Abiding in Christ equips us for relationships
I. Love and adoption by His death
INTRODUCTION: the pinnacle of God’s love is expressed in the following words: “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 Jn 4:10). Propitiation in Christ is the foundation of God’s love to us and our love back to Him and to the brethren. The propitiation accomplished by Christ is the ground of our personal assurance of salvation. It requires assurance to love, and to serve with right motives. According to First John, God desires a level of assurance for you characterized by confidence and enjoyment of God—this is the best preparation for service in the body of Christ. Assurance, boldness, and confidence are gifts of grace; but their enjoyment is tied to a God-ward life direction. God will fill our hearts with assurance and confidence if we continue to:
- Keep believing the Gospel
- Keep abiding in Christ
- Keep loving the Brethren There is a causative relationship between these three. God is the Source of love—He is the source of our love back to Him and to the brethren. He showers His people with His love and He expects us to express His love to others. Communing with Him fits us for the expression of His love.
Verse 10 -- God’s love is demonstrated in sending Christ to be the propitiation for our sins. As sin bearer, Christ averted God’s wrath from us to Himself. Wonder of wonders, God is not ultimately repelled by our moral deformity. His love is drawn out to us even in our helpless, rebellious condition. Now it is impossible to comprehend this exotic love UNLESS we first receive it and know we are the objects of it. Only then are we able to transmit and express it to others. “We love, because He first loved us” (v. 19).
This supernatural love is beyond our natural ability—because, in order to love supernaturally, we have to love our brother as God sees and loves us. That means you love them on the account of God having loved you—seeing you as polluted and perishing. This is light years away from simply loving those who like or love us (Luke 6:32). To identify our love with God’s love, we must be able to have deep compassion on the evil-doer and earnestly long for his salvation. That is only possible if we ourselves know we were former enemies of God who have been reconciled solely by the blood of Christ.
Fresh acts of faith give us enjoyment of Christ and the benefits He has purchased for us. The Christian’s freedom is experienced as he lives by faith and is taken off of self as the source of any qualification to be loved by God. Out of propitiation comes adoption—for the cross removes every obstacle to the reception of God’s love (1 Jn 3:1). As you abide in Christ there is a consciousness of sonship produced by the Spirit—and paradoxically, the stronger our consciousness of our sonship identity, the less we will be hampered by self-consciousness (Gal 4:6; Rom 8:14-17).
Once the believing sinner has become a grateful receiver of God’s love (actively embracing it), he is now a glad transmitter of God’s love. He’s not content to keep God’s love to himself, but actively looks to love others. This is the testimony of the new believer. In this way (by loving the brethren), God also testifies that He indwells us—it is proof that we have God abiding in us (1 Jn 4:7-8, 11-12). When God’s love is expressed through us to others (by the Spirit’s power), it deepens our confidence that we are possessed by God’s love and belong to Him as His beloved children (1 Jn 3:18-20).
In First John we see a continual joining of faith in the truth and the love of the brethren. They are found together and they operate together. How encouraging that1 John provides reassurance to the genuine Christian who likely sees his failures in the area of love. Chapter four of 1 John refocuses our attention on Christ’s work on our behalf, on God the source of all true love, and on the Spirit’s enablement, and testimony of God’s love for His own.
The Spirit working in us enables us to see afresh Christ’s propitiatory death as God’s act for our salvation. We “see” or “behold” God’s love in sending the Son to be our propitiation—in so doing, we experience fellowship and communion with Him and the presence of His love. When we take Christ as our righteousness and right-standing before God each day, we are communing with God at the “Mercy Seat” of Christ (abiding in Christ). This is a heart-strengthening privilege to commune with Christ by taking Him each day for our righteousness, acceptance, cleansing, security, and comfort.
