Abiding in Christ

John 15:4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
John 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing

Sin separated mankind from God. Jesus Christ came and removed this barrier called sin, by taking the sins of the whole humanity and the punishment for it, upon Himself. This is GOOD NEWS (gospel), but only HALF the news.

Escaping hell by the removal of the sin barrier is only one aspect of being born again. Sadly, this is the carrot (escape from hell and ticket to heaven), being offered to people to get saved. So once a person has the assurance that his sins have been forgiven and is on the way to heaven, then they may go and live as they please. For such people, there is nothing more to Christianity after they are born again.

How can this error be corrected? By preaching the WHOLE GOOD NEWS, which is, “he that believes in Him should not perish, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE”. (John 3:16). Everlasting life is the part of the gospel that is either misunderstood or not given enough importance.

In the gospels, Jesus said several times that He has come to give LIFE (zoe - Greek-the very life of God) and that He HIMSELF IS THIS LIFE. In John 17:3, He says, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Eternal life is not something that you attain somewhere in the future, but rather, it is having Jesus Christ Himself or His zoe life in you, RIGHT NOW! Not only that, it is to KNOW God and Jesus Christ (have an experiential knowledge). Jesus came to restore the connection with God that Adam lost, by giving us His very life in us. Adam, by his disobedience, experienced death or lost that spiritual connection with God. Jesus, through His obedience, came to restore what man lost in the Garden of Eden, chiefly among them, a relationship and fellowship with God.

The Bible says, he that is joined to the Lord is ONE SPIRIT. When we are born of God, He makes us a brand new creation (one which never existed before). This new creation or creature has the very life of God in it. It is no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me, said Paul. It is His life that we are living by, as a new creation. Our old self died by co-crucifixion with Christ.
Not only does God take up literal residence in our bodies, but we are placed into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit (I Cor 1:30, Rom 6:3). So, we, the branches, are connected to the true vine Jesus Christ, by His work of regeneration. The branches do not struggle to produce fruit, but the life from the vine flows through the branches to produce fruit. As the true vine, our Lord is the source of life and strength and fruit. There is a relationship of complete dependence between the branch and the vine. The vine supplies life-giving nourishment to the branches. Apart from it, the branches have neither life nor fruit

So, does this life flow automatically through us producing the fruit? We saw that we are connected to Him by His work. Why then, do we not sometimes see fruit in our life? Jesus said that the key to seeing fruit in your life is not by you struggling, but by simply abiding in him. What does abiding in Him mean? Abiding in Him is, going beyond our positional placement in Christ. It is a life of having an experiential fellowship and intimacy with Him. We, as the branches are the physical and visible manifestation of the life of Christ inside us. It is our choice and responsibility to let this life flow through us by have a relationship and intimacy with Him. This experience of abiding in Him is, trusting Him and allowing Him to flow through us and not trusting in our self efforts to produce fruit. We can choose to let Him live through us or trust in our ability, holiness and good works to produce the fruit.

Is there a labor involved in abiding? Yes! The bible says that we have to labor to enter into His rest (Heb 11:4) To rest means to rest from our labors, trust and rest in His finished work and His life in us to produce the visible manifestation of fruits. His work is perfect and there is nothing left for us to do, but enter into this rest. This is done by knowing the truth, believing the truth, renewing our minds to the truth. – the truth that Christ took away all our sins (not some, but all), He gave us His very life(eternal life) and is living right now inside us, we have a new nature (His nature), He has made us holy, righteous and blessed us with EVERY blessing in Christ Jesus. HAVING THE RIGHT KNOWLEDGE IS VERY IMPORTANT! Knowing this truth makes it easier in our labor to experience the rest. Knowing this truth makes it easier to have a constant fellowship and intimacy with Him. Does this happen overnight? Absolutely not! In this modern day and age there are so many things to distract us and occupy our time. Even in the midst of our business, we need to make a conscious effort of being aware of Him. He is with us all the time - when we drive, at school, at work, when doing our chores etc. He NEVER leaves us, even when we do something wrong. He is with us. We need to cultivate His presence and talk to Him all the time.(this is “pray without ceasing”).

Abiding is our obligation; fruitfulness is God’s concern. The True Vine is the Author, the Source and the Finisher of our faith. We should be seeking His fellowship, and leaving the fruit to Him. Holiness is one of the fruits which will happen as a natural byproduct of us fellowshipping with Him. Sometimes we may find ourselves, straying away from His presence and not communicating with Him. At such times, do not let guilt, condemnation and frustration take over you. But rather, simply start communicating and fellowshipping with Him again. This is the labor, that is involved on our part and we may find ourselves straying away quite often at the beginning. But as we go along in our spiritual journey, by His grace, these straying moments will become less and less and more and more His life will manifest through us.