This devotional was originally published on Feb. 15, 2013
I am from Jacksonville, Texas. I am married to Cathy. I am a father to Parker and Janie. I am a father-in-law to Jessica and Miller. I am a younger brother and an only son. I am an alumnus of The University of Texas at Austin. I have traveled throughout the United States, visited Mexico City, honeymooned in Canada, been on a mission trip to post-earthquake Haiti, and hiked in the Andes Mountains of Peru. I hit about 2 million tennis balls during high school and college. I started attending c|Life six months after the church started.
These are tidbits of my history. These are indisputable facts. But none of this information tells you about my faith, about the depth of my relationship with Christ.
While a college sophomore, I trusted Christ with my eternal salvation and my earthly sanctification. But I had only a vague (and incomplete) idea of what it meant to be a Christian. I did not know what it meant to be in him.
Here are a few things that the Word tells me about living in him:
“…whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
— John 3:16 ESV
“…whoever believes in him, is not condemned…”
— John 3:18 ESV
…everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
— Acts 10:43 ESV
For the Scripture says, “everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame”.
— Romans 10:11 ESV
…trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
— Romans 15:13 NIV
For in him you have been enriched in every way…
— 1 Corinthians 1:5 NIV
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
— 2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV
even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
— Ephesians 1:4 ESV
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.
— Ephesians 1:7 NIV
…When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,
— Ephesians 1:13 NIV
In him and through faith in him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
— Ephesians 3:12 NIV
For in him all things were created…
— Colossians 1:16 NIV
…and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy…
— 1 Peter 1:8 NIV
Scripture also includes the admonition to live in him:
“for in him we live and move and have our being…”
— Acts 17:28 ESV
…continue to live your lives in him,
— Colossians 2:6 NIV
Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
— 1 John 2:6 NIV
…remain in him.
— 1 John 2:27 NIV
“The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them.”
— 1 John 3:24 NIV
This is the life that Christ offers if I choose to live in him: eternal life, forgiveness, no shame, no condemnation, hope, enriched, righteous, chosen, redeemed, sealed by the Holy Spirit, and filled with joy.
My challenge is to live in him so that, as I live, I represent my faith in him clearly and authentically. In other words, that my living in him becomes a true testimony to him.
Will you accept that challenge as well?