Abide In Christ--Part 1

Hi Everyone,

What walking in grace essentially comes down to is abiding in Christ.

John 15:1-8
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes^[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
 
⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."

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Contrary to a culture that promotes and rewards being as independent as possible, we  radically find that God's expectation of us as His children is one of complete dependence upon Him. Notice how the same thing in the passage above is stated one way in verses 1-4, and repeated slightly differently again in verses 5-8? This is extremely important to the Christan life--because Christ is our life--He is the source, and apart from him we have and can do nothing.

This is kind of one of those thought provoking loaded questions: How much of what we "do" in Christian living, Christian service, etc is simply the empty noise of our own self effort, done in our own strength, without abiding in Him?   OUCH! You see, if we are really honest in answering that question, it is probably a lot more than we even want to think about.

He only wants one thing: for us to continually and unceasingly abide, remain, rest in Him, allowing Him to work through us.

Which branch do we want to be?