By fresh acts of daily faith, we reason our way through the gospel—conversing with our own soul. By the Spirit’s enabling power, we meditate on the fact that in the Word of His Grace, the gospel, the Son of God is daily displayed (as in 1 John 4) as our entire qualification to be freely loved by God. Our daily gospel meditation may contain the following elements: God is completely pacified on my behalf because of Christ’s death for me. Therefore He receives me into favor. By my Savior’s atoning sacrifice, He has taken away the enmity—only reconciliation remains. My guilt has been absolved in Christ. This is the basis of my acceptance. I am in union with Christ who is my life. I want to see with ever greater clarity the exchange which took place between Christ and me. I know that God’s love and holiness require righteousness. I have fled to Christ where righteousness is found. Christ is my qualification to be freely loved by God! Christ is my eligibility for ongoing favor and acceptance from God. Christ literally is my covenant with God and my holy status before God.
APPLICATION: In order to keep reasoning this way, we must keep drinking from this gospel well. The Spirit of God is so ready to assist us in this kind of meditation: His ministry is to take of Christ and disclose it to us (Jn 16:14).
Walking in the Lord’s love is consenting to be accepted, protected and represented by Another. Thus this cross-centered mindset focuses upon Christ as our eligibility for God’s love, favor, and acceptance. This is where the peace and comfort floods in—we are delivered from the bondage of trying to be perfect in ourselves. The gospel keeps pointing us to Christ as the source of our identity, security, right-standing, qualification, and favor. In this one verse (1 Jn 4:16), John touches upon all three elements of life in the Spirit: the gospel of God’s love in Christ, the Spirit’s testimony giving us the knowledge of God’s love to us, and the Spirit-enabled love of the brethren. We know ourselves to be a child of God’s grace, BECAUSE, by the Spirit and the Word, God sets His own Son before us daily that in Him we might by faith live out our adoption as sons. By faith God dwells in us, where God abides, there is love, hence it follows that love is a function of faith. As sons of God we now have a faculty of loving—it’s a love that goes forth to people as they are attractive to God, not necessarily to us. In other words, we fall back on God’s love. If we love, it’s only because “We have known and believed the love which God has for us.” It’s faith alone that works by love (Gal 5:6).
APPLICATION: In our communing with God we consent to be loved by God on gospel terms. We lay our hearts open to a full frank acceptance of the love that first loved you—consent to it—THEN from that love will spring up love in you that will make your communion with God without fear and your love of the saints a joy. We don’t work up this love. Our love to God and the brethren is reflexive—it is the Spirit engendered response to receiving His love—the love embodied in the Son whom He sent to be the propitiation for our sins. This is the only way to be an unhindered channel of God’s love to the brethren.
Admittedly there is a certain trauma in being loved by God because all you can do is consent to it. You cannot evoke His love or increase His love for you or transact for His love. Although His love is wonderfully sweet, it is intensely humbling. Yes, the lifestyle of assurance can make you feel exposed because we come to God as a pauper with nothing to trade for His infinite benefits. We are a daily charity case. But, the awesome news is that God has freely given us His Son as the propitiation. And in the Son is everything I need to be fully accepted by God because Christ has willingly born all of my liabilities.
II. Abiding in Christ equips us to minister to others
Through Christ, God is building and reconstructing a new humanity. Broken fallen sinners are being reconstructed around Christ—so that their completeness and wholeness are found in Another, in Christ alone. The gospel calls us to ABIDE—to live upon Another, upon Christ (Gal 2:20). And, there is nothing like attempting ministry to make a person aware of their limitations and inadequacies. Ministry can make us feel the severity of our limitations and incompetence. This is why abiding is so incredibly important—Christ is the not only the source of our salvation, He is the source of the Christian life.
The evil one knows that he can neutralize our ministry efforts by tempting us to engage in self-focus so that we become preoccupied with measuring our performance. So, when we contemplate ourselves without Christ in view we tend to come to conclusions about ourselves that neutralize our ministry zeal: “Who am I to propose to tell another brother how to live?” In a word, we ‘bench’ ourselves (disqualify ourselves)—voluntarily taking ourselves out of the game lest our weaknesses should come to light.
