ABIDING IN CHRIST

PRESENTED TO DR. ISRAEL SIMBAYA

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

LIFE AND MINISTRY OF CHRIST BTH 206

SCHOOL OF CHAPLAINCY

BY

WISDOM CHANDA

LUSAKA, ZAMBIA

21 MARCH 2022
 Table of Contents

I. Introduction............................................................................................................................1
II. Abiding in Christ....................................................................................................................2
a. Definition..............................................................................................................................2
b. Who should abide in Christ..................................................................................................5
c. How can believers abide in Christ?......................................................................................7
i. Attach yourself to a vine....................................................................................................8
ii. Feed from his word...........................................................................................................8
iii. Follow him in total surrender.......................................................................................8
d. What are the benefits of abiding?.........................................................................................9
e. What are the hindrance to abiding in Christ?.....................................................................11
f. What are the consequences of not abiding in Christ and bearing fruits?............................13
III. Conclusion.........................................................................................................................15
BIBLIOGRAPHY..........................................................................................................................17
 ABIDING IN CHRIST

I. Introduction

Life is a mystery that you never know you’ve already spent half of it, well you have a lot

of battles to fight, mountain to climb and, giants to bring down. It is even worse when you are

not abiding in Christ and no fruit is seen in your life. The scripture in Matthew plays a significant

role in this study as it reads “Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he

was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves.

Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered this account

is found in Matthew 21:18-19. In this research paper I seek to answer the following question:

What is the foundation of fruit bearing in Christian Life? Growing up in the construction Feld I

have learned that the strength of a building is attached to how strong the foundation is and the

height of the building is determined by how strong the foundation was rayed. Same applies to the

Christian life, the bases of fruit bearing are traced back to the secret that I intend to critically

discus and review in the paper.

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My thesis is based on the fact that no one can live a victorious life without the foundation that is

strongly rayed in Jesus Christ which is to abide. Everything that we see in today’s ministry either

good or bad. In fact, our theology or philosophy of ministry is traced back to the question am

addressing in this paper. In the construction Feld engineers will tell you that if you have a weak

foundation nonmatter how strong the wall is, the building will be weak, with this fact I can

boldly state that Christians who fail to abide in Christ cannot bear fruit. Yes, they can’t bear any

fruit. The thesis is supported strongly with scripture backup, research augments, and personal

experience. The thesis puts me in a strong position to say that fruit bearing, like salvation in the

Christian faith can only come from one strong Vein and if Christians seek to produce fruit and

they ignore this source no fruit will be seen in them. seek to achieve one go with my thesis

which touches a lot objectives and subjects in the Christian faith, that is abiding in Christ.

I’ve systematically organized my arguments based on the following points of interesting in

subject mentioned above, my discussion consists of the follow items: a. Definition, I have

defined my subject in a systematic way in that I have separated the key words and combined

different definitions to see the interaction with my text, and I have consulted extra-biblical

sources such as commentaries, dictionaries, etc., in reference to my topic. The main preposition

that I have raised in this research paper are. Who should abide in Christ, how can believers abide

in Christ, what are the benefits of abiding, what are the hindrance to abiding in Christ, what are

the consequences of not abiding in Christ, and the last preposition is what Biblical approach can

we use if we want to abiding in Christ.

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II. Abiding in Christ

a. Definition

Abiding in Christ has many different theological definition depending on where the definer

comes from. Research has reviewed a lot of different definition with one thing in common. we

are going to look at what other prominent authors and researches have written on the scope. I

found the definition of Brian G. insightful when he says to abide in the vine means to be united

to Jesus which to strongly be in connection with him, to rely on Jesus or to totally have

dependence only on Jesus, and to remain in Jesus which simply continuance in all his ways

(Hedges 2021). In addition, I can say that Brain focus on three main elements which are

connection, dependence and continuance, basic to abide can be live, continue, and remain in

Christ.

according to Sinclair Ferguson in his book in Christ Alone, he gives an interesting definition

when he says Abiding in Christ means allowing His Word to fill our minds, direct our wills, and

transform our affections (Ferguson 2007, 114). What Sinclair is saying that we are to bear fruit

we have to fully open our minds, heart that is word may penetrate in our live. Which then

transforms everything around us.

