Christ, the Source of Power for New Life
Rev. Dr. Richard Howell
Did Jesus give any indication of the inner resources which would be at the disposal of his followers to enable then to follow out his instructions? There is no doubt that divine initiative is necessary if we are ever to live as God wants us to live.
Sense of Solidarity
Persecution (Mt. 5:11) and martyrdom (Mk. 8:35) would come to the disciples for Christ's sake, i.e. because of their identification with him. In the commissioning of the twelve, Jesus said, 'he who receives you receives me' (Mt. 10:40).His 'true' relatives are those who do his will (Mk. 3:35). Those who receive a child in his name receive him (Mt 18:5). In the parable of the sheep and goats, those receiving needy people are said to have received him (Mt. 25:35). Indeed we live victorious Christian life only in solidarity with Christ.
Union with Christ
The gospel of John records several sayings of Jesus which speak of a mystical association between believers and himself or believers and God. The most notable characteristic of John gospel is the idea of 'abiding in'. In the vine allegory of John 15 the idea of abiding is expressed in the double form 'Abide in me and I in you' (v. 4, 5). Moreover the branches become useless unless they abide in the vine. Fruit is impossible and the branches unless they abide in the vine. Fruit is impossible and the branches must be stripped of and burnt (v.5-6). In no more vivid way could Jesus have expressed the centrality of his own life in the on-going life of his people. He even went so far as to say that those abiding in him would be able to ask what ever they willed and it would be done (15:7). Only as a result of infusion of the mind of Christ into believers would this be intelligible.
In John 14:10 Jesus asks, 'Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? He promises that his disciples would know that he was in the Father and the Father in him (Jn. 14:20). He prays for his disciples 'that they may all be one; even as you Father are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me (Jn. 17:21). In these passages the union between the Father and the Son is seen to be the pattern for the believer's life in God.
Union Must Usher in Holy Living
Christian mysticism must be strongly differentiated with any form of Greek or Hindu mysticism. The basic difference is the accompanying emphasis on ethical or holy living. This is particularly brought out in 1 John.
John calls to a proper estimate of the person of Jesus, and to act with Christian morality. As believers, John exhorts his readers to live in the light as children of God. Belief and behaviour, person of Christ and ethics, are together a consistent concern of the writer; and his insistence on the practice of Christian love and unity, as derived from the love of God (e.g. 1:3; 4:19), flows directly from the evident stresses and divisions within the Church.
The person who abides in Christ has an obligation to walk as Christ walked (1 John 2:26). We must more over keep his commandments (1Jn. 3:24). Abiding in Christ issues in love of the highest kind, for it is nothing less than God's own love in us (I Jn 4:12). Even more challenging is the statement that whoever abides in him does not sin (1Jn. 3:6). God's opposition to human sin was demonstrated in the "appearing" of Jesus. Only as the perfect offering for sin Jesus is the effective Saviour of the world. The person who is "in Jesus" can overcome sin.
So closely linked is the idea of the indwelling God with its ethical effect of holy living that John can say' he who abides in love abides in God and God abides in Him' (I Jn. 4:16). The great frequency of the idea of 'abide' in 1 John (cf. 1 Jn. 2:26, 24, 27, 28; 3:6, 24; 4:12-13, 15-16), shows that John sees a special need to stress the source of power for new life: Jesus Christ. Moreover John does not hesitate to say that we can know we are 'in him' (1 Jn. 2:5; 5:20).
Because Jesus was holy, and without sin, this can become our character as we abide in him.
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