The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by Anjela Paje of Spokane, WA, from the tape, GC 1301-I, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 11." A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. ©1980. All Rights Reserved.
Question
My question involves abiding in Christ, and it’s taken from 1 John 2:28.
“And now, little children, abide in Him; so that when He appears, we may have
confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.” Now, I’ve been
listening to your tapes on that, and, I believe, you say that ‘abide in Him is
in the imperative there.’ So, that John is saying to the Christians, "You know,
this is your responsibility. You are supposed to abide." And, that, you also say
that no Christian will be ashamed. You know, we have confidence because
Christians are abiding. That is their nature to abide. So, my question would
really be, There seems to be a lot of Christians that do not really abide. And
I’m surprised that there won’t be any type of: “I wish I had read the Bible more
or built a closer relationship with Jesus Christ."
Answer
Yeah! I hear you, and I’m dealing with that in the text in Peter too. It’s
exactly the same problem. Christians, If any man be in Christ, he is a what? New
Creature. Old things have passed away...what? All things become [new]. There has
to be change. So, what I say is, all Christians abide. They just don’t abide all
the time. That’s the only thing you can say. I mean, you show me someone who
says, “Well, I received Christ, and never, in their life have they shown any
evidence, and I’ll show you someone who is not a Christian. That doesn’t mean
that at times in our lives we don’t fail.
For example, that’s what we saw last week [2 Peter 1:4-5], you know, you have been made partakers of divine nature. You have received great and precious promises. You’ve been delivered from the corruption that is in the world through lust. And, then it says, therefore, add to your faith virtue and so forth, and so forth, and so forth, and so forth. So our position is affirmed, and I don’t think you can be a Christian and not have some things new. And, I realize that must be a positional statement, but, I think, if you’re a Christian, there’s going to be fruit, there’s going to be a product some of the time, not necessarily all the time. And, what he is saying there is, it should be a constancy in your life.
Now, I don’t see Christians ashamed at the coming of Christ. I really don’t see that. Now, it may be in a sense, but I can’t see that. 1 Corinthians 4, says then every man shall have praise of God. I don’t see that at the Bema Seat, where we face Christ, is a time of great intimidation. When we say, “Oh, I failed, miserably!” I think, it’s a time of great grace and great acceptance and great affirmation and great reward.
So, I think, the best you can do with that. It’s a very difficult question and you’re touching on one of the hardest paradoxes in all of biblical theology. That is, that all Christians will show it. James says that faith without works is what? Is dead! And, yet, many Christians don’t. And, the answer to it is, all Christians do, they just don’t always do. And, they’re enjoying always to do that.
For example, we say in our study in the Beatitudes and The Sermon on the
Mount, that, if you look at your life, and you don’t see any evidence, then you
don’t really know whether you are a Christian or not. Because a person living in
disobedience will be exactly, in appearance, like an unbeliever. Now, what Peter
says, and I’ll steal a little of my thunder from Sunday morning, Peter says, if
you look at your life, and you don’t see any fruit, and you see barrenness in
your life, you won’t know that you are saved. You will have forgotten you’ve
been purged by your old sins. Therefore, make your calling and election sure.
How? By adding to your faith virtue and to your virtue, and so forth. You see?
In other words, when you see a person who is fruitless or barren, you see a
person who is not abiding in the sense of the fullness of that. Then, I’ll show
you a person who won’t even, himself, have a sense of being secure in Christ.
And, I’m going to hit on this on Sunday morning. But, the difficulty in that
verse is, you see, he definitely seems to be talking about Christians and, yet,
John, himself, because he uses the term for abiding to speak of Christians in
John 15, and that’s the comparative passage. He says, in John 15, “If you don’t
abide in me, you are cast forth as a branch and burned." Now, I see that as an
unbeliever. A true Christian does abide. But, he doesn’t always abide. And, I
think, John kind of picks that up there. But, it is a very difficult passage.
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and
Answers" by:
Tony Capoccia
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