Abiding In Him

“The scriptures tell us that we are ‘dead indeed’, but nowhere do they say that

we are dead to ourselves. We shall look in vain to find death within; it can’t be

found. However, scripture does say that we are dead in Christ for we were

crucified with Him.

‘Abide in Me and I in you’ (John 15:4). It was an act of God that put us into

Christ and we have to abide there. This verse lays down for us a divine

principle, which is that God has done the work in Christ and not in us as

individuals. It is the history of Christ which is to become the experience

of the Christian, and we have no spiritual experience apart from Him. We

were ‘crucified with Him, quickened, raised, and set by God into the 

heavenlies in Him and we are complete in Him’ (Rom 6:6, Eph 2:5,6

Col 2:10). 

It is wrong to think that we can experience anything of the Christian life 

in ourselves, and apart from Him. All the spiritual experience of the Christian 

is all ready true in Christ. It has all ready been experienced by Christ. What 

we call ‘our’ experience is only our entering into His history, His experience. 

The character of the branches is determined by the Vine.The history of Christ

 becomes our experience and our spiritual history; we do not have a separate 

history from His. The entire work with respect to us is not done in us here 

but in Christ. He does no separate work in individuals apart from what He has 

done there. Even eternal life is not given to us as individuals; the life is in the Son, 

and ‘he that hath the Son hath life.’ God has done all in His Son, and He has 

included us in Him; we are incorporated into Christ.”

Watchman Nee from The Normal Christian life.

Tomorrow you and I will look at how this truth is lived out in our daily lives.