What Does It Mean to ‘Abide in Christ’?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Happy Friday to everyone.

00:00:05.680 | Today's question comes from Casey in Oregon.

00:00:09.400 | Dear Pastor John, I have been a Christian

00:00:11.400 | and a Bible student and a Bible teacher for many years,

00:00:14.600 | but I sometimes find myself a little puzzled

00:00:17.000 | and if I'm honest, a bit disquieted

00:00:20.260 | by John's teaching on abiding.

00:00:23.000 | In particular, I think of the opening of John 15

00:00:25.960 | and much of the material of the letter of 1 John.

00:00:29.640 | It provokes many questions for me.

00:00:31.320 | For example, how does this relate

00:00:33.600 | to the doctrine of perseverance?

00:00:35.840 | And does this mean that in some sense,

00:00:37.880 | it is up to me to keep me in God's family?

00:00:42.000 | Could you give a brief APJ length overview

00:00:45.060 | of John's theology of abiding in Christ?

00:00:48.340 | - What is an APJ length?

00:00:52.400 | If you ask Tony, it's one thing.

00:00:54.320 | - Yes it is, that's right.

00:00:56.480 | - He's always on my case to make it shorter.

00:00:58.280 | So here we go, let's do it quick.

00:01:00.800 | - It's true.

00:01:01.640 | - This is huge, I mean, a challenge to give a theology

00:01:03.680 | of abiding in 10 minutes.

00:01:05.240 | Let's see what we can do.

00:01:06.480 | I'm gonna sum it up from John 15.

00:01:10.040 | Let's just go there with seven or is it six points?

00:01:13.400 | I can't remember how many I jotted down here.

00:01:15.560 | It's just six.

00:01:17.040 | Yeah, six points.

00:01:18.840 | Let's read it.

00:01:19.680 | I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser.

00:01:23.200 | Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away

00:01:26.720 | and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes

00:01:30.880 | that it may bear more fruit.

00:01:32.160 | Already you are clean because of the word

00:01:36.080 | that I have spoken to you.

00:01:37.360 | Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit

00:01:42.360 | by itself unless it abides in the vine,

00:01:46.640 | neither can you unless you abide in me.

00:01:49.120 | So first observation, number one.

00:01:51.580 | I think the essential meaning of our act of abiding,

00:01:54.520 | our act of abiding is the act of receiving and trusting

00:01:59.520 | all that God is for us in Christ.

00:02:03.940 | If a branch remains or abides attached to the vine

00:02:08.940 | in such a way that it is receiving all that the branch

00:02:14.760 | has to give, then that is a picture of what John means

00:02:18.760 | by believing or trusting Jesus.

00:02:22.120 | He says in chapter one, verse 12, to all who receive him,

00:02:26.960 | who believed in his name, he gave the right to become

00:02:30.600 | the children of God.

00:02:31.420 | So believing is a receiving of Christ into the soul,

00:02:36.420 | welcoming him, trusting him, as it were, drinking

00:02:41.560 | and eating and savoring him, which is what he says

00:02:45.480 | in chapter six, verse 40, 35.

00:02:48.920 | I am the bread of life.

00:02:51.840 | Whoever comes to me shall not hunger.

00:02:53.600 | Whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

00:02:57.400 | So believing is an attachment to, a coming to,

00:03:00.880 | an attachment to Jesus and a receiving from Jesus,

00:03:05.520 | a trusting in Jesus, a remaining in fellowship with Jesus,

00:03:10.520 | connected to Jesus so that all that God is for us in him

00:03:16.040 | is flowing like a life-giving sap into our lives.

00:03:20.600 | So that's number one, abiding is believing,

00:03:25.480 | trusting, savoring, resting, receiving.

00:03:29.020 | Number two, Jesus gets very specific about what is flowing

00:03:34.020 | between the vine and the branch.

00:03:35.520 | He mentions words, his words, his love, his joy.

00:03:39.260 | Verse seven, if you abide in me and my words abide in you,

00:03:44.260 | ask whatever you wish.

00:03:45.840 | Verse nine, as the father has loved me, so I have loved you.