The power to bear spiritual fruit in our relationships means that you cannot focus on self as the primary spiritual resource. Fruitfulness is predicated on abiding. Fearless confidence in your ministry efforts is directly proportional to seeking your security and satisfaction in Christ. Abiding is to draw near— we might add “dare to draw near”—because drawing close to Christ means having His cross applied to your self-life. That is a profound thing—in order to begin to find your all and all in Christ you will have to experience a degree of disillusionment with self (your self-reliance slain). There is no other way to have God’s power perfected through my weakness (2 Cor 12:9ff.).
Abiding in Christ is living out our union with Christ (Jn 15:1-11). Salvation takes place when God places the sinner into union with Christ—this brings us into all the benefits of His representative death and resurrection (united with Him in the likeness of His death—united with Him in the likeness of His resurrection—Romans 6:6). Union with Christ sets us apart as His possession. From then on we are commanded to live upon (live out) our union with Christ by means of abiding in Him.
John 15:1-11 – v. 4 “abide in Me. . .” In the broader scope of the Gospel of John, “abide” refers to the closest possible relationship—the believer’s mystical union with Christ. To “abide” is to be held by Christ; it is to allow oneself to be owned by Christ, right down to the depths of one’s being—no hold-out areas. Now that is profound—we are alive spiritually forever because we are united to Christ. The believer who abides is controlled by this spiritual reality that Christ is our life (Col 3:4). To abide is to remain in the sphere of, it is to hold fast, to remain steadfast. It alludes to the believer’s mystical relationship with Christ of union with Him of inner unity and fellowship. “Abide” in the context of union with Christ does not mean holding a position, but rather, allowing oneself to be held by Christ (pictured in John 15 as the vine holding the branch.) Abiding in Christ is a statement of Christ’s ownership of us right down to the depths of our being (Colin Brown, Dict. of N.T. Theol.). (Note the close relation between abiding in Christ and entrusting oneself to Christ as a life direction.)
Mutual abiding is the mystery of the gospel spoken of in Colossians 1:27—you in Christ and Christ in you. Abiding is union with Christ lived out. It’s a lifestyle in which you willingly order your life as one owned by Christ and possessed by His love. The order: FIRST, there is Spirit-enabled ongoing faith in the gospel. SECOND is the testimony of a changed life (able to say no to selfishness and yes to the love of the brethren). THIRD, there is the witness of the Spirit which issues forth in the knowledge that we are known and loved by God. Abiding is our response to God’s offer. He offers Himself to be enjoyed by us in His Son. As John Piper often says, abiding to the glory of God is taking delight in all that God is towards us in Christ. In practical terms, it is the individual who communes with God in Bible study and prayer who will be the instrument through which God will demonstrate His divine love. Thus, abiding involves the faith-based recognition of your union with Christ. Christ clothes my soul in His righteousness.
When we abide in Christ, we “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” as our ‘sphere of life’ (Rom 13:14a, Gal 3:27). The believer has already clothed himself with Christ (being clothed with Christ is the “indicative” of Galatians 3:27). The imperative in Romans 13:14 commands us to keep putting on Christ— to do so is “to reach and hold [Christ] again and again, in faith and confidence, in grateful loyalty and obedience, to Him to whom we already belong.”ⁱ To put on Christ is to live in Christ as our sphere of existence. It is to abide in Christ as our soul’s prosperity.
We abide in Christ to bear the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23). You are united to Him that you might abide in Him and bear fruit for God (Rom 7:1-4). There is nothing more precious than union with Christ. The Christian life involves the day by day living out of your union with Christ by means of abiding in Him —this is how God makes us happy and useful in the Body (2 Pet 1:8).
