What does it mean to abide?

What Does It Mean to Abide?

"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing."

John 15:4–5 

To abide in Christ means more than simply believing that He is real. It means to remain in Him, to dwell in Him, and to allow His life to dwell within us. Jesus does not describe the Christian life as something we accomplish by our own strength, but as a living union with Him. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit unless it remains connected to the vine, we cannot bear the fruit of eternal life unless we remain in Christ. Abiding is the beginning of this interior life: Christ living in us, forming us, strengthening us, and bringing forth fruit that we could never produce on our own.

To abide in Christ does NOT mean that you simply believe that Jesus is God and you get to heaven one day.  To abide in Christ does NOT mean that Jesus covers your sins enough that you can keep sinning and He takes you to heaven anyway.  To abide in Christ does NOT mean that you get to confess the same sins every week or every month while making no effort to actually stop sinning.

If you came here for an easy Gospel, you can go ahead and exit now.  Because what we are about to do is 100% Truth and 100% real, but you cannot get this message in your heart if you are not open to God.  Why start with this harsh writing?  Because I'm going to be honest right now, up front, that abide is not something that you can take lightly, nor should you continue to take your faith lightly.  If you are ready to hear a message that will blow your socks off and hopefully begin the process that reveals Christ to you, If you are ready to hear the true Gospel of Christ, the one that He taught, and the Gospel that the Apostles taught through the bible, then stick around because we're about to get into it.

Eternal Life is Now.

The first thing we need to address before we dive fully in is this:  Eternal Life is not defined in the bible as "the life we will get to live with God after we die".  We as modern Christians applied that meaning to the word on our own, and sadly I might add.  Because when we limit this Eternal Life concept to "after we die" we lose all of the power of the entire gospel.  That sounds extreme, but this will make so much sense, and this is my claim that we are reading the bible completely incorrectly when we believe that the Bible is mostly talking about what will happen to us after we die, and we believe the lie that we can never stop sinning in this life, so why should we even try to stop?  This is the chief lie told in todays world, and somehow, many of us believe it.

Am I claiming that YOU can stop sinning?  YES... YES I AM. But with one caveat to add:  You can't do it alone.  Trust me, you've already tried to do it alone and you know how that's working out for ya.  You can't stop.  But guess what?  Praise be Jesus Christ who saves me from my sins! 

Yes, Jesus does not only save us from our past sins by forgiving us, that is only the first step.   Jesus's love is so great, that he can even keep us from sinning in the future.  How?

abide in Him.

That is it.  The end.  

Or rather, that is the beginning.

You got to admit, that deep down somewhere, you believe that you need to stop sinning FIRST before Christ will bring you into his heavenly places.  That if you can just stop those pesky habits that you cling to, those things that so effortlessly cover up our wounded hearts, then we will be finally worthy of Christ and we can live in heaven with him, after we pay off our purgatory of course.

This is honestly not biblical.

I'm not saying purgatory doesn't exist, it exists for people who refuse or are unable to reach heaven on this earth, its a huge blessing.  BUT why wait for purgatory to experience and enjoy the Eternal Life that Christ offers us in this life when we obey his commands, become his disciples, and abide in Him.

When Jesus gives his apostles his Body to eat at the last supper, he did not expect them to be sinless and perfect.  In fact, Judas ate and betrayed him, Peter ate and denied Him, and Thomas didn't believe he was even raised from the dead.  I mean, three of His closest apostles fell asleep in the garden AFTER Jesus asked them to abide with Him.  They were not perfect. They did not understand the eucharist, nor had the spirit been given to them fully, so their hearts were not open to what Jesus was doing in this moment. 

Jesus told them to abide anyway

Abiding does not mean being perfect right away, however it is the ONLY path to perfection.

Jesus says: "be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect".

How can this be a command if Jesus knows it is impossible for us?  Because it is not impossible for Him to accomplish in us if we surrender our desires to Him.

The beginning of Eternal Life is to abide in Christ. 

So what does it mean to abide?

We cannot abide in sin and abide in Christ.  This is stated by Jesus when he says "you cannot serve both God and mammon".  

The first step is to commit to stop sinning.  You've wanted this. More than anything.  But so often you hear that you cannot do it because it's not possible in this life.  I'm sorry, but this is the biggest lie ever told.  The entire bible tells you to stop sinning, and the saints prove it is possible to live so close to God that sinning becomes abhorrent to them, and real lived union takes place in their soul.

But here's the best part. You don't have to stop sinning on your own.  You just have to abide.  Abide in Him, all the time, when you're driving, when you're walking, when you are watching TV, when you are playing with your kids, hanging out with friends; and if you say "well i can't watch TV AND abide in Christ because what I'm watching is bad", then you can either turn off the bad, or turn off the good.  You cannot serve both God and Mammon.

But you know where the bad leads, you already have been down that road.  The road leads nowhere except back here, where you get to make a choice.  Do you want to stop sinning in this life and live the rest of your life in Christ?  Or would you rather keep living the shallow fake Christian life that is taught to be ok in today's society?  It may be a hard choice, but it really is simple.  abide in Christ and you will stop sinning.  it will be hard, and there will be tribulations, but if the saints could talk to you, they will tell you, its worth it.

Are You Ready to Live a Life of Sanctifying Grace?

When Jesus gives us the definition of Eternal Life at the last supper, He says something remarkable: "As thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that he may give eternal life to all who thou hast given Him. And this is eternal life: that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." (John 17:2-3).

So Eternal Life is not merely a future reward waiting for us at the end of our lives if we tried hard enough to be good. It begins the moment we truly come to know God. Not simply know facts about Him, but know Him personally and dwell in relationship with Him. This changes the way we read the entire Gospel. Christianity is not primarily about surviving this life so that we can get to Heaven one day. It is about entering into the life of God today. It is about Christ dwelling within us now. This is why abiding matters so much, because abiding in Christ is how we begin to live the Eternal Life that He came to give us.