Vital Union With Christ

By J. C. Ryle

    Holiness comes from Christ.  It is the result of vital union with Him.  It is the fruit of being a living branch of the true Vine.  Go then to Christ and say, “Lord, not only save me from the guilt of sin, but send the Spirit, whom You did promise, and save me from sin’s power.  Make me holy.  Teach me to do Your will.”

    Would you continue holy?  Then abide in Christ (John 15:4-5).  It pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell, a full supply for all a believer’s wants.  He is the Physician to whom you must daily go if you would keep well.  He is the Manna which you must daily eat and the Rock of which you must daily drink.  His arm is the arm on which you must daily lean as you come up out of the wilderness of this world.  You must not only be rooted, you must also be built up in Him.

    Paul was a man of God indeed, a holy man, a growing thriving Christian, and what was the secret of it all?  He was one to whom Christ was all in all.  He was ever looking unto Jesus.  “I can do all things,” he says, “through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4:13).  “…I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:  and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God…” (Gal. 2:20).  Let us go and do likewise.