The ability to abide in Christ is God-given (v. 4). Fruit-bearing in our relationships is a function of abiding in Christ (vv. 4-5). The vitality and life source of the true vine is stressed again as in John15:1, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing” (v. 5). Those who are out of relation to Christ can do literally nothing whatever. Our relationship to Christ is one of utter dependency (v. 5). The branch can only be fruitful if it has constant unimpeded contact with the vine. The priority of abiding is addressed to our will—calling for a decision to depend upon Christ as the condition of fruitfulness. Abiding maintains our connection by faith to Christ who is the source of life and fruitfulness. (Discuss the ‘how to’ of abiding.)
The experience of Christ’s love and joy is promised to those who abide in Christ (Jn 15:9-11). Our love to Christ is a reflex response of His love to us first (1 John 4:19)—we love, because He loved us first. Now, His love is ever active in our love. His love precedes, accompanies, follows, and creates our love. When we consent to it, ABIDE in it, exercise it in return, we feel drawn ever closer to Him; and we are fitted for ministry. Now the secret here is abiding—we are reckoning the sufficiency of Christ’s work. This enables us to be an unhindered channel of divine love back to God and to the brethren. This is God’s will for us—that all our love is a reflex to His love for us. God’s love flowing through us unhindered is how His love is perfected in us (1 Jn 4:17). This is inseparable from abiding in Christ and His love.
My experience as a discipler has taught me that we hesitate to attempt to spiritually bless and influence others because it can make us feel inadequate. Thus, the believer who is able to influence others spiritually is the one in whom the Word of God is active—transforming him, controlling him, and enabling him to abide in Christ. The believer’s fruit-bearing is by the strength of Another.
Abiding means living upon Another, upon Christ—He saved us by trading places with us (2 Cor 5:21), but that was just the beginning of the exchanged life. This exchange is now to characterize our whole Christian life. The Word of God defines the believer as the new man complete in Christ (Col 2:10)— clothed with Him; full in Him—but never apart from Him. Christ is the Architect, Contractor, and Blueprint of the new man (Col 3:10). These ‘new man’ gospel realities are appropriated by faith. They will revolutionize your walk, AND, they are perceived and appropriated by abiding in Christ. By abiding in Him, the new man (created in Christ Jesus for good works) begins to assert himself. This is the answer to a crisis in lay leadership in the church today. The gospel calls for a ‘rational abandonment’ of ourselves to Christ’s glory—the ‘good and the acceptable and the perfect’ are realized through a life surrendered and ordered as ‘a living sacrifice’ unto the Lord. The context in Romans 12:1-2 is our contribution to the corporate body of Christ.
Completeness in Christ reckoned—is capacity in Christ realized. Out of pursuing Christ through abiding in Him comes the power and desire to pursue the brethren in the ministry of discipleship. This issue of pursuing our brethren for the sake of doing spiritual good to them is commonly the weak link in the chain of church ministry. Discipleship can only be perpetuated when the cycle of multiplication is the aim of ministry (2 Tim 2:2). But, we hesitate to be the pursuer who takes the risks and makes the diligent efforts to nurture relationships for the purpose of discipleship. Abiding in Christ is the “x” factor that answers that reticence to be a pursuer. Christ pursued us in love—we are imitators of Him (1 Jn 4:17).
Abiding puts us in touch with Christ as Source Person: He is our sonship, status, favor, righteousness, wisdom, inheritance, adoption, sealing, access, completeness, standing, etc. Not one of these blessings functions as an independent spiritual commodity. Each is a benefit that is ours ONLY by virtue of being united to Christ. Abiding lets you see this. This is so closely tied to our ability and ‘want to’—in regards to being a blessing to others and a pursuer of others.
