(upbeat music) - Happy Friday to everyone. Today's question comes from Casey in Oregon. Dear Pastor John, I have been a Christian and a Bible student and a Bible teacher for many years, but I sometimes find myself a little puzzled and if I'm honest, a bit disquieted by John's teaching on abiding.

In particular, I think of the opening of John 15 and much of the material of the letter of 1 John. It provokes many questions for me. For example, how does this relate to the doctrine of perseverance? And does this mean that in some sense, it is up to me to keep me in God's family?

Could you give a brief APJ length overview of John's theology of abiding in Christ? - What is an APJ length? If you ask Tony, it's one thing. - Yes it is, that's right. - He's always on my case to make it shorter. So here we go, let's do it quick.

- It's true. - This is huge, I mean, a challenge to give a theology of abiding in 10 minutes. Let's see what we can do. I'm gonna sum it up from John 15. Let's just go there with seven or is it six points? I can't remember how many I jotted down here.

It's just six. Yeah, six points. Let's read it. I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.

Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. So first observation, number one. I think the essential meaning of our act of abiding, our act of abiding is the act of receiving and trusting all that God is for us in Christ.

If a branch remains or abides attached to the vine in such a way that it is receiving all that the branch has to give, then that is a picture of what John means by believing or trusting Jesus. He says in chapter one, verse 12, to all who receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God.

So believing is a receiving of Christ into the soul, welcoming him, trusting him, as it were, drinking and eating and savoring him, which is what he says in chapter six, verse 40, 35. I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger. Whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

So believing is an attachment to, a coming to, an attachment to Jesus and a receiving from Jesus, a trusting in Jesus, a remaining in fellowship with Jesus, connected to Jesus so that all that God is for us in him is flowing like a life-giving sap into our lives. So that's number one, abiding is believing, trusting, savoring, resting, receiving.

Number two, Jesus gets very specific about what is flowing between the vine and the branch. He mentions words, his words, his love, his joy. Verse seven, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish. Verse nine, as the father has loved me, so I have loved you.

Abide in my love. Verse 11, these things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. So abiding in the vine means receiving and believing and trusting in the words of Jesus and the love of Jesus for the father and for his people and the joy that Jesus has in the father and in us.

It means sharing the joy, the love, the words with Jesus. This is very similar to Paul saying the fruit of the spirit is love and joy as we hear and trust the promises of Christ in Galatians 5 and Galatians 3. Number three, third observation, nothing of any spiritual eternal significance is possible apart from this abiding in the vine.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit for apart from me, you can do nothing, zero, John 15, five. In other words, we are not dealing here with something marginal or optional. If we are not united to the vine so that Christ's life is flowing into us, his words, his love, his joy, we will be utterly, utterly, totally barren.

Nothing of any lasting value will come from us. Observation number four, abiding proves whether the attachment to the vine is coursing with life or is merely artificial and external. Here's verse eight, by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

So fruitfully abiding with life, love, joy, coursing into us through the connection between us and the vine, prove us to be disciples. Verses seven and eight, abiding and fruit bearing, confirm us, the negative is also true. Verse six, if anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers and the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire.

And earlier in verses one and two, if anyone doesn't bear fruit, he's taken away. Now this is what provokes Casey's question about perseverance or eternal security. Can we be born of God? Can we be authentically in a living way, united to Christ, truly Christian and lose our salvation? Now in John's understanding, in the writer's understanding of abiding, the answer is no, we can't.

I say this for two reasons. In chapter 10, verse 28, he says, quoting Jesus, I give them eternal life. They shall never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand.

He's bending over backwards to say, when I choose someone for myself and they hear my voice and I take them to be my sheep and my children, that never changes. Here's the second reason I think John means this, and it's the answer to what in the world is going on with broken off branches.

I think 1 John 2.19 is a description in the church of what it means that certain branches are broken off. It says, they went out from us, that is they were broken off, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued, that is remained, abided with us, but they went out that it might become plain that they are not of us.

So I think John provides us with the category for understanding a kind of superficial, external attachment to Jesus that is not a saving attachment and can result in a fruitless, empty life where there's no sap coursing and be broken off, that is fall away from the church, but never were of us.

Here's number five, fifth observation. The branches are being cared for both internally by the life of Christ flowing into us and externally by the vine dresser who prunes us. This is amazing. I didn't see this until just a few years ago when I preached on this at one of the conferences.

Jesus says in verse one, "I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit." Now pruning means cut, cut. So the branches are being cared for to make them maximally fruitful, both by internal life flowing to us from the vine and by a vine dresser who with his very painful scissors or saw cuts us, hurts us, so that by these painful providences in life, we experience the fullest possible impact of the inner life of Christ.

So we are being cared for both internally by Christ's life coursing into us by the spirit and externally by the providences of a loving father who knows how to discipline his children to make them very, very holy. And my last observation about abiding is the goal of abiding is the glory of God.

Verse eight, "By this is my father glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples." The whole design of our not being the vine, but being the utterly dependent branches grafted into the vine, the whole design of depending on a vine dresser to manage the outward shape of our vine structure and our branch structure, that whole design is so that God gets the glory for bringing it all about.

So bottom line, hour by hour, let us receive and rest in and trust and savor and enjoy Christ's word and love and joy while we submit externally to the merciful providences of God. - Amen, thank you, Pastor John. 11 minutes. - Oh, sorry. - We'll try better next time.

- Yes, we will. - I'm playing with Pastor John here, folks. Casey, thank you for the question and thank you for listening and making the podcast a part of your day and commute for yet another week. Three times a week we publish and you can subscribe to our audio feeds and keep up with new episodes that we release.

And you can search our old episodes in our archive and even reach us by email with a question you may be facing in your life like this one. Do all that through our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn. Well, on Monday, we're going to talk about the Lord's Supper specifically whether the celebration is supposed to be somber or whether it's supposed to be cheerful.

What is the proper mood to the Lord's table? That's on the docket when we return on Monday. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We will see you then. Have a great weekend. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)