Are you useful for Christ? Step one is that you belong to Him—that you repent of your sins and trust in God’s acceptance and forgiveness because of Jesus’ death on the cross for sinful humankind, including you—but there is a step two, and it is that we make ourselves available for the furtherance of His kingdom by staying plugged into Him. How do we do that?
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” (John 15:4 NKJV)
God had various people write down (for the benefit of future generations—that’s us) the things Jesus said and did, and we shouldn’t ignore it. In this verse Jesus tells us that we have to abide, stay, remain in Him. What does that mean?
If Jesus were a normal man dead and gone this would be nonsense. It’s nice to remember someone we loved or admired, but other than the memory there’s no real reason. But this isn’t what Jesus is saying here; He’s not saying remember Me after I’m gone—He’s saying stay in Me. This is active and ongoing, and the only reason we can do it is because Jesus is God and He is still alive today with God in heaven.
Not as a dead man with God after death, but as the only God-man, God from eternity become a human with the plan and purpose of paying the cosmic penalty for all of humankind’s sins, resurrected physically here on earth after His death and now “at the right hand of God” (biblical language for being in a position of authority).
We can remain in Christ Jesus because He is both God and with God the Father, and now sends those who believe in Him His Holy Spirit. Years ago we translated this “Holy Ghost,” then “Holy Spirit,” now it seems we’ve dropped the adjective and we tend to just say “Spirit,” but regardless—it’s Jesus Christ’s empowerment to those who look to Him for forgiveness and acceptance with God the Father.
Bear with me; today I’m using the slightly dated New King James Version of the Bible:
“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14:15-18 NKJV)
First comes the instruction—“if you love Me, keep My commandments;” what follows is for those who love Jesus, not others. But when you do love Jesus, which motivates you to obey what He said, He sends us a Helper who stays with us forever. Jesus tells us He’s not going back to heaven to be with the Father and leaving us alone as orphans—“I will come to you.” How? Through His Spirit; that’s Christ with us forever throughout our entire lives—here; now!
That’s why it’s so difficult to convince someone who’s experienced Christ in their lives He doesn’t exist or isn’t real. It’s like trying to tell me my husband or children aren’t real—I know they are; I’ve interacted with them, I have a relationship with them. I know better. So while you could try to isolate me in a room and try to brainwash me I was hallucinating my interactions with them, it’s a hard sell.
But what’s Jesus saying? I wasn’t called, forgiven, and accepted through Jesus just to glow in this joy by myself. I was given this so I can be part of Christ’s body—the church of all those who likewise have been forgiven and accepted—and be plugged into the purpose God has for all of us: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33 NKJV)
I’m to be actively pursuing (1) Christ’s righteousness in myself, and (2) God’s kingdom (His purposes). Jesus called me so He can use me to attest to who He is and what He’s done so even more people can be saved from their sins—because this really is a thing: each of us needs to come to our senses and be saved from our sins.
Jesus said, “And when He (the Holy Spirit) has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” (John 16:8 NKJV)
This was one of the most difficult passages for me to understand, but it’s really basic. What the Spirit convicts people of is (1) their own sinful condition, (2) the righteous of Jesus Christ vicariously attributed to us when we come to Him in faith and repentance, and (3) the coming judgment on the unrepentant.
So if Christ has convicted you of your own sin and you’ve repented and believed that in Him you have eternal life (“And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.” I John 5:11-13 NKJV), then we need to plug into His purpose for those who belong to Him—to attest to Him.
And how do we do this? By staying in Him. But how do we stay in Him? By continuing to read the Bible actively, faithfully, eagerly, in quantity (one verse at a time helps little). We also remain in Christ by going to a church that teaches faithfully from the Bible, and by spending time with others who trust in Jesus. And by praying; by talking to Him daily, actively—by fellowshipping with Him; our spirit with His Spirit in us. And, we obey everything He says in His Word.
Then—we see all that He does; in us and through us. Because He will, but only if we keep at it; only if we keep making time for all of this regardless of how busy or distracted we get. We have to fight for this, like we would for anything else of value because IT IS VITAL. Ultimately, we remain in Him because without Him we can do nothing (of any real value)!
Dear Lord Jesus,
Help me not become distracted; help me remain in You always! Amen.
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