Unlimited: The Secret Of The Christian Life | Good News Unlimited
Unlimited: The Secret of the Christian Life
Nov 17, 2024 1656
Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work (John 14:10, NIV).
Christianity can indeed be made simple. The power to live the Christian life is not a power generated from within us or by us; it is a power from without, even the power of Christ, freely given to everyone that by faith maintains a living union with him. Jesus, as the Son of Man, confessed his own lack of personal power: “I can of mine own self do nothing.” “The Father that dwells in me, he does the works” (John 5:30; 14:10).
As the Father lived in Christ and enabled him to be victorious in every phase of his experience, so Christ promises to dwell in every believer, empowering him or her to live a righteous life. Christ declares, “Without me you can do nothing,” but then encourages us by saying that we “can do all things through Christ which strengthens” us.
There is the legend of a man whose garden produced nothing but weeds. At last he met with a strange flower of singular strength. He sowed a handful of this seed in his overgrown garden and left it to work. The results exceeded all expectations: the flowers not only germinated and sprang up in profusion, but they exterminated every weed.
As he looked over his garden, nothing could be seen but the flowers of that rare plant. The story illustrates well the nature of victorious Christian living. Christ in us expels sin. The best way to get rid of the darkness is to let in the light. Thus, the apostle John affirms, “Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (I John 3:9).
In other words, whoever has received into his life the eternal Seed, Christ Jesus, thereby hates sin and can no longer make that his habit.
– Des Ford (adapted)
Eli’s Reflection: We aren’t to wait for heaven to have Jesus. He is ours today. Just as God, the father, dwelt in Jesus, so Jesus dwells in you. How does this affect your day to day life as a follower of Jesus?