The gospel spells out our union with Christ (shared life). The gospel keeps giving us permission to go to Christ for all we need: love, more grace and mercy, forgiveness, righteousness, power over temptation (2 Pet 1:3). You cannot consistently receive these blessings from Christ without YEARNING to see Christ formed in your brethren and thus making the sacrifices necessary to move them to maturity (Gal 4:19). That is being fitted for ministry through abiding in Christ. This is why abiding is the “x” factor. As we consent to be filled by Christ’s fullness, ministry to others is the ‘overflow’ (Jn 7:37-38).
We dwell on Christ from the perspective and vantage point of union with Him (the vine and branch organically joined—this is the shared life concept). As you receive security and satisfaction in Him —you are having fellowship in Him. This makes us strong in grace and thereby equips us for ministry (2 Tim 2:1). The discipleship mandate flows out of shared life in Christ REALIZED in abiding—otherwise, we risk seeing the discipleship mandate as a duty we grind out as a part of our ‘harness’ of obligations.
In ourselves our case is desperate; but in abiding, faith looks out of self to Another. The Bible’s description of the normal Christian experience is to be occupied with Christ so as to delight in Him. Yet, the experience of the average believer is often misery, self-loathing, a growing knowledge of sin and self, emptiness, helplessness, and stagnation. This only fits us more for Christ. When He is excluded from our thoughts we are left with darkness, disgust, sorrow, and affliction—sometimes He leaves us there to show us what we are in ourselves (2 Cor 3:5; Rom 7:18).
Our chief concern ought to be to cultivate communion with Him so as to apprehend Him as Source Person—proving His sufficiency to us. God is for us—He draws out our hearts to Christ. Communion with Him is our joy and strength.ⁱⁱ As we grow in Christ through abiding in Him, the Lord will place more opportunities for ministry in our path, and as a result of abiding, we will find ourselves taking advantage of more of these opportunities to be a spiritual blessing to others.
III. The true disciple is never the ‘end user’ of God’s grace and love
As we have established, there is a necessary relationship between abiding in Christ and loving the brethren. Our union with Christ produces a social dimension of unity with other believers (Phil 2:1-2). Abiding in the grace of Christ slays, blasts, and withers all attempts to be perfected by the flesh. Grace burns our score cards of over-under, top dog, superiority, pecking order, and upsmanship. Grace minimizes our human distinctions by leveling us before the cross of Christ. The Apostle John is unfolding the logical relationship between abiding in the grace of Christ and loving the brethren: 1.) By the new birth and the indwelling of the Spirit we gain the knowledge of God’s love. 2.) As we walk in the Spirit, we rely on His love and we abide in Him and learn that God’s nature is love. 3.) We discover that to live in God (abide) means to love the brethren.
Through abiding, we experience an ongoing knowledge of God’s love. We can only pass on what we ourselves are receiving in our spirits. In that sense, abiding is a prerequisite for loving the brethren because only by abiding are we reasoning from the grace perspective that we are objects of God’s unconditional love. You can only truly pass on unconditional love if you know yourself to be the object of God’s unconditional love (and are making a conscious habit by faith in the gospel of receiving that love). John’s point is that habitual abiding in Christ is to be actively and constantly sought after by us.
Our relationship with God is manifested in our relationships with others (1 Jn 4:7-13; 19-21). As John Piper says, “It is my greatest joy to experience the in-filling grace of God overflowing from me for the good of others.” This is ‘reflexive love’—which overflows from our satisfaction in Christ (1 Jn 4:19). The habitual consciousness of who God is toward us in Christ in all His mercy and love is a major part of our equipping to love the brethren (Col 3:12-13). The gospel of grace provides the power and rationale to love sacrificially, to be spent on behalf of the brethren, to live to edify others. It gives us the reasons why we are to identify ourselves completely with Christ’s purposes: as members of His Body we are to contribute to the maturation of the Body of Christ as a whole. Abiding in Christ causes me to make the effort to find my place in the Body of Christ (Eph 4:15, 16; Col 2:19). (Discuss why this is the opposite of choosing convenience.)
