Abide in Christ-Day 9
"As your sanctification"
"But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom,
and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption."
I Corinthians 1:30
Christ is made of God unto us sanctification. Holiness is the very nature of God, and that alone is holy which God takes possession of and fills with Himself. "And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth" (John 17:19).
To illustrate this relationship between the measure of the abiding and the measure of sanctification experienced, let us think of the grafting of a tree, that instructive symbol of our union to Jesus. The illustration is suggested by the Saviour's words, "... make the tree good, and his fruit good..."(Matt 12:33). I can graft so that only a single branch bears good fruit, while many of the natural branches remain, and bear their old fruit -- a type of believer in whom a small part of the life is sanctified, but in whom, from ignorance or other reasons, the carnal life still in many respects has full dominion.
I can graft a tree so that every branch is cut off, and the whole tree becomes renewed to bear good fruit; and yet, unless I watch over the tendency of the stems to give sprouts, they may again rise and grow strong, and, robbing the new graft of the strength it needs, make it weak. Such are Christians who, when apparently powerfully converted, forsake all to follow Christ, and yet after at time, through unwatchfulness, allow old habits to regain their power, and whose Christian life and fruit are but feeble.
But if I want a tree wholly made good, I take it when young, and, cutting the stem clean off on the ground, I graft it just where it emerges from the soil. I watch over every bud which the old nature could possibly put forth, until the flow of sap from the old roots into the new stem is so complete that the old life has, as it were, been entirely conquered and covered by the new. Here I have a tree entirely renewed -- emblem of the Christian who has learnt in entire consecration to surrender everything for Christ, and in a wholehearted faith wholly to abide in Him.
Christian, fear not to claim God's promises to make you holy. Listen not to the suggestion that the corruption of your old nature would rend holiness an impossibility. In your flesh dwells no good thing, and that flesh, though crucified with Christ, is not yet dead, but will continually seek to rise and lead you to evil. But the Father is the Husbandman. He has grafted the life of Christ on your life. That holy life is mightier than your evil life; under the watchful care of the Husbandman, that new life can keep down the workings of the evil life within you. The evil nature is there, with its unchanged tendency to rise up and show itself. But the new nature is there too -- the living Christ, your sanctification, is there -- and through Him all your powers can be sanctified as they rise into life, and be made to bear fruit to the glory of the Father.
~By Andrew Murray~
And this is only a small portion of the days devotion. Can you see what I mean about being so good, yet so deep? This is what I call 'good stuff'. Amen and Amen!
Until the Shout,
Sis. Tammy
