|
Jesus said, "Abide in
Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it
abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the
vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much
fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. . . . These things I have
spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be
full" (John 15:4-5,11). What have you heard through the grapevine?
Jesus used the analogy of a grapevine to communicate the most important
element of obedience to Him. Our obedience must grow out of a close relationship
with our Lord. Just as a branch of a grapevine produces fruit only as it
is connected to and drawing nourishment from the vine, so too we can
produce the fruits of obedience only as we are continually connected to
and drawing nourishment and strength from our Lord.
That kind of life, a life
of ongoing dependence on Christ, not only pleases Him but also produces
the greatest joy in us (John 15:11). So what we are considering is not a
morbid resignation to a life of misery as we carry out our duties for
God, but a life that will give us the greatest sense of personal
fulfillment. That sense of satisfaction and our fruitfulness come as we
"abide" in Christ.
How are we to
"abide" in Christ? To live in close relationship with Christ,
we must depend on Him for wisdom, strength, and direction in life. To
have an intimate relationship with Him, we must not be deliberately
holding on to some rebellious attitude or action that we know we should
confess and forsake. The barrier to our relationship will be removed and
we will be forgiven if we confess our sins (1 John 1:5-10).
Abiding also means that we
listen attentively to what God has to say to us in the Bible--not merely
getting our daily quota of Bible reading for the day but thinking and
praying about what we are reading. Just as you show respect and love for
a person who is talking to you by carefully listening and responding, so
too we need to make our time of Bible reading an occasion to get to know
God.
To abide also means that
we spend time expressing to the Lord our deepest thoughts, hurts,
desires, and details of our lives. He wants us to talk to Him about our
successes and our sources of shame. He cares about us.
This matter of abiding in
Christ is essential if we want to please God. We cannot live the
Christian life in our own strength by the power of our own will. We must
live with a continual reliance on Christ. Jesus said, "Without Me
you can do nothing" (John 15:5). He didn't say we could do somethings
or a fewthings--He said we could do nothing to please God without His
working in and through us.
Just as we were saved by
God's grace through faith in Christ (Eph. 2:8-9), we are now to live for
God by trusting Christ. The apostle Paul made this point in his letter to
the Galatian believers. He said, "After beginning with the Spirit,
are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?" (3:3 NIV).
And to the Romans, Paul wrote, "In the gospel a righteousness from
God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,
just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith'" (1:17
NIV).
Faith requires dependence
on Christ, relying completely on Him--first for our salvation and then
for the ability to live the Christian life.
What happens when we try
to live without depending on Him? If we are not relying on Christ, we end
up in one or more of the following conditions. We will be:
defeated by sinful habits
preoccupied with a list of
do's and don'ts self-deluded and hypocritical plagued by inner emptiness
depressed by joylessness exhausted by busy self-effort frustrated by a
sense of distance from God trapped by worldliness
What kind of fruit is
produced in the lives of those who abide in Christ? Galatians 5 lists
several characteristics of someone who is living in dependence on Christ
and the indwelling Holy Spirit. The "fruit of the Spirit"
includes love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (vv.22-23).
The apostle Peter offered
the following characteristics as evidence of the kind of life that is
growing in Christlikeness (2 Pet. 1:5-7).
faith
virtue
knowledge
self-control
perseverance
godliness
brotherly kindness
love
Peter said, "If these
things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in
the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (v.8).
We need to evaluate our
lives on the basis of the characteristics that Paul and Peter said should
be part of the lives of those who are walking with Christ, depending on
the Holy Spirit who lives within. Are we bearing spiritual fruit? If not,
why not?
When Paul wrote,
"Pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17), he obviously was not
telling us to pray 24 hours a day. He was aware that time is needed for
working, eating, and sleeping. But we should be so God-conscious all the
time that we are continually in an attitude of prayer about what is going
on in our lives.
In John 15, Jesus
indicated the importance of abiding in Him if we are to receive answers
to prayer (v.7). When we are close to Him, our requests will be in line
with His will.
What can we do to remove
any barriers in our relationship? First John 1:9 tells us, "If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness." This verse is not a formula
for salvation. When we accepted Jesus as our Savior, we were forgiven,
received into God's family, and made citizens of heaven (Rom. 5:1-2; Eph.
2:1-10). If we have been forgiven, why do we need to confess our sins?
And what will happen if we refuse to confess certain sins because we
don't want to quit doing them? How detailed must this confession be?
Even though we are
completely forgiven the moment we put our faith in Christ as our Savior,
sins committed after that point in time can create a barrier to a close
relationship with Him. Therefore, we must talk to God about our sins,
acknowledging them, accepting His forgiveness, and asking Him to help us
gain the victory over them.
When we confess our sins,
we express to God our realization that we sinned against Him. We need not
plead. We need not ransack our minds to dredge up transgressions that
were committed without our realizing it. We need not work ourselves into
deep feelings of guilt. We need only to acknowledge the sins of which we
are aware and ask the Lord to help us overcome them.
The demand is simple. But
the consequences of taking sin lightly can be very serious. If we decide
that we don't want to confess our sins because we don't desire to give
them up, we can expect discipline. In Hebrews 12:6-7 we read, "For
whom the Lord loves He chastens , and scourges every son whom He
receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as sons; for what
son is there whom a father does not chasten?" When we are willfully
disobedient, this chastening may come in the form of sickness and even
death (1 Cor. 11:29-30). A joyful Christian life is impossible for those
who think lightly of their sins.
The most fundamental
issue, therefore, that we must understand to live an obedient life is
this matter of dependence. The kind of obedience God is looking for comes
out of a relationship of trust and love for Jesus Christ. When we are
reliant on Him, obedience will be our heart's desire.
Thinking It Over. How
would you describe your relationship with Christ? Are you growing closer
to Him, learning more what it means to depend on Him throughout your day
for strength, wisdom, guidance, and the ability to serve God through your
words and actions? Are you taking time to read the Bible prayerfully,
asking God to show you what you need to know and do? Are you setting
aside time in your schedule for prayer? Identify the obstacles that keep
hindering a close relationship with Christ and ask Him to help you to
overcome them.
Curtis
|
