— Day 12 —

God Himself Will
Establish You in Him

He who establishes us with you in Christ and
has anointed us is God.

2 Corinthians 1:21

These words of Paul teach us a much-needed and most blessed truth—that just as our first being united with Christ was the work of divine omnipotence, so we may also look to the Father for being kept and being established more firmly in Him. ‘‘The Lord will perfect that which concerns me’’ (Psalm 138:8)—this expression of confidence should always accompany the prayer ‘‘Do not forsake the works of Your hands’’ (Psalm 138:8). In all his longings and prayers to reach a deeper and more perfect abiding in Christ, the believer must have this confidence: ‘‘He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus’’ (Philippians 1:6 NIV). There is nothing that will so help to root and ground him in Christ as faith in these words: ‘‘He who establishes us in Christ is God.’’

How many there are who can witness to the fact that this faith is just what they need! They continually mourn over the ups and downs of their spiritual life. Sometimes there are hours and days of great continuity and even a profound experience of the grace of God. But how little is needed to mar their peace, to bring a cloud over the soul! And then, how the faith is shaken. All efforts to regain their standing appear utterly fruitless; and neither solemn vows, nor watching and prayer, help to restore to them the peace they had for a while tasted. What they need to understand is how their own efforts are the cause of their failure, because it is God alone who can establish us in Christ Jesus.

Just as in justification they had to cease from their own working, and to accept in faith the promise that God would give them life in Christ, so now, in the matter of their sanctification, their first need is to cease from striving themselves to establish the connection with Christ more firmly, and to allow God to do it. ‘‘God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord’’ (1 Corinthians 1:9). What they need is simple faith in the fact that establishing us in Christ, day by day, is God’s work—a work that He delights to do, in spite of all our weakness and unfaithfulness, if we will but trust Him for it.

Many can testify to the blessedness of such a faith and the experience it brings. What peace and rest to know that there is a Vinedresser who cares for the branch, to see that it grows stronger, and that its union with the Vine becomes more perfect, who watches over every hindrance and danger and supplies every need! What peace and rest to fully and finally give up our abiding into the care of God, and to never have a wish or thought, never offer a prayer or engage in an exercise connected with it, without first gladly remembering that what we do is only the manifestation of what God is doing in us! The establishing in Christ is His work: He accomplishes it by stirring us to watch, wait, and work. But this He can do with power only as we stop interrupting Him by our self-working, as we accept in faith the dependent posture that honors Him and opens the heart to let Him work. How such a faith frees the soul from care and responsibility! In the midst of the rush and bustle of the world’s busy life, the subtle and ceaseless temptations to sin, and all the daily cares and trials that so easily distract and lead to failure, how wonderful to be an established Christian who is always abiding in Christ! How blessed even to have the faith that such a position can be attained and is within our reach!

Dear believer, the blessing is indeed within your reach. He who establishes you with us in Christ is God. What I want you to take in is this: Believing this promise will not only give you comfort but will also be the means of obtaining your desire. You know how Scripture teaches us that in all God’s leadings with His people faith has everywhere been the one condition for seeing His power manifested. Faith is the ceasing from all our natural efforts and all other dependence; faith is confessed helplessness casting itself upon God’s promise and claiming its fulfillment; faith is putting ourselves quietly into God’s hands for Him to do His work. What you and I need now is to take time, until this truth stands out before us in all its spiritual brightness: It is God Almighty, God the Faithful and Gracious One, who has undertaken to establish me in Christ Jesus.

Listen to what the Word teaches you: ‘‘The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself’’ (Deuteronomy 28:9); ‘‘Your God has loved Israel, to establish them forever’’ (2 Chronicles 9:8); ‘‘Now to Him who is able to establish you, be glory through Jesus Christ forever’’ (Romans 16:25, 27); ‘‘So that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness’’ (1 Thessalonians 3:13); ‘‘The Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one’’ (2 Thessalonians 3:3); ‘‘The God of all grace, who has called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you’’ (1 Peter 5:10). Can you take these words to mean anything less than that you too—however spasmodic your spiritual life has been up to now, however unfavorable your natural character or your circumstances may appear—can be established in Christ Jesus? If we take the time to listen, in simple childlike humility, to these words as the truth of God, the confidence will come: As surely as I am in Christ, I will also, day by day, be established in Him.

The lesson appears so simple; and yet most of us take so long to learn it. The main reason is that the grace the promise offers is so large, so Godlike, so beyond all our thoughts, that we do not take it to mean what it says. The believer who has finally come to see and accept what it brings can testify to the wonderful change that comes over the spiritual life. Before he had taken control of his own welfare; now he has God to take charge of it. He now knows himself to be in the school of God, with a Teacher who plans the whole course of study for each of His pupils with infinite wisdom, and delights to have them come daily for the lessons He has to give. All he asks is to feel himself constantly in God’s hands and to follow His guidance, neither lagging behind nor getting ahead of Him. Remembering that it is God who works both to will and to do, he sees his only safety in yielding himself to God’s working. He lays aside all anxiety about his inner life and its growth, because the Father is the Vinedresser. Under His wise and watchful care each plant is well secured. He knows that there is the prospect of a most blessed life of strength and fruitfulness to every one who will take God wholly as his only hope.

Believer, you must admit that such a life of trust is most blessed. You say, perhaps, that there are times when you do, with your whole heart, consent to this way of living and wholly abandon the care of your inner life to your Father. But somehow it does not last. You forget again; and instead of beginning each morning with the joyous transference of all the needs and cares of your spiritual life to the Father’s charge, you again feel anxious, burdened, and helpless.

Could it be that you have not committed to the Father’s care this matter, daily remembering to renew your entire surrender? Memory is one of the highest powers in our nature. By it day is linked to day, the unity of life through all our years is kept up, and we know that we are still ourselves. In the spiritual life, recollection is of infinite value. For the sanctifying of our memory, in the service of our spiritual life, God has provided most beautifully. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of recollection. Jesus said, ‘‘He will bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you’’ (John 14:26). ‘‘He who establishes us with you in Christ is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a deposit’’ (2 Corinthians 1:21–22). It is for the purpose of establishing us that the Holy Spirit has been given. God’s blessed promises, and your unceasing acts of faith and surrender that accept them—He will enable you to remember these each day. The Holy Spirit is—praise be to God—the memory of the new man.

Apply this to the promise of the text: ‘‘He who establishes us in Christ is God.’’ As you now, at this moment, abandon all anxiety about your growth and progress to the God who has undertaken to establish you in the Vine, and feel what a joy it is to know that God alone has charge, ask and trust Him by the Holy Spirit to always remind you of your blessed relationship with Him. He will do it; and with each new morning your faith may grow stronger and brighter: The Father will see that each day I become more firmly united to Christ.

And now, beloved fellow-believer, ‘‘the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you’’ (1 Peter 5:10). What more can you desire? Expect it confidently, ask for it fervently. Count on God to do His work. And learn in faith to sing the song, the notes of which each new experience will make deeper and sweeter: ‘‘Now to Him who is able to establish you, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen’’ (Romans 16:25, 27). Yes, glory to God, who has undertaken to establish us in Christ!