00:03:49.880 | Abide in my love.

00:03:53.480 | Verse 11, these things I have spoken to you

00:03:55.920 | that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.

00:04:00.920 | So abiding in the vine means receiving and believing

00:04:06.520 | and trusting in the words of Jesus and the love of Jesus

00:04:11.960 | for the father and for his people and the joy

00:04:15.560 | that Jesus has in the father and in us.

00:04:18.520 | It means sharing the joy, the love, the words with Jesus.

00:04:23.520 | This is very similar to Paul saying

00:04:25.880 | the fruit of the spirit is love and joy

00:04:29.200 | as we hear and trust the promises of Christ

00:04:31.840 | in Galatians 5 and Galatians 3.

00:04:34.200 | Number three, third observation,

00:04:36.320 | nothing of any spiritual eternal significance is possible

00:04:41.600 | apart from this abiding in the vine.

00:04:46.280 | Whoever abides in me and I in him,

00:04:48.600 | he it is that bears much fruit

00:04:49.960 | for apart from me, you can do nothing, zero, John 15, five.

00:04:54.960 | In other words, we are not dealing here

00:04:59.220 | with something marginal or optional.

00:05:03.080 | If we are not united to the vine

00:05:06.900 | so that Christ's life is flowing into us,

00:05:11.200 | his words, his love, his joy,

00:05:14.000 | we will be utterly, utterly, totally barren.

00:05:19.000 | Nothing of any lasting value will come from us.

00:05:23.960 | Observation number four, abiding proves

00:05:28.960 | whether the attachment to the vine is coursing with life

00:05:34.000 | or is merely artificial and external.

00:05:38.760 | Here's verse eight, by this my father is glorified

00:05:42.000 | that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

00:05:47.000 | So fruitfully abiding with life, love, joy,

00:05:53.740 | coursing into us through the connection

00:05:58.040 | between us and the vine, prove us to be disciples.

00:06:03.840 | Verses seven and eight, abiding and fruit bearing,

00:06:07.600 | confirm us, the negative is also true.

00:06:11.920 | Verse six, if anyone does not abide in me,

00:06:15.640 | he is thrown away like a branch and withers

00:06:20.200 | and the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire.

00:06:23.280 | And earlier in verses one and two,

00:06:25.080 | if anyone doesn't bear fruit, he's taken away.

00:06:29.060 | Now this is what provokes Casey's question

00:06:31.600 | about perseverance or eternal security.

00:06:34.640 | Can we be born of God?

00:06:37.300 | Can we be authentically in a living way,

00:06:41.600 | united to Christ, truly Christian and lose our salvation?

00:06:46.560 | Now in John's understanding,

00:06:48.120 | in the writer's understanding of abiding,

00:06:50.220 | the answer is no, we can't.

00:06:52.440 | I say this for two reasons.

00:06:54.280 | In chapter 10, verse 28, he says, quoting Jesus,

00:06:58.000 | I give them eternal life.

00:07:02.720 | They shall never perish.

00:07:05.120 | No one will snatch them out of my hand.

00:07:08.400 | My father who has given them to me is greater than all

00:07:11.960 | and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand.

00:07:15.560 | He's bending over backwards to say,

00:07:18.200 | when I choose someone for myself and they hear my voice

00:07:22.060 | and I take them to be my sheep and my children,

00:07:25.320 | that never changes.

00:07:27.560 | Here's the second reason I think John means this,

00:07:32.040 | and it's the answer to what in the world is going on

00:07:34.520 | with broken off branches.

00:07:35.920 | I think 1 John 2.19 is a description in the church

00:07:42.640 | of what it means that certain branches are broken off.

00:07:50.260 | It says, they went out from us,

00:07:53.440 | that is they were broken off,

00:07:55.860 | but they were not of us.

00:07:58.400 | For if they had been of us,

00:08:01.000 | they would have continued, that is remained, abided with us,

00:08:06.000 | but they went out that it might become plain

00:08:10.320 | that they are not of us.

