Part 4 - The Application of Faith
Abiding in the Separation
To abide in a place is to dwell there. It is the place where one lives and
stays. To abide in a certain town and in a certain home is to live there and
spend time there. If one owns a house but is always away, traveling and
staying at other locations, that house is not where one abides. Jesus said,
"Abide in Me, and I in you." It is in Christ that God has established a
place for His people to dwell. Likewise, it is in and with His people where
Christ dwells.
The sanctifying work of Christ entails the creation of a place for the
believer to dwell, or abide, in. To sanctify is to set something or someone
apart for a special and dedicated purpose. Jesus Christ has sanctified a
people for God by separating them from the fallen creation unto Himself,
where God's calling and purposes for them can be fulfilled. In the Redeemer
Jesus is that place of separation. It is here, separated from the world and
in Christ, where the believer is to abide.
The dwelling place of the believer
Creationism presents a pattern of the sanctifying work of Christ and shows
the specific areas in Christ where the believer has been separated. Jesus
Christ has separated the believer into His light, into His heavenly dwelling
place, into His body, and into His rule. These are the places that God has
established as the dwelling place for His people. These are the places where
one abides in Christ.
The place of abiding in Christ is a place of abiding in His life. The
abundant life in Christ is one that is lived in Christ through the Holy
Spirit. As Jesus said concerning life in Him through the Holy Spirit, "out
of his heart (the believer's) will flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38). The Apostle John
wrote, "By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has
given us of His Spirit" (1 John 4:13).
Abiding through the Spirit
By the Holy Spirit one is able to abide in Christ, and by the Holy Spirit
one is also able to be fruitful in Christ. To abide in Christ is not a work
and struggle on the part of the believer, but it is a place of rest where
one allows the living God to abide in one's life and provide the strength
and resources needed to fulfill God's calling. Thus to abide in Christ is to
live in newness of life in Christ through the Holy Spirit.
Provision is one element in sanctification. God not only separates and
consecrates, but also provides for His purposes in consecration to be
implemented and fulfilled. The provision that God has made through the
sanctifying work of Jesus Christ is that He Himself will indwell the
believer and be the means through which the believer abides and is fruitful
in Christ. It is through God the Holy Spirit that life is lived in Christ,
and it is through the Spirit that His purposes are accomplished.
The following four pages each detail one aspect of abiding in Christ, and
this through God's provision, the Holy Spirit.
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