The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1941-11-13
UNION WITH CHRIST

O4N1ON FtA4EA CE1HESi
LESSON TEXT-John 15:1-1O.
GOLDEN TEXT-Abide in me, and I In
you.-John 15;4.
Our lesson presents deep spiritual
truths concerning our union with
Christ - mystical, but practical;
precious, but too often forgotten or
neglected.
I. The Conditions Of Union With
Christ.
There is sense in which union
with Christ is entirely uncondition-
al, one is either united with Him by
faith or he is not. However, there
are conditions for the fulillment of
all that such union carries with it..
1t IS in that sense we use the word.
l. Cleansing wv. 1-3). Christ is
the Vine, and the believer as a true
branch is united with Him. There
is a oneness here which is difficult
to express but delightful to receive
and believe. He who is the Vine
needs no cleansing, but the branch
needs constant, daily publication by
the Word" ". 81. Are we per-
hitting Gods Word to keep us
clean? Only if we are reading it.,
studying it, meditating upon it.
There is moreover a severer type
of purging to which the husband
man subjects the vine that it may
bear more richly, and that is prun-
ing ". y. 1t may not be pleasant,
my brother, but it is profitable, and
remember whose loving and sure
hand it is that Yields the pruning
knife ". y.
Some branches must be cut away
altogether ". y and burned ". g..
They lack the evidence of life
fruitbearing = and must be de-
stroyed. These words are evidently
not written to dishearten true be-
levers, but they are a solemn warn
ing to those who bear a false pro-
fession of Christianity.
2. Abiding wv. 49,. The branch
bears the fruit of the vine. 1t has
no strength or ability of its own to
bring forth fruit The Christian
cannot serve Christ without abiding,
and if he does abide the life of
Christ will show forth in His living
and serving. There can be no union
without abiding in Christ.
3. Obedience wv. 9, 10y. The
hallmark of character in child is
obedience. That is also true in
Gods household. There is no use
in talking sweetly and piously about
abiding in Gods love unless we
obey His commandments. The
Christian who disobeys the teach
ings Of Gods Word regarding holy
living and does not respond to the
leading Of the Holy Spirit shuts off
the blessing of God in his own life
and stops its flow out to others.
ii. The Results of Union With
Christ.
l. Purity of Life ". 81. "Now
ye are clean'-how refreshing our
Lords words sound to US as we
live in a wicked and filthy world
We sometimes wonder if there are
any pure lives anymore. Yes, there
are-those whom the Lord has
cleansed by His Word. Would you
like to be clean? Turn to Him and
to His Word.
2. Prevailing Prayer ". y. At
first one wonders why our Lord put
in that word about prayer, but it
is evident that one of the fruits Of
union and fellowship with Christ
must be intelligent prayer accord
ing to Gods will, in, the power of
the Spirit, and certain of an answer
Notice that the prayer promise
here is absolutely unlimited, but
that it follows an eff which states
a closely limited condition Let US
fulfill the condition and claim the
promise.
3. Fruitbearing wv 2, 4, S, 49,.
The fruit a Christian bears is the
fruit of Christ who is the Vine, but
as the branch he does have the joy
of bearing fruit" ". y, more
fruit ". p, and "much fruit" wv.
S, 81. The Christians phraseology
can be borrowed, the Christian
service initiated, but his fruit pro-
duced only by abiding in Christ.
4. Abiding in Love ". 1O). We
have been talking about abiding all
through our lesson and it may seem
strange to list it as one of the results
of union with Christ, yet it belongs
here. Our Lord said ". 1O) that
the cleansed and obedient disciple
should abide in His love, even as
He obeys the Father and abides in
His love.
What a picture that is. Christ
the One who knew no stain of sin
QI Cor. SID, always perfectly
obedient to the Father Heb. 10:O,
who knows complete and perfect
fellowship with the Father, reaches
out His loving arms and draws the
believer into the circle Of that
blessed union and love.
Only Thee
No one can ever become quite