Abiding in Christ

Jesus called on His disciples to abide in Him in order to succeed in their walk of faith. He further taught that abiding in Him would lead them to the truth that would set them free. Jesus also demonstrated that He was “the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father except through me” John 14:6. As the way, Jesus is our path to the Father, as the truth, He is the reality of all God promises us, and as the life, He enjoins His divine life to ours and gives us the hope of eternity. This explains why abiding in Him leads us to the truth. One must then ask what it means to abide in Christ and how one can know if they are indeed abiding in Christ.

Before we can say we abide in Him, we must ask ourselves whether we believe He is who the scriptures say He is.  I have heard many people who claim to be Christians struggle with this issue. Some actually see Jesus as just one of the way to God because in reality they do not believe that He is who the Bible says He is. But scripture provides that “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in Him, and he in God” 1 John 4:15. God is one but has manifested Himself in three ways, God the father, God the son, and God the Holy Spirit. “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” John 1:18. In Christ God has revealed His nature and essence in a way that could be seen and touched.

Believing alone does not assume that one abides in Christ. We must of necessity also receive Him as the savior and make Him the Lord of our lives.  It is those who receive Him that are welcomed into the kingdom of God and have a new relationship with God, for “as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” John 1:12-13. This entails a spiritual birth and makes one spiritually alive and reconciled to God with the ability to see and enter the kingdom of God, John3:3, 5.

If we say that we believe in God and act contrary to what His word says or contrary to His nature we lie. John writes that “if you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him” 1 John 2:29. God’s nature is manifested in Love. It is because of love that He sacrificed His son for the world, and it is through love that Christ gave His life for the world.  In his epistle, John writes, “If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us” 1 John 4:12-13. Love according to scripture entails treating others as self to the point of sacrificing self interest for others.  “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in Him?” 1John3:16-17.

Not only must we believe in God, but we must continue to believe in the gospel and hold it as true. Apostle John says that “if what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also abide in the son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He has promised us- eternal life”1John 2:24-5. There are a lot of teachings that are going on today in Christian circles, which proclaim their own truth as well as denying the deity of Jesus or that He is the Christ. To deny Christ, it is submitted, is to reject God’s way of revealing Himself to the world. “Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is the antichrist who denies the Father and the son. Whoever denies the son does not have the Father either” 1 John 2:22-23.  One cannot say they abide in God if they do not accept His son as the way to Him. Do not believe every teaching you come across, particularly if it contradicts what you know to be true.

Another test for us is to check whether we are obeying the commandment to love the body of Christ.  The commandment to love one another was given by Jesus in His teaching to the disciples. He said “this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. —These things I command you, that you love one another” John15:12, 17. Jesus said that He related to the disciples the way the Father related to Him; we also ought to relate with one another in the same way. He also taught that the way to abide in His love was by obeying His commandment just like He abides in the fathers love by obeying His commands, “if you keep my commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love” John 15: 10.

The result of abiding in Christ is fruitfulness in the kingdom of God. Jesus compared Himself with to a “vine” the Father to the “vinedresser” and His followers as “branches”. The branch can only be fruitful if it abides in the vine. In this regard “he who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” John 15:5. Consequently, our fruitfulness in the kingdom of God is dependant on how much we are feeding from the vine and allowing the vinedresser to prune us.

We are also assured that if we are in the vine and obeying the commands of the vine, we can ask what we desire and it shall be done, John 15:7. However the asking must be in tuned to the will of God for God cannot work contrary to His word and nature. If we pray or ask according to His will we have the confidence that “He hears. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him”, 1John5:14-15.