00:08:13.040 | So I think John provides us with the category

00:08:16.360 | for understanding a kind of superficial,

00:08:19.960 | external attachment to Jesus

00:08:23.440 | that is not a saving attachment

00:08:25.980 | and can result in a fruitless, empty life

00:08:30.260 | where there's no sap coursing and be broken off,

00:08:35.000 | that is fall away from the church, but never were of us.

00:08:40.000 | Here's number five, fifth observation.

00:08:43.540 | The branches are being cared for both internally

00:08:48.020 | by the life of Christ flowing into us

00:08:50.460 | and externally by the vine dresser who prunes us.

00:08:54.240 | This is amazing.

00:08:55.160 | I didn't see this until just a few years ago

00:08:57.800 | when I preached on this at one of the conferences.

00:09:01.320 | Jesus says in verse one,

00:09:02.440 | "I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser.

00:09:07.440 | Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away.

00:09:12.160 | Every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes,

00:09:16.160 | that it may bear more fruit."

00:09:19.400 | Now pruning means cut, cut.

00:09:22.660 | So the branches are being cared for

00:09:26.460 | to make them maximally fruitful,

00:09:28.820 | both by internal life flowing to us from the vine

00:09:33.820 | and by a vine dresser who with his very painful scissors

00:09:39.700 | or saw cuts us, hurts us,

00:09:45.500 | so that by these painful providences in life,

00:09:49.760 | we experience the fullest possible impact

00:09:53.860 | of the inner life of Christ.

00:09:56.460 | So we are being cared for both internally

00:10:00.720 | by Christ's life coursing into us by the spirit

00:10:04.720 | and externally by the providences of a loving father

00:10:08.880 | who knows how to discipline his children

00:10:11.720 | to make them very, very holy.

00:10:14.140 | And my last observation about abiding

00:10:17.460 | is the goal of abiding is the glory of God.

00:10:22.040 | Verse eight, "By this is my father glorified

00:10:26.240 | that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples."

00:10:29.420 | The whole design of our not being the vine,

00:10:34.420 | but being the utterly dependent branches

00:10:39.400 | grafted into the vine,

00:10:41.320 | the whole design of depending on a vine dresser

00:10:45.240 | to manage the outward shape of our vine structure

00:10:50.240 | and our branch structure,

00:10:52.680 | that whole design is so that God gets the glory

00:10:56.320 | for bringing it all about.

00:10:58.320 | So bottom line, hour by hour,

00:11:01.840 | let us receive and rest in and trust

00:11:07.600 | and savor and enjoy Christ's word and love and joy

00:11:12.600 | while we submit externally

00:11:16.640 | to the merciful providences of God.

00:11:19.620 | - Amen, thank you, Pastor John.

00:11:22.080 | 11 minutes.

00:11:24.480 | - Oh, sorry.

00:11:26.020 | - We'll try better next time.

00:11:28.920 | - Yes, we will.

00:11:29.760 | - I'm playing with Pastor John here, folks.

00:11:33.600 | Casey, thank you for the question

00:11:34.800 | and thank you for listening

00:11:36.080 | and making the podcast a part of your day

00:11:38.320 | and commute for yet another week.

00:11:40.600 | Three times a week we publish

00:11:41.880 | and you can subscribe to our audio feeds

00:11:43.760 | and keep up with new episodes that we release.

00:11:46.120 | And you can search our old episodes in our archive

00:11:48.160 | and even reach us by email

00:11:49.200 | with a question you may be facing in your life like this one.

00:11:52.600 | Do all that through our online home

00:11:54.120 | at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:11:57.600 | Well, on Monday, we're going to talk about the Lord's Supper

00:12:02.120 | specifically whether the celebration

00:12:03.840 | is supposed to be somber

00:12:05.440 | or whether it's supposed to be cheerful.

00:12:07.280 | What is the proper mood to the Lord's table?

00:12:09.880 | That's on the docket when we return on Monday.

00:12:12.800 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:12:13.760 | We will see you then.

00:12:14.680 | Have a great weekend.

00:12:15.760 | (upbeat music)

00:12:18.360 | (upbeat music)

00:12:20.960 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

What Does It Mean to ‘Abide in Christ’?

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