From The Book “the Master's Indwelling” By Andrew Murray

From the book “The Master's Indwelling” By Andrew Murray

Chapter 6 – CHRIST OUR LIFE

Col 3: 4 ...Christ who is our life...

One question that rises in every mind is this: “How can I live that life of perfect trust in God?” Many do not know the right answer, or the full answer. It is this: “Christ must live it in me.” That is what He became man for; as a man to live a life of trust in God, and so to show to us how we ought to live. When He had done that upon earth, He went to heaven, that He might do more than show us, that He might give us, and live in us that life of trust. It is as we understand what the life of Christ is and how it becomes ours, that we shall be prepared to desire and to ask of Him that He would live it Himself in us. When first we have seen what the life is, then we shall understand how it is that He can actually take possession, and make us like Himself.

I want especially to direct attention to that first question. I wish to set before you the life of Christ as He lived it, that we may understand what it is that He has for us and that we can expect from Him. Christ Jesus lived a life upon earth that He expects us literally to imitate. We often say that we long to be like Christ. We study the traits of His character, mark His footsteps, and pray for grace to be like Him, and yet, somehow, we succeed but very little. And why? Because we want to pluck the fruit while the root is missing. If we want really to understand what the imitation of Christ means, we must go to that which constituted the very root of His life before God. It was a life of absolute dependence, absolute trust, and absolute surrender. Until we are one with Him in what is the principle of His life, absolute dependence on God, it is vain for us to seek here or there to copy the graces of that life.

Life from God

We often think that God has given us a life which is now our own, a spiritual life, and that we are to take charge; and then we complain that we cannot rightly keep it. No wonder. We must learn to live as Jesus did. I have a God-given treasure in this earthen vessel. I have the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, the revealed Words of God in my heart (2 Cor 4:6). I have this life of God's Son within my spirit, given me by God, it can only be maintained by God Himself as I will to live in fellowship with Him.

What does the Apostle Paul teach us in Romans 6? He tells us that we must reckon ourselves to be dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus. He goes on to say: “Therefore yield yourselves to God, as those that are alive from the dead” (Rom 6:13). How often a Christian hears solemn words about his having to reckon himself dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ! He does not know what to do; so he wonders: “How can I keep it, this death and this life?” Listen to what Paul says. The moment that you believe yourself to be dead to sin and alive to God, go with that life to God Himself, and present yourself as alive from the dead, and say to God: “Lord, You have given me this life. You alone can keep it. I bring it to You. I cannot yet understand everything. I hardly know what I have got, but I come to You to perfect what You have begun.” To live like Christ, I must be conscious every moment that my life has come from God, and He alone can maintain it.

Dependence on God

How did Christ live out His life during the thirty-three years in which He walked here upon earth? He lived it in dependence on God. You know how continually He says: “The Son can do nothing of Himself (John 5:19). The words that I speak are not my own but the Father’s (John 14:10).” He waited unceasingly for the teaching, and the commands, and the guidance of the Father. He prayed for power from the Father. Whatever He did, He did in the name of the Father. He, the Son of God, felt the need of much prayer, of persevering prayer, of bringing down from heaven and maintaining the life of fellowship with God in prayer. We hear a great deal about trusting God. And we may say: “Ah, that is what I want,” and we may forget what is the very secret of it all, — that God, in Christ, must work all in us. I not only need God as an object of trust, but I must have Christ formed within my heart as the power to trust; He must live His own life of trust in me.