ABIDING IN CHRIST
D. B. Robertson
Genesis 40: 9–11; John 15: 7–16
I was thinking of these verses especially in relation to what the butler says, “a vine was before me”. While it is on my heart, beloved brethren, to go on to say a little about abiding in Christ, I thought it well to draw attention first to what we read in Genesis 40, because I think there is a beautiful type of Christ in it. Christ as the source of fruitfulness. I would like to encourage the brethren to keep Christ before them. It would be very much like what we had in Glasgow a few weeks ago, the Head of the body and how we can draw on and derive from Him. I think there is something very beautiful in this section in relation to what I have to say for it brings out the glory of Christ as the source of fruitfulness. We of course know the Lord Jesus as the source of many things. He is the source of grace for us as we sometimes sing,
‘Lord Jesus, source of every grace’ (Hymn 114). He is also the source of life. There is no life according to God apart from Christ.
It is a very precious thing to have Him before our souls. The cup-bearer says, “a vine was before me”. I would like to leave an impression of that with the brethren, that whatever pressures are being faced, and whatever difficulties in the testimony might lie ahead of us, keep Christ before you, the source of fruitfulness. The cup-bearer had this dream. I do not think it meant too much to him, but the dream was interpreted by Joseph and it led to his being set free. But there is a great deal more in it than that. It says, “and in the vine were three branches; and it was as though it budded—its blossoms shot forth, its clusters ripened into grapes”. I think the Spirit of God is really throwing back into this period, the light of the life of Christ. It is a wonderful thing to understand that, the light that shone as Christ came into manhood. In
that manhood there was life according to God as it had never been seen before, and that shed its light, not only forward but also backwards and it is lighting up this type in a most beautiful way. Certainly I think there was something being worked out in Joseph that manifested features of the life of Christ. Think of that dark dungeon that he was in, one of the king’s prisoners, there without a cause, just like Jesus. It says of Him, “They hated me without a cause”, John 15: 25. What was manifested in Joseph was the Spirit of a suffering Christ.
Then these features are brought out, “it budded: its blossoms shot forth, its clusters ripened into grapes”. These I think would indicate certain periods of the Lord’s life. Think of it budding, think of the Lord Jesus in Luke as a holy babe. I doubt very much if any others apart from God Himself saw the beauty of that bud. I do not think at that point Mary saw it, and Joseph did not see it, but God saw it. Think of the word in the psalm where the Lord prophetically says, “I was cast upon thee from the womb; thou art my God from my mother’s belly”, Psalm 22: 10. Think of the wonder of that bud with all its inherent beauty. When we read Luke’s gospel, we find it says, “the holy thing also which shall be born shall be called Son of God”, Luke 1: 35. A baby born to Christian parents is positionally holy, not substantially holy, but here was a Babe that was substantially holy, and God saw that bud and cherished it. And here it is in this type, “it budded”.
Then more than that, it blossomed. I think that is seen in the Lord’s life as a boy of twelve.
The blossom was appearing, something was emerging. Mary says, “thy father and I have sought thee distressed”, but He says, “did ye not know that I ought to be occupied in my Father’s business?”, Luke 2: 48, 49. There is no question of ‘thy father’, it is ‘My Father’.
One has so beautifully said, ‘sonship in conscious nature’ was seen there in its beauty in a lad of twelve years old. What that must have meant for the Father’s eye! That was the blossom, it was blossoming. In the temple there
were the half open flowers, but here they are opening out. We may say reverently, how they opened out in Jesus, the bud, the blossom and then the cluster of grapes, the ripened grapes.
It speaks in Luke’s gospel again about the Holy Spirit descending upon Him. We have been reminded that the Spirit was there in His entirety, but He was on Jesus only (J. Taylor, Vol.
75, p.34). That could be said of no other man. That was like the ripened grapes. It was all for God. You may say, it had men in mind for blessing, but it says here, “Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup. Think of the Lord’s life being pressed out. It was not a question of the wine press, it was the action of the fingers. It brings out the glory of the personal action of the Lord Jesus Christ, especially we may say in the fulness of His manhood, the way He could think of God in every circumstance. One has pondered much recently the sufferings of the Lord at Gethsemane. In Mark’s gospel He is recorded as saying, “Abba, Father” (Mark 14: 36), how beautiful that is. That was the fingers pressing the grapes into the Fathers cup, we might say, no longer Pharaoh’s cup, but into the Father’s cup, if I could use that expression. Then of course there was the cross, and even at the time of His greatest sorrow He could say, “My God, my God”. Think of the way He was considering for God at that time, “why hast thou forsaken me?”, Mark 15: 34. “And thou art holy, thou that dwellest amid the praises of Israel”, Psalm 22: 3.