Our love for God can never be reduced to the abstract or theoretical. The apostle John argues that genuine love for God (as a result of receiving His love—1 Jn 4:7-11, 20), demands an expression from us toward our brethren. Fruitfulness through abiding in Christ is what happens when we translate God’s vertical love to us into horizontal love to the brethren. Nothing should be more natural for a believer than to pursue friendships within the body of Christ for the purpose of doing spiritual good to others.
Each member of Christ’s Body is to commit himself or herself to the Great Commission which is not only directed at evangelism, but equally at discipleshipⁱⁱⁱ. “And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man that we may present every man complete in Christ” (Col 1:28). The mindset is, “The Lord placed me in the Body so I can be here for others—to do spiritual good to them.” Such radical identification with Christ and His purposes requires that our affections be captive to the grace of God in the gospel. When we preach the gospel to ourselves daily, it keeps reminding us of the holy character of God, of the loving heart of God toward us in Christ, of who we are in ourselves as sinners, and of who we are in Christ.
The beauty of reckoning our union with Christ is a growing recognition of His Person (Phil 3:10ff.). With that growing realization of Christ, comes our willingness to be radically identified with Him and His purposes, so as we know Christ better, our desire is to make His cause our cause. Our faith in Christ is not merely that He is a wonderful magnificent Savior—our faith must find expression in our trust in Him. This means that as we contemplate His Person, our response must be to entrust ourselves to Him—so that we rely on Him on Him as ‘Source Person’. “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor 1:30).
The church as the body of Christ on earth is a supernatural community because all true believers are in union with Christ and with one another by means of God’s Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:13). Our relationships are intended by Christ to go far beyond anything nature is capable of. Consider the ‘supernatural’ character of the following commands—each of these commands is beyond our natural strength: love one another as I have loved you; consider the interests of others as more important than your own; bear one another’s burdens; be filled with compassion and gentleness and be continually forgiving one another; defer to one another; build with Christ in building up one another; relate in such a way that it shows that you are members one of another. Our relationships within the body of Christ are to incarnate the virtues and character of Christ in such a way that, as Jesus said in His High Priestly prayer in John 17:21, the world might believe that the Father sent Me.
Living out our supernatural connection to Christ and to one another is the church living as an ‘organism’ animated by Christ (Eph 4:14-16). Each member of the body is to always be translating the vertical his relationship with Christ into the horizontal—into his relationship with the brethren. We do this translating of the vertical into the horizontal through abiding and by its effect: discipleship. We abide so as to build with Christ.
Biblical discipleship can be as simple as determining to prayerfully speak God’s Word in our relationships. Much discipleship will be informal and spontaneous. We can be proactive—determining that we will not allow our conversations to remain in the realm of the mundane. As soon as you approach conversation with edification in mind; you are in a position to provide discipleship input. To be on task in discipleship is to purposefully steer the conversation in the direction of redemptive language—that involves initiating comments and questions which draw out Scripture truths and principles and apply them to life. Redemptive questions and comments can be as simple as: How’s your walk with the Lord? Where are you getting beat up this week? Is there a ministry opportunity you are thinking about taking? How can I pray for you? I’ve got to share with you what God has been teaching me. Here is what I have been going through at work as far as my testimony. I sure could use your prayers; I am going through a time of trial.
We’ve seen that spiritual fellowship is inseparable from the effects produced by the gospel itself— learning to live upon Christ (and receiving His love and favor) issues forth in laying down one’s life for the brethren. Assisting others in their spiritual growth is the very essence of discipleship (Col 1:28-29). We are members one of another—and Christ has called us to live as such (Eph 4:25). The church of Christ is like no other organization—it is animated by its Head, the Lord Jesus Christ. Its members have life in common in Christ and are organically joined to Him. The members of His body are members one of another and are indwelt and empowered by His Spirit. The gospel demands and enables us to incarnate Christ in our relationships. By the grace of God we must make an effort to move our conversations with one another past the mundane and into the kinds of gospel conversations enjoined in the Word (Col 3:16; Eph 5:19-20).
