Acts 17:28

‘IN HIM’

‘In Him we live, and move, and have our being.’

Acts 17:28

The subject is a very deep and very mysterious one. The words exceed all comprehension—this wonderful union—this almost identity of Christ and the Christian.

I. Living.—When did you first begin to feel the power, the privilege, the whole meaning of that word ‘life’? Was not it when you ceased to live for self, for the world, for sin? When you concentrated yourself unto one focus? And now see the security! Have you life, the very strength of life, the very essence of life? Is it not to you Christ? You who love Christ, you never, never die. ‘In Him I live.’ The moment I give up Him, I die. Now mark well the little word. Do not be content to say, ‘I live by Him’; do not be content to say, ‘I live for Him.’ Say, (I feel it, I feel it, I know it, I lay the emphasis on the right word, I live in Him. I live in Him.’ It means, He must die before I die! He must be lost before I can be lost! He must be condemned before I can be condemned! I am bound up in Him; I live with Him. So long as He lives, I live; it is the true necessary consequence, I live in Him, and I shall never, never die!

II. Moving.—It may be wherever we go, whatever change may happen to me in this changing world, in whatever place my lot may be cast, I carry Him with me. I may move up or down; be very low in the world, or very high, as the world calls high; in poverty or wealth; in sickness or health; somewhere near, or somewhere far off; separated from all I hold dearest to me in this world, even down to that paasage of death which leads to another world; but I move with Him, with Him. Not only by Him; it is more than that, I move in Him. He and I can never be divided. It is like the atmosphere which I am breathing. Therefore I cannot be greatly moved.

III. Being.—What is ‘my being’? A compound of body, soul, and spirit. The body has been worn by that Son of Man Who has endowed it. And that soul and spirit were also His. And He is in sympathy with all those weaknesses I feel. He knows exactly what each needs for its purification, and holiness, and strength, and victory. And though my whole being is subject to the attack of the most subtle and cruel enemy, that same enemy is His enemy and mine, but He has spoiled all his wiles, He has destroyed his power, and He has come out in the conflict with him ‘more than conqueror.’

—Rev. James Vaughan.

Illustration

‘All is of God that is, and is to be;

And God is good; let this suffice us still,

Resting in child-like trust upon His will,

Who moves to His great ends unthwarted by the ill.’