Kelvin in his article What does it mean to abide in Jesus Christ? brings in amazing diverse

definition of the term phrase abiding in Christ, he puts them as follows Abiding in Christ means

believing in Jesus Christ, living in humble dependence on Him for life and vitality. Abiding in

Christ’s Words. Obeying Christ’s commands. And abiding in Christ’s love (Halloran. 2020).
 4

J.C. Ryle expounds the subject in his commentary he says to abide in Christ means to keep up a

habit of constant close communion with Him, to be always leaning on Him, resting on Him,

pouring out our hearts to Him, and using Him as our Source of life and strength, as our chief

Companion and best Friend. To have His words abiding in us, is to keep His sayings and

precepts continually before our memories and minds, and to make them the guide of our actions

and the rule of our daily conduct and behavior (Ryle 2001) .

Marci Ferrell says Abide means to be held, kept continually and to dwell, remain, be present

(Ferrell 2022). It involves trusting, obeying, finding all we need in the Vine, not separating

ourselves when things get difficult and becoming more and more in our knowledge what we

already are declared to be in Christ. We’re believing the truths of Scripture and allowing the

Holy Spirit to bring about the fruit of those truths in our lives.

John Piper says Abiding in the vine means receiving and believing and trusting in the words of

Jesus. It means receiving the love of Jesus for the Father and for his people and the joy that Jesus

has in the Father and in us. It means sharing the joy, the love, the words with Jesus, (Piper 2017).

so, to abide in Christ is to live in Him or remain in Him, the phrase abiding in Christ pictures an

intimate, close relationship, and not just an insincere associate.

The bases of fruit bearing can only come from the many different definitions we have. In simple

terms to abide is to stay, remain and obey the instruction of Jesus Christ, it is to hear and do, to

all hearted present him to the world by vital of us producing Good fruits that can be traced to

who Jesus Christ is.

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b. Who should abide in Christ

When we look at the structure of the church today the question of who should abide in Christ is

very vital and must attract the attention of many spiritual leaders, we see that the pastor is

overloaded with a lot of duties and tasks that are for every believer. From our different

definitions we have seen that abiding in Christ is the foundation of every strong Christian who

wants to experience the supernatural power of God. God has calls all believers to abide in him,

the John 15 bring in an interest subject where we have drawn our main topic and subheadings.

Jesus tried to show the disciple one of the most vivid and powerful examples of how believer

should build their fruit bearing relationship with him he uses the vine and branches. Let’s explore

what the Bible and other Christian authors have said and written on who should abide in Christ.

The bases of fruit bearing can only be initiated when we know and understand if the role of

abiding is for everyone or for some selected people. Abiding in Christ is for every believer,

Abiding is a command in verse 4. Jesus tells us to abide in him and to abide in his love and in

verse 9. It’s something we are all called to do. So, is abiding in Jesus something that is true of all

believers? (Hedges 2021). Looking critically in the text we see that verse 5 “I am the vine; you

are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you

can do nothing” in this scripture we notice important parts that we have formulated the first one

you are my branches meaning all who believes in him, the second one is if we remain in him

meaning Jesus is the only true vine, the last one is apart from me meaning without Jesus or other

than him no fruit can be seen in any believers. Hedges takes his augment feather has he disagrees

with some theological suggestions that abiding in Christ can be optional, a discipline that is
additional, special, a part we gain through a crisis experience that ushers us into a better, deeper,

or victorious

life, it can sometimes even have called the “abiding” life. And it's then suggested that Christians

will be weakened into two groups: the “haves” and “have not’s.” the normal Christians who

believe Jesus but don’t abide and also the extraordinary Christians who believe and also abide.

It is clear that bearing fruit—the fruit of the Spirit—is the calling of every Christian: “I am truth

vine, and My Father is that the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes

away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it's visiting bear more fruit.” John 15:1-2.

