[No Greater] No Greater PursuitSample

The Branch and Its Bounty

Jonathan Edwards, the famed American preacher and philosopher, once said: “There is an absolute and universal dependence of the redeemed on God. The nature and contrivance of our redemption is such that the redeemed are in everything directly, immediately, and entirely dependent on God: they are dependent on Him for all, and are dependent on Him every way.”

There are three great callings from Christ to each of us: To come to Him, to come after Him, and to abide in Him and His love. The most important thing we can do in our lives is to abide in Christ. When Jesus calls us to come to Him, He is calling us to salvation. After coming to Him, He calls us to come after Him, to risk everything for Him. When He calls us to abide in Him, He is calling us to fruitfulness. He is not commanding us to bear fruit—fruitfulness is something that happens as a result of abiding in Him. 

What is it to abide in Christ? While Jesus does not define what it means, we can see some essential elements. One of them is having a close connection with the Lord. Like the branch is connected to the vine, we are to be snugly and intimately connected to the Lord and to close any gaps dividing us from Him and creating distance. Unconfessed sin, unforgiveness, offending someone, and not making amends can distance us from God. Prayer and reading the word of God deepens our relationship with Him. 

The foundation for genuinely abiding in Christ is a desperate dependence upon the life of Jesus within us, so we can be the life of Jesus outside of us. We understand that apart from Him we can do nothing. The branch is completely dependent on the vine for vitality and support, which leads to a radical yieldingness, a wholesale availability. It is letting Jesus have the final say in our lives, offering up our entire being for Kingdom purposes.

When we abide in Christ, it shows in our spiritual life. We have an extraordinary fruitfulness; we bear much fruit. We allow the indwelling Christ to become the outflowing Christ. We undergo an emotional transformation and our desires become the Lord’s desires. Our prayers are answered, and God is glorified. We become God’s “wow factor” to a world of unbelievers.

As we abide in Him and in His love, in obedience, we get a deeper intimacy with God.  We can experience Christ in a unique and extraordinary way when His love comes alive in us like nothing else and we get to experience the deepest, purest, and strongest joy there is.