is: He who seeks to abide in Christ must walk even as He walked. We all know that it is a matter of course that a branch bear fruit of the same sort as the vine to which it belongs. The life of the vine and the branch is so completely identical that the manifestation of that life must be identical, too. When the Lord Jesus redeemed us with His blood, and presented us to the Father in His righteousness, He did not leave us in our old nature to serve God as best we could. No, in Him dwells eternal life – the holy, divine life of heaven – and everyone who is in Him receives that same eternal life in its holy, heavenly power.

The mighty life of God in the soul does not, however, work as a blind force compelling us ignorantly or involuntarily to act like Christ. On the contrary, the walking like Him must be the result of a deliberate choice sought in strong desire and accepted by a living will. With this view, the Father showed us in Jesus’ earthly life what the life of heaven would be when it came down into the conditions and circumstances of our human life. The whole earthly life of the Master is the rule and guide of all our conduct. If we abide in Jesus, we may not act other than He did. “Like Christ” gives, in one, all-inclusive expression, the blessed law of the Christian life. He is to think, to speak, to act as Jesus did.

The second lesson is the complement of the first: He who seeks to walk like Christ, must abide in Him. With some Christians there is the earnest desire and effort to follow Christ’s example. And yet, they have no sense of how impossible it is to do so without a deep, real abiding in Him. They fail because they seek to obey the high command to live like Christ, without the only power that can do so – the living in Christ. With others, there is the opposite error. They know their own weakness, and think that walking like Christ is an impossibility. Those who seek to do it and who fail need the lesson as much as those who do not seek it because they expect to fail. To walk like Christ one must abide in Him. He who abides in Him has the power to walk like Him; not in himself or his own efforts, but in Jesus, who perfects His strength in our weakness.

It is when I feel my utter weakness most deeply, and fully accept Jesus in His wondrous union to myself as my life, that His power works in me. Then, I am able to lead a life completely beyond what my own power could obtain. I begin to see that abiding in Him is not a matter of moments or special seasons, but the deep life process in which – by His keeping grace – I continue without a moment’s intermission. And I feel encouraged to really take Him as my entire example, because I am sure that the hidden, inner union and likeness must work itself out into a visible likeness in walk and conduct.

Dear reader! If God gives us grace, in the course of our meditations, to truly enter into the meaning of His words and what they teach about a life like Christ’s, we will more than once cry out, “How can these things be?” If the Holy Spirit reveals the heavenly perfection of the humanity of our Lord as the image of the unseen God, and speaks, “so, even so ought ye also to walk,” the first effect will be that we will begin to feel how far we are from Him. We will be ready to give up hope and to say with so many, “There’s no reason to even try, I can never walk like Jesus.” At such moments, we will find our strength in the message, He that abideth in Him, he must, he can, also walk even as He walked. The word of the Master will come with new meaning as the assurance of sufficient strength: “He who abide in Me bears much fruit.”

Therefore, brethren, abide in Him! Every believer is in Christ. But, not everyone abides in Him in the consciously joyful and trustful surrender of his or her whole being given up to His control and influence. You know what abiding in Him is. It is to consent with our whole soul to His being our life, to depend on Him to inspire us in all that goes to make up life, and then to absolutely give up everything so that He may rule and work in us. It is resting in the full assurance that He does, each moment, work in us what we are to be. He himself enables us to maintain that perfect surrender, in which He is free to do all His will.

Prayer: “Blessed Saviour, You know how often I have said, Lord, I do abide in You! And yet, I sometimes feel that the full joy and power of a life in You is lacking. Your word this day has reminded me of what the reason for my failure might be. I sought to abide in You more for my own comfort and growth than for Your glory. I did not fully understand how the hidden union with You had for its object perfect conformity to You. I didn’t realise how only he who wholly yields himself to serve and obey the Father as completely as You did can fully receive all that the heavenly love can do for him. Lord, thank You for the discovery. With my whole heart I accept Your calling, and yield myself in everything to walk even as You walked. To be Your faithful follower in all that You were and did on earth is the one desire of my heart. Blessed Lord, he who truly yields himself to walk as You walked, will receive grace to wholly abide in You. O my Lord, here I am. To walk like Christ, for this I do indeed consecrate myself to You. To abide in Christ, for this I trust in You with full assurance of faith. Perfect in me Your own work. And, let the Holy Spirit help me, o Lord, each time I meditate on what it is to walk like You, to hold fast the blessed truth: as one who abides in Christ, I have the strength to walk like Christ. Amen.”