Abiding In Christ & Walking In Christ – Pt. 3
Conclusion
Walking As Christ Walked
No man can make another walk as Christ walked if he has not the strength to walk that way. It is through faith in Jesus of Nazareth. “And His name, through faith in His name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know; yea, the faith which is by Him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.” Israel’s God lives today, and the same power that touched that man who never had walked and made him able to walk, can take the worst sinner, who never has stepped one step in the steps of Jesus Christ, and make him to walk as Christ walked. “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”
Here is another picture to show us that we can walk as He walked through faith in His name: “And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked.” But he had heard Paul speak, and the message had taken hold of his heart. Paul saw that he had faith to be healed, and he “said with a loud voice, stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked.” (Acts 14:8-10) And he walked like a well man. He was made well in order that he might do this. That is the work of Jesus Christ. And today by His power we can walk as He walked. “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him.” (Colossians 2:6) And to walk in Him is the only way we can walk as He walked.
“And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour.” (Ephesians 5:2) Many people have a very incorrect idea of what it means to walk in love. They seem to have an idea that it is to get up a kind of ecstasy so that they do not know where they are or what they are doing. It means to them to get above the ordinary things of life. This is not the correct view. The Scripture defines exactly what it means to walk in love. “And this is love that we walk after His commandments.” (2 John 5:3) “If ye love Me,” Christ said, “keep My commandments. If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.” (John 15:10) The love of God is not a sentimental emotion, not a fanatical frenzy of experience. Christ worked at the carpenter’s bench during the greater part of His life. He went down to Nazareth and was subject to His parents. His walk as a young man is the walk for every young man. Christ tells us how to love Him. He does not accept anything else. It is of great importance for us to –
Get A Right Idea of Jesus Christ.
Let a man get a wrong idea of Him, and He will devote his life to his false idea, and sacrifice the lives of all who do not see his Christ as He sees Him. Take, for instance, the example of Paul. He was looking for Messiah; but it was his Messiah, not the Lord’s Messiah, so that when the Lord’s Messiah came he did not see Him. Some did, and believed on Him, and Paul immediately began to persecute them because they did not believe on his Christ. “For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it.” “In the Jews’ religion.” God’s religion never persecuted anybody. It is man’s religion that leads one to persecute those who do not see his Christ. God’s religion never does so. “And profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation.” Observe what the Jews’ religion was. “ . . . being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my father.” (Galatians 1:13,14) He was zealous of the traditions of his father, not of the Word of God.
“But when it pleased God who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them that were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days. But other of the apostles saw I none, save James, the Lord’s brother. Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not. Afterward I came into the region of Syria and Cilicia; and was unknown by face unto the churches of Judea which were in Christ; but they had heard only, that he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed. And they glorified God in me.” (Galatians 1:15-24) It is important that we have a true idea of Christ.
Christ Is All and In All,
and in order to walk as He walked, we must know Him in His capacity of adapting Himself to us. The Scripture sets Him forth in this way, that we may appropriate the love of God to ourselves:
“I am the door.” (John 10:7) That is the entrance. No man can enter except through Christ.
“I am the way.” (John 14:6) I am the door and the way to walk in.
“I am the light of the world.” (John 8:12) I am the door, the way, the light. This is a dark world, and we need a light.
“I am that bread of life.” (John 6:48) We need strength to walk in the way. “I am that bread of life.”
“I am the good shepherd.” (John 10:11) He is the companion who goes with His sheep.
“I am . . . the life.” (John 14:6) This is the power for the way.
“I am the resurrection.” (John 11:25) That is the end of the road.
I am the door, I am the way, I am the light, I am the bread, I am the Good Shepherd, I am the life, I am the resurrection. That is: I am the entrance, the road, the light to walk by, the strength to walk with, the companion by the way, the power for the way, and the end of the way. And so David in the 23rd Psalm says, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.”
Jesus Christ’s walk extends not simply to the grave, but through the grave. And because of this, we may go through the valley of the shadow of death, and not be left in it. “I am the resurrection and the life;” and he who abides in Christ, who is the door, the way, the light, the bread, the Good Shepherd, the life, and the resurrection , does walk “even as He walked.”
Resource: The W.W. Prescott Armadale Sermons
Melbourne, Australia, 1895
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