Remain In Christ

Posted by Anthony Crumley

God’s desire is for every believer to produce a lot of spiritual fruit.  Spiritual fruit represents unbelievers being saved from their sins by believing the gospel and believers being delivered from their sins by becoming more spiritual.  How can we produce this kind of fruit?

Jesus said … Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful apart from me.  Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.  (John 15:4, 5, NLT)

We produce spiritual fruit by remaining in Jesus.  To remain means to stay somewhere continually, to live our lives in that place, to abide there.  This word remain is an imperative verb which makes it a command.  Jesus is not suggesting that we remain in Him, He is ordering us to remain.  Also, this word remain is an active verb which means it requires action and effort on our part.  Remaining in Christ requires us to put forth continuous effort.  Our natural tendency is to remain in our sinful flesh.

If we will live our lives remaining in Him then He will live His life in us.  Just like a branch receives life from the vine it is attached to, so we receive Christ’s life as long as we remain attached to Him.  It is Jesus’ life in us that produces spiritual fruit, that saves unbelievers from their sin and produces spirituality in the lives of believers.

The blunt truth we must come to grips with is that we can do NOTHING apart from Jesus.  Therefore, we must remain in Him so that He can produce much fruit through us.

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