Well, beloved brethren, may we have a sense in our souls of the glory of the manhood of Christ. How beautiful it is, a life that was poured out for the pleasure of God, and He said,
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” no doubt the brethren have often wondered about it, but one man of God said, Never was He more perfect, never more acceptable to God, than on the cross (J. N. Darby, Collected Writings Vol. 34, p.379). A Man in perfection, and there was
that even at such a moment that was precious to God. Well I feel I cannot say more than that, beloved brethren, but I would exhort the brethren, Keep the vine before you, keep Christ before you, feed on Him, adore Him, increase in your love for Him. May our devotion become more vital, and our consecration to Christ become more real, in these last and final days when things are going to become more and more testing. We feel the pressures of them.
We feel what is happening around us, where the truth is being so badly eroded, where it is being overrun by false religions, we feel all that. We feel too sometimes as to matters that take place amongst us and misrepresentations of truth. These cause deep holy feelings in any right-minded Christian, but I say notwithstanding all that, keep Christ before you as the source of fruitfulness.
Now I want to say a word about John 15. The first verses do not really apply to us, but rather to His disciples as on the earth, although we can take what is contained in them and the substance would remain; but the Lord is no longer the Vine, He said, “I am the true vine”
(John 15: 1). He took the place of Israel here. God had planted Israel as the vine and the best it could produce was wild grapes (Isaiah 5: 4). That was the best that Israel could produce, but the Lord Jesus in manhood produced what God had ever desired. He was the true Vine and this word no doubt was for the apostles particularly, these first six verses. I think “If ye abide in me”, in verse 7, would involve for us, Christ where He is, no longer on earth. He is not the Vine to us but He is the Head of the body, which is His assembly, and this is a very testing word for all of us, “If ye abide in me”. It is a question of responsibility. I think what we have here is Christian experience, Christian responsibility. Mr Darby says a very simple thing, ‘Christian responsibility is the responsibility of being a Christian’ (JND Collected Writings Vol. 17, p.315). Here we are today a company of Christians, and we cannot escape the fact that Christian responsibility must be taken on.
“If ye abide in me”, involves continuance. Of course the truth is that God has put us in Christ and that cannot be reversed, thank God for that. It says, “Now he that establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, is God” (2 Corinthians 1: 21), that is that God has put us in Christ. As I say, that cannot be reversed. It is a very fine thing to be in Christ. It is the contrast of being in Adam, the man that led the whole race into failure. Being “in Christ”, we sometimes say is our status as being believers and that is true, but there is more than that in it.
The word says, “if any one be in Christ, there is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5: 17), it is more than status, it is substantiality. Every one whom God has put in Christ is an integral part of new creation. Think of the glory of that. I say that to encourage you because now the test comes if we are going to abide in it, “If ye abide in me”, that is our side; God’s side is that He has acted in grace and He has put us in Christ, our test is to abide in Christ.
If a believer is walking badly, the truth is that he remains in Christ, but he would not be abiding in Christ. I am sure each of us has proved that in our responsible history. So it says,
“If ye abide in me”, that is, it is our responsibility, something like Jude where he says, “keep yourselves in the love of God” (Jude 21); you might say God will keep you, but you have to keep yourself in the love of God. That is, it becomes our responsibility, and no doubt we would seek the help of the Spirit to fulfil that responsibility, to “keep yourselves in the love of God”, and that is like this here, “If ye abide in me”, that is continuance. It is not what you know, it is not the best doctrine that you can quote, the proof of reality is that you continue, that is, that you abide in Christ.
Then He says, “and my words abide in you”. This is one of the advantages of abiding in Christ. I think we become persons who are kept in living communication coming from Himself, He says, “my words abide in you”. Then He says, “ye shall ask what ye will and it shall come to pass to you”. I
do not think that is just praying for things in general, but I think the prayer here would be because you see the advantage of abiding in Him. You see that it involves the continuation of the life of Christ in persons and you pray that that might continue. May that be the character of prayer amongst us, beloved brethren, that we might be spiritually desirous that the life of Christ might be seen in expression amongst us, and amongst Christians generally. Then He says, “In this is my Father glorified”. This brings you in measure into correspondence with Christ Himself where He says, “I have glorified thee on the earth”, John 17: 4. That is what He did, He did it perfectly. As we are on this line the Father is glorified, it says, “that ye bear much fruit, and ye shall become disciples of mine”. That is the idea that we bear much fruit; not sparse fruit, but much fruit, “and ye shall become disciples of mine”. We become followers of the Teacher.
