The Same Faith That Brought You to Him
Andrew Murray's Abide in Christ, Chapter 5: Abiding in Christ by Faith (Colossians 2:6–7)
If abiding in Christ is the goal, what is the means? Murray's answer in Chapter 5 is deceptively simple — and it is the same answer for every stage of the Christian life.
Faith. The same faith by which you first came to Christ is the very faith by which you are to abide in Him, day by day.
A Misunderstanding Among Earnest Believers
Murray describes a pattern he saw in many sincere Christians: they hold firmly to justification by faith, but quietly assume that the ongoing life of sanctification depends on their own diligence. Salvation was God's work. Living as a Christian, they believe, is now largely theirs. They pray for help, but the underlying assumption is that the real effort falls to them.
This misunderstanding, Murray says, is the source of much of the exhaustion and failure in the Christian life. Paul's word in Colossians 2 cuts right through it: as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. Not differently. Not by a higher method. The same receiving. The same open-handed, empty-handed faith — now applied to every day.
The life of grace, from first to last, is a life of faith.
Look Back at How You First Came
Murray offers a practical help: look back at your conversion. Remember the obstacles that seemed impossible then — the guilt that felt disqualifying, the weakness that made surrender seem beyond reach, the fear of the future knowing your own faithlessness. These were mountains.
How were they removed? Not by overcoming them, but by believing God's word over your own experience. You trusted that His promise was greater than your reality. You came — and were not disappointed.
Now apply that same lesson to the present. The obstacles you feel today — recent failures, present weakness, fear of committing to something you might not sustain — none of them are new. All of them were present at your conversion. And faith overcame them then. The same faith will overcome them now.
First, Believe in the Vine
Murray gives a practical direction for exercising this faith: don't begin by examining yourself as a branch. Begin by beholding Christ as the Vine.
The strength of the branch comes entirely from the vine it is joined to. A soul preoccupied with its own weakness will remain weak. But a soul filled with large thoughts of Christ — His love, His power, His absolute sufficiency — will find itself strong, not through its own energy but through its confidence in Him.
This is why Murray says: spend time with Christ before you spend time assessing your performance. Let the Spirit show you who He is. Let His promises become large in your heart. The abiding life grows in that soil, and nowhere else.
Then Say: I Am in Him
Murray's second direction is equally simple: say it. Dare to say, I am in Christ. Not as a wish, not as an aspiration, but as a present reality that God has made true.
"I am in Christ." This is where I am. This is who I am. He has placed me here, and He keeps the door. I consent to remain.
There is something in the honest, prayerful utterance of this truth that cuts through complexity and returns the soul to what is real. Not striving toward an ideal, but resting in a person. Not a discipline to maintain, but a place to return to — again and again, by the same faith, in the same grace.
───
Next: Chapter 6, where Murray explores one of the most stabilizing truths in this book — it is not ultimately your choice of Christ, but God Himself who has united you to Him. When the abiding feels fragile, this is the foundation that holds.
This is part of an ongoing chapter-by-chapter study of Andrew Murray's Abide in Christ (한국어판: 「주 안에 거하라」). The full series is in the archive at Pray & Abide.