Consider for a moment what I call the “Toe in the Jordan principle”—this is the great paradox that we strive according to His power (Col 1:29). When we step out in faith and obedience to God, we marvel that His power accompanies our efforts to be a blessing to others. When the priests were carrying the Ark of the Covenant in preparation for the conquest of Jericho, there was no indication that the flooded Jordan River would part to permit their crossing. In faith they stepped out and the raging river parted when their toes touched the waters (Josh 3:14-17). The question is: what would you attempt for God if you truly believed that divine power and resources would be there to accompany your efforts at the moment needed?
I find in my own walk with the Lord I need to frequently pray something like this which captures the spirit of abiding. “Lord you took my place on Calvary in order to be my life, now, by abiding in You, show me how to exchange my self-centeredness for your love, my self-protection and timidity for your bold servant leadership, my self-consciousness for your determination to bless, my fear and passivity for your initiative in ministry, my self-reliance for your dependency on the Father. Lord, show me what I ought to attempt for you and convince my weak faith of how you promise to accompany my effort with His power.”
Under the gospel of grace, our position is translated into our practice: high calling—lowly walk. We are to walk worthy of our calling—conducting ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel (Phil 1:27). The Apostle Paul ‘catalogs’ the incredible features of our calling in Ephesians chapters one through three. Then, in the last half of this epistle, we learn how the new man born of grace is to assert himself: by laying aside the old behaviors (including our cherished defense mechanisms) and putting on the behaviors of the new man (Eph 4:22-24). The infinite blessings of the gospel require that we strive to conform ourselves to the new ways of relating to others.
These ‘new man’ behaviors are the polar opposite of what comes natural to us. To defer to others, to look out for their interests, to consider them as more important than self—all require the power of grace to liberate us from self-absorption. By the Spirit applying grace to us we are set free from self in order to meet the needs of others—but it does require a ‘mind shift’—“let this mind be in you” says Paul (Phil 2:1-5ff.).
Christ models this ultimate servanthood throughout His earthly ministry. The scriptural account of Christ washing the feet of His disciples begins with a poignant statement, “Jesus, knowing that His hour had come that He should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end . . . knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God, and was going back to God . . .” What is fascinating (and very applicable to us) is that Christ’s identity and calling, or mission, is firm in His mind before He engages in this act of meekness, servanthood, and condescension. In other words, the dignity of His Person was not threatened or jeopardized by humbling Himself in this way (the Holy Creator stooping to wash the feet of sinners including the feet of His betrayer). His willing self-humiliation was stipulated upon ‘His knowing’ His identity and calling.
There is a lesson in this for us. The Lord also calls us to acts of meekness and servanthood which flow from a working knowledge of our identity in Christ. The exhortations for us to pursue holy living in our relationships often are preceded by a recitation of our identity in Christ so that our walk is to stem from the consciousness of who we are in Christ. For instance, in Colossians 3:12-17, the injunction to put on the garments of grace begins with the believer’s identity—you are: holy, chosen, beloved. The doctrine of election is to have a shaping role in our ethical relations—knowing His gracious choice of you—we are to pursue love and holiness in all of our relations to the glory of God (1 Thess 1:2-5; 2 Thess 2:13-15).
Knowing God’s electing love is essential to our spiritual identity. For our constant temptation is to base our identity on what we can do, rather than upon what God has done in His sovereign grace. When the disciples were exercising their newly given power over demons, they returned to Jesus exclaiming, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your Name” (Luke 10:17). Jesus redirects their enthusiasm, gently correcting them with this statement, “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven” (Luke 10:20).
Endnotes:
i C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans, a Shorter Commentary, 335.
ii A. W. Pink, Experimental Union with Christ, pp. 2-36
iii Colin Marshall, “Discipleship Workshop,” based on his book, The Trellis and the Vine