Communion with God

In this past Sunday's sermon, David Daniels talked about abiding/dwelling/remaining in Christ.

Throughout the scriptures, we are given many metaphors to describe the concept of union or communion with Christ. Some of the most memorable to me are of the sheep and the Shepherd in John 10, the body and its members in 1 Corinthians 12, and the bride and the bridegroom in Ephesians 5. The good shepherd leads and cares for his sheep, but the sheep must follow the shepherd in order to have protection and provision. An arm or leg severed from the body would die. The marriage establishes the union, but it takes love, respect, and commitment to maintain the communion.

Abiding in Christ
In John 15, we can find another image that illustrates the necessity of our communion with Christ. John uses the word, abide, eleven times in 15:1-11 as he describes the relationship of the branches (followers of Jesus) to the true vine (Jesus). The “true vine”, who is pictured here as steadfast and authentic, expects his followers to be truly fruitful in communicating the authentic message and life to the inauthentic and hostile world. In essence, He means that the branches should truly be an offshoot of their vine; and this happens when the branch abides (stays with) the way of its vine. A branch is not a self-contained entity, and neither is the Christian disciple. In that same theme, a branch that is cut off from its life-source cannot produce fruit, and neither can the Christian.

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.”

A true branch, united with the vine, will always produce fruit. And in this, we find the course that best glorifies God:

"My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.”

It is imperative that we recognize that Jesus’ statement from 15:8 doesn’t end after the words “bear much fruit”, as so to say that God is glorified through our good works; but Jesus explains that fruit should be seen as proof of an abiding relationship with Himself. It is because they abide in Jesus, the Vine, and are obedient to Him in the bearing of fruit that they bring glory to the Father.

This communion with Christ allows us to experience Him and His love in deeper ways, and in effect we can begin to reach our purpose and potential as His branches. This frees us to experience life as God intended it: that we would experience the greatest joy by being unified to Him, trusting Him in all things, following His commandments, and bearing the reflection of His image.

"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. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” (by the way, this may have something to do with 'the newness of life' that we talked about in the previous post *Who's the Spirit?* - found below)