He abides in God - 1 John 4:13-15

"By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God." (1 John 4:13-15)

The promise of Jesus is the promise of God with us. Matthew wrote, "Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 'Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel,' which translated means, "God with us.'" (Matthew 1:22-23) Since the days of Adam and Eve's sin, God has been distant from us; separated from us by our sins. However, God longs to have fellowship and communion with us as He once did in the Garden of Eden when he openly communed and walked with our first parents. Sin had separated us from God but Jesus was the plan to reunite us once again in vital relationship with God our Father. No more would God be external to us but He would be one with us; living in us and communing  with our souls. Jesus prayed this very thing when He said, "The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me." (John 17:22-23)

Such a recommendation of Jesus, as our savior and reconciler to God, does not come to us third-hand but comes to us from the eye-witnesses of these events; from those who lived and travel with Jesus; those who saw His ministry, miracles, and heard His teaching; from those who saw Him die and saw Him resurrected to life again. These are the ones who testify of Jesus and recommend Him to us. John himself was an eye-witness to Jesus and he wrote of his own testimony saying, "This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true." (John 21:24) Our faith is not in fables but in actual events related to us by those who saw and experienced them.

Jesus is the door and without Him we have neither the Father or the Spirit. Jesus testified of Himself, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." (John 14:6) To receive the Spirit of God into our lives we must first receive Jesus and His saving work in our lives. To know the Father we must first know Jesus who is the image of the Father. As Jesus told Philip, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?" (John 14:9) Our spiritual life begins with Jesus. To deny Him is to Deny all of God and to close ourselves off from His Kingdom, power, and salvation. Many have come claiming to be Jesus or to be a savior to mankind but Jesus said of them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." (John 10:7-10) Jesus is the only way to life abundant. If we desire to live abundantly and in relationship with God then we must enter through Jesus. Have you confessed Him today?

David Robison