THE CHRIST LIFE
‘I am the Life.’
‘I am the Life,’ Jesus said. How is this true of Him?
I. He is the Pattern Life.—Never was a life of man lived like His life. All are agreed about this. As in the days of His flesh foes as well as friends recognised the perfection of His life, so in all ages since, so in this critical age in which our lot is cast, believers and unbelievers alike are unanimous in the verdict they pass on the life of Jesus. ‘Truly this was a righteous Man.’
II. He is the Bringer of Life.—He asserts this of Himself: ‘I am come that ye might have life.’
III. He is Himself the Life.—‘Apart from Me ye can do nothing,’ any more than the branch can live and bear fruit when it is severed from the parent stem.
We cannot live on doctrines or feelings about Christ, nor depend for life on mere ordinances of religion however carefully observed. The only true life is that which centres round a living, personal Christ, and draws all its strength from Him.
Bishop C. J. Ridgeway.
Illustration
‘If you can receive it, your “life” is really, at this moment, up in heaven with Christ. He represents it; and He holds it. He is it. Our “life,” down here, is a part of that “life” which Christ “lives,” eternally and essentially, before the throne; and certain secret communications, always passing, make that “life” this “life.” This is a necessary result of that oneness which there is between the member and the Head. It is very unintelligible to a man of the world; he knows nothing about it; but it is a great reality to a Christian. And it is an unspeakable comfort. Every one feels a jealousy and a fear, “Will my ‘new’ feelings last? Will this ‘new’ existence, of which I am beginning to be conscious, will it go on?” The resting place for that doubt is: “Yes—for my ‘life’ is a part of ‘the life’ of a ‘living’ Saviour; Who, ‘in that He died, He died unto sin once; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God.’ That is eternal. ‘My life is hid with Christ in God.’ ”
(SECOND OUTLINE)
LIVING IN CHRIST
You will find that your inner, your true, your only ‘life,’ will ever flow and prosper, or decline; be dull or bright—live or die—just according to the Christ that is in you.
You may try other ways, for a time, and you may think that you are succeeding; but, mark me, you will see at last that union and communion with Christ—nearness to Christ—dependence upon Christ—serving Christ—loving Christ—waiting for Christ, is the only security; the only strength; the beginning, middle, and end; the sum and substance of all spiritual ‘life,’ within a man’s heart.
This is why some fail, and some keep on to the end. It is that some understand, and some do not understand—some have always remembered, and some are always forgetting, what those words mean, ‘I am the life.’
To see this a little more plainly, let us break up the thought into four—
I. ‘Life’ in Christ.
II. ‘Life’ on Christ.
III. ‘Life’ to Christ.
IV. ‘Life’ with Christ.
—Rev. J. Vaughan.
(THIRD OUTLINE)
CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE
True life is in God alone; it is given in Jesus Christ; it is given now. Have we this life? We can know the signs of this life, for Jesus is our exemplar, a pattern.
I. What characteristics of life do we find in the character, walk, and conduct of Jesus? Look at Him in His relationship to the Father.
Of Himself He could do nothing, teach nothing, speak nothing.
He did not come of Himself. He lived for His Father’s glory, not His own. He did not do His own will, but His Father’s.
His life was one of (a) consecration to God; (b) dependence on God; and (c) harmony with God.
II. These will be characteristics of our life if the Divine life has been imparted to us.
The Divine life is the same, whether lived by Him or lived by us. God is the centre, not self.
—Canon J. G. Hoare.