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 areas that God has established as the dwelling place for His people. These are the areas 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.