Abide in Christ

Read: John 15:1-17

When reading John 15 the one word we most likely associate with this passage is Abide or, more specifically, Abide in Christ. What image does that conjure up in your mind and heart? Do you find it comforting? Do you find it scary? Do you see freedom or do you see burden? Do you see something that others joyfully live in, but you have never experienced?

As believers, we are called to abide in Christ. We are to remain, to dwell, to endure in Christ. But have you ever stopped to think about the fact that this abiding isn’t one sided? The verse says “Abide in me, and I in you.” 

On HIs last night with those He loved and traveled with, Jesus spent the night  teaching them. He drew their attention back to imagery of the Old Testament. He pointed them to passages like Isaiah 5 where God says His people are His vineyard and He has cared for them. He asks what more could He have done to care for them and explains how He will prune His vineyard. Or maybe they are thinking of Jeremiah 2:2 where the Lord says He has planted “a choice vine of pure seed” and they see that Jesus is that vine.  

The disciples are getting their final lessons, and I believe they are listening intently. For the past three years they had been physically abiding with Jesus. They had stayed and dwelt with Him, but now that He is about to leave, they are being told to abide in Him. 

We are not simply to abide out of religious conviction, but we are to abide because of the joy and love that is found in being with Christ. By abiding in Him, both Jesus’ joy is in us and our joy in Him are made complete. By abiding in Him, we get to experience the kind of love that God has for His Son. By abiding in Him, His words abide in us. By abiding in HIm, we seek Him in prayer. By abiding in Him, we will bear much fruit.

Oh let us behold the benefits of abiding! Christ is saying, “Seek me and see that I am loving. Seek me and see that I am good. Seek me and see that I will give you joy. Seek me and see that we will not be separated.” What love is this that He pours out on His wayward and lost children?! It is the same love that the Father pours out on Him. Jesus is spending His last hours with HIs friends, and He longs for them to know that His deepest desire is for them to be united with Him. He desires for them to truly grasp that His love for them is as deep and unimaginable as the Father’s love for His son. 

Maybe we read these verses quickly thinking, “We have heard this passage before.” Or we skim it thinking, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let’s get to something new.” Why do we need something new when we have the beauty of abiding? 

At the age of 17, I picked up a book called Abiding in Christ. It was deep and way over my head, but even at that young age, God grew a love in my heart for abiding in Him. I don’t always get it right, and I know that I mess it up more than I even know. But what I do know is that the promise and reality of “Abide in me and I in you” makes my faith and trust in Him stronger with every passing year. 

In that book the author says, “We begin to number our days not from the sun’s rising over the world, or by the work we do or the food we eat, but the daily renewal of the miracle of the manna–the blessedness of daily fellowship with Him who is the Life and the Light of the world.” 

Our days and our moments are only worth counting when they are covered by the never ending “blessedness of daily fellowship with Him.” That is what abiding is to me. Walking this hard and broken world, I am never alone but always with my Savior. Actively staying put in Him and in His grace and mercy and love for this wayward sinner who doesn’t deserve any of it, I will never cease to rejoice that my Savior and I abide together. Abide in Christ and Christ will abide in you. Let that promise bring you renewed hope and joy this week.