Episode 27: Are you abiding in the Vine?

Abundant Life Podcast
Abundant Life Podcast
Episode 27: Are you abiding in the Vine?
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In this episode Saso and Ben discuss what it means to abide in the Vine.

ABI’DE – to be, or exist, to continue; W. bod, to be; to dwell, rest, continue, stand firm, or be stationary for anytime indefinitely.

1. To rest, or dwell. Genesis 29:19.

2. To tarry or stay for a short time. Genesis 24:55.

3. To continue permanently or in the same state; to be firm and immovable. Psalms 119:90.

4. To remain, to continue. Acts 27:31. Ecclesiastes 8:15.

Websters 1828

Key verse

John 15:1-6

Philippians 4:13

This is one of the most misquoted verses in the Bible as it pertains to having the strength to do what God has commanded us to do. 

We are helpless without His divine help; we are fools to think we can anything without the help of the Father

What is abiding in Christ?

John 15:5

As Christians we tend to say things like abide in Christ, or walk in the Spirit, but do we really understand what that means. When someone asks you, are you abidding in Christ, how do you respond? Are we talking about the act of abiding or the position of abiding.

When a person is saved the Bible describes the person as being “in Christ”.

Romans 8:1

2 Corinthians 5:17

If you were asked, are you in Christ or not, what would you say? How do you become “in Christ”? 

In Christ

Galatians 3:26-27

According to this verse you are in Christ through faith. So now let’s move backward to find out what through faith means.

What is Faith?

Ephesians 2:8-9

According to Ephesians, you are saved by grace through faith and goes on to say that it is the gift of God and not of your own works. If we were saved by our good works, then we’d go around bragging about it according to this verse. And if we are honest, that would be true because we all have a this little thing called pride that loves to show it’s face when we think we’ve achieved something. Also, since this is a gift, then there wouldn’t be any works involved because I’ve never heard of working for a gift. Saso your love language is gifts. When was the last time you worked for a birthday gift? 

This is likely them most profound verse that separates true Christians from all world religions. But why?

Romans 6:23

Now we know what the free gift or salvation is, it’s eternal life in Christ Jesus, but we still need to understand what through faith is talking about because that is the link to get the gift of eternal life.

Romans 9:1

Since the concept of belief is intangible, someone can simply say “I believe” and it won’t mean a hill of beans. According to James 2:19 even the demons believe and shudder but we know very well that the demons are not saved. The concept of believe is not just to have understanding and knowledge which causes to believe, but the key ingredient is dependence. 

For example, if you ask a person, do you believe that you can get on a plane and fly to Florida. Most people will say that they believe. But the dependence comes when they actually get on the plain and fly to Florida.

Thats the kind of belief being spoken of. But why are you placing your dependence on Jesus? Romans 9:1 that we read earlier, that you are believing in the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus suffered and died and was raised on the third day all so that God could forgive your sins and give you this free gift of eternal life so long as you place your faith in Jesus. It’s so simple yet many will miss this. Please don’t miss this!

I was saved, not because I’m good but because God is good and God looked down at helpless me and sent His son to die for me. What a glorious truth brother!

Ben

What does this have to do with abiding in Christ? Everything! From what we just went through it’s your position in Christ or your position not in Christ. The difference from being saved and not being saved.

What is the evidence for being saved?

Go into the latter part of the verses here of bearing fruit…

John 15:4-5

Matthew 12:30

If we are not abiding with Him then we are against Him and we are an antagonist to our God.

Galatians 5:16

We must first walk in the Spirit in order to not fulfill the lust of the flesh. I take this to mean we must be in full agreement as Amos 3:3 states, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”

It’s about taking a stand against what God hates and loving what He loves. Jesus walked with the Father while He walked this earth, and He left us with The Holy Spirit in that we might have the ultimate helper in order to not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 

When we sin, it is evident that we are not agreement with the Spirit because we have yielded to the flesh.

Matthew 26:41

Confession of Christ states that we dwell with Him and if we dwell in Him, then we must dwell in love because God is love. You cannot dwell with God and not love as it is a sign that we are dwelling with Him

1 John 4:15-16

John 15:10

Love is one of the fruits of the Spirit.

We cannot say we are walking with God and have hate towards others as God is love.

Galatians 5:22-23

I John 2:6

John likes to give us scenarios and self checks so that we can have assurance of being saved. John gives us the evidence in these verses that we are abiding in Christ. Let’s see if we can find it.

1 John 2:1-6

There is a lot in these verses. Notice that John answers the question “What if I sin after I put my faith in Jesus? He says we have an advocate with the father and His name is Jesus. More on that in a second.

The best part of 1 John 2 is the phrase “we know” or “we may know”. John isn’t giving us advice, he is giving us facts, truth so that we may know. Know what? Know that we are abiding in him. Look at verse 6 “By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” If we are walking righteously in obedience we are in Him, and it’s only because of his righteousness. 

Notice verse 3 which speaks of being obedient “And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.”. This is the evidence we are looking for, obedience. If we are walking in obedience, then we know we are abiding.

What if I sin after I’m saved?

1 John 1:9

It’s simple, if we sin, we must repent and confess our sin, and His promise to us is that he will forgive us.

Can I lose my salvation

As our Pastor so eloquently puts it, if you could lose your salvation then it wouldn’t be eternal life. However, we still must prove this from scripture.

John 10:27

Romans 8:38-39

Benefits and rewards

The reward is beyond my comprehension. I don’t understand why God, the ruler of all, would look down on sinful men and want to save them, much less give us benefits and rewards. I know the answer to this question is because He loves us, but I don’t understand because we are unlovable people.

It makes you want to ask the question that David asked when he wrote Psalm 8.

Psalm 8:4

The reality is that we are given the gift of eternal life.

1 John 2:24-25

Romans 6:23

Eternal life is the ultimate reward. However we are also heirs with Christ!

Romans 8:15-17

We can call God Abba Father or in modern vernacular “Daddy”? Amazing!

Did you just hear that you are fellow heirs with Christ? Mind blown! 🤯

There are also multiple verses that talk about receiving crowns as rewards. It’s just truly incomprehensible. God is so good, even when I’m not.

Where are you today Christian? 

Are you trying to live outside of the branch and wonder why you struggle? 

Are you holding onto sin in your life and think you can serve two masters? 

Are you grafted into Him? 

Do you know Him as your personal Lord and Savior? 

Are you even a branch that can be grafted into the tree? 

Are you bearing fruit? 

Who is being impacted for eternity by your life? 

John 15:8

1 John 5:13

Resources:

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