Is Christ your teacher, beloved brother and sister? Are you in living communication with Christ, are you abiding in Him, are you drawing impressions from Him? Is your soul being educated by a living touch from Christ? How precious that is! Then He says, “As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you: abide in my love”. How exalted. That is not a mere sentimental matter, that is real, substantial “As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you—abide in my love”. That would be in your secret moments when you have the opportunity. What do you do in your secret moments? Beloved brother and sister, have you ever had a real experience of abiding in the love of Christ? Precious experience! I would recommend it. Then He says, “ye shall abide in my love, as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love”. Think of Christ abiding in the Father’s love, “The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father” (John 1: 18), that was His characteristic place in manhood as become Man He took up that place. It was His characteristic place in manhood and it still is. He is there abiding in the Father’s love. Oh that we might learn what it
is, beloved brethren, to abide in the love of divine Persons. I think it is Christianity in its essence. We might be content with the fact that we have been blessed and our sins have been forgiven, but oh the importance of touching Christianity in its essence, that is “abide in my love”.
Again He says, “I have spoken these things to you that my joy may be in you”. What that would be. That is that there is that inward knowledge in us of the depth of Christ’s joy in His relationship with the Father, that I think is His joy, “and your joy be full”. I sometimes think, for myself at any rate, that often we are content with self-complacency, but self-complacency is not joy. Joy is a deep matter, it requires the power of the Holy Spirit, as the word says, “the kingdom of God is ... righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit”, Romans 14: 17.
Joy is a deep matter, it requires the power of the Holy Spirit to experience true and real joy.
Then He says, “This is my commandment”, that is abiding in Christ you learn what pleases Him, that is the thought of His commandment. It is the order of things that would please Christ. You begin to arrange all your circumstances around it; it is not that Christianity is just like an appendage in your life, it is your life. Paul says, “for me to live is Christ”, Philippians 1: 21. It has been said that that was Paul’s commandment. He was living Christ, “for me to live is Christ and to die gain”.
“No one has greater love than this, that one should lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends if ye practise whatever I command you”. You see where this line leads, dear brethren; as abiding in Christ you are drawn into the value of divine communications His word coming to you; you are being held in the sphere where divine love is known; and I think in that way we come to a point where Christ can confide in us. To such He can disclose the secrets of His mind. Have you ever had a secret of His mind disclosed to you? Exercises arise and sometimes we seek to measure these exercises by ordinary means. The great thing is to
seek the secret of His mind and that is available to those who are His friends. I am saying that in a calculated way for we have exercises, and surely we would earnestly desire to be governed by the secret of the mind of Christ.
“I call you no longer bondmen, for the bondman does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends”. It says of Abraham, “shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing?”, Genesis 18: 17. Abraham was a friend of God, and the Lord values friendship, it is not ordinary friendship. This is a deep matter and it flows out from abiding in Christ, and knowing the power of divine communications that you are brought into. He wants to have confidence in you and that is the thought of “my friends”. Then He says, “for all things which I have heard of my Father I have made known to you”. This is what Christ received directly from the Father that He gives to you. That to me is a very precious thing. It says, “all things which I have heard”, that is heard directly, “of my Father I have made known to you”. I think these are the things that belong directly to the inner circle of Christianity. How much do we know about it, beloved brethren, the inner circle of Christianity?
Then it goes on, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and have set you that ye should go and that ye should bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide”. I think you come to the testimony there, “ye should go”, that is that the Lord has perfect liberty, perfect confidence and gives you liberty to go and bear testimony, it is part of the fruit bearing that is in mind in abiding in Christ. It says, “that ye should bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide, that whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he may give you. These things I command you, that ye love one another”.
I finish with that. “These things I command you, that ye love one another”, that is the Christian circle. Mr Stoney used that word quite often in his ministry; it is one I value,
there is a Christian circle. It is not marked by the sophistications of this world, it is not marked by the principles of this world, nor by its politics or religions, it is marked by the commandment of Christ. The simple commandment of His, I leave this with the brethren, is that you should love one another. How precious that is, it is the Christian circle! These are all fruits of abiding in Christ, and I trust it becomes attractive to us that we might set ourselves responsibly and seek the Spirit’s help to abide in Christ. May it be so, for His name’s sake.
Address at Grangemouth
16 May 2009