Bearing the fruit of the Spirit isn't optional within the Christian life. Bearing fruit may well be a

results of obedience to the Word of God and also the Holy Spirit’s promptings. Indifference and

willful disobedience to God’s will means I’m not truly a Christian—a follower of Christ—and

this implies I cannot have fellowship with Redeemer and thus the daddy. (John 14:15-17; John

14:21,23-24; 1 John 1:6-7) Jesus Himself says here that each branch that does not bear fruit is

abstracted by the God the father. Such a plan should awaken us to seriousness, but shouldn't

cause discouragement, hopelessness, or heaviness. Rather, it should be an idea that we should

bear more fruit and have fellowship with Him! So how are we able to bear fruit? The fruit of the

Spirit can only come forth in us by the power of the Spirit. No amount of self-effort will make us

bear spiritual fruit. It requires an entire surrender of our self-will to God so we can obey Jesus’

words within the daily situations of life, so as for the fruit of the Spirit to return forth instead of

our very own nature. Such an entire surrender occurs when Jesus is our vine, and reigns in our

hearts and minds. Then His will and His Word that is completed in our lives, not our very own
will. Will make us instruments of bearing fruit—the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of obeying Jesus’

words will come forth quite naturally.

c. How can believers abide in Christ?

We live in the World that is moving at a fast rate, we see how technology, science and education

has impacted the entire world. We have a lot of academic structures and it is very confusing to

young and older people on what should be the standard of their live. The confusion has also

entered the church we see secular knowledge to its roots in the church and the question of How

can believer Abide in Christ is ignored but of most importance. God has the power through the

helper we have and if we Ask God to give us the strength to keep His commands we will abide in

Christ. John 15:10 says, "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." No one is able to do anything for

God by his own strength: God is our strength. the word of is a seed that when planted in the

heart it grows and begins to bear fruit.

How does the branch bear fruit? Not by incessant effort for sunshine and air, not by vain

struggles. It simply abides in the vine, in silent and undisturbed union, and blossoms, and fruit

appear as of spontaneous growth. How then shall a Christian bear fruit? By efforts and struggles

to obtain that which is freely given? No: there must be a full concentration of the thoughts and

affections on Christ, a complete surrender of the whole being to Him, a constant looking to Him

for grace (Stowe 2022). Christ being the foundation is key to the how question it must first start

with our acknowledgment of Jesus as the only source of fruit bearing. Stowe brings in
challenging question to the subject in agreement the answers he gives; we can add the following

steps

i. Attach yourself to a vine

Any fruit that is produced from a tree has a long process of production which includes supply of

water, being in season, and health, we must note that fruits produced can either be good or bad

depending on which vine the braches are attached too. The first thing we need to do is to root

and attaches our lives the vine that is Jesus Christ. This can be done by fully surrendering and

allowing him to be the source of supply to us as believer. To abide in Christ daily requires us to

have dependence upon the Holy Spirit and attach our all being to the vine.

ii. Feed from his word

We have borrowed this phrase We are what we eat to explain more on our second point, the

first mention of this phrase came in 1826 work by a Physiologie du Gout, this famous

quotation from the German philosopher Feuerbach, suggested that the food one eats have a

bearing on one's state of mind and character. The easy paradigm we can formulate is this, we

need to get milk, bread and meat in due season. French author Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

wrote Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are (Lowery 1997, 32). The word of

God is live and active and because of the life in it we begin to transform and grow in our

walk with Jesus Christ, feed on God word draws us close to him, once we develop the hunger

for God’s word and we feed on it daily we not even notice it but people will see fruit and

sighs that we are abiding in him.

 iii. Follow him in total surrender

The last paradigm we have on how can we abide in Jesus is to follow him in total

surrender. It is very vital to learn to live faithfully to his will, we must to concentrate our

thoughts and

affections only on Christ. We can’t follow faithfully without the blessing of abiding.

Total surrender before God allows the Lord to speak to us through His Word, which is

living and active and exposes our innermost thoughts and desires to our attention. It’s not

easy to give ourselves away but the moment we do that the abiding power begins to play

its role in our fruit bearing and impact in the community. If we develop the habit of

sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to His Word we are becoming more and more

intimate with Him.

d. What are the benefits of abiding?

Jesus called all the disciples including us the modern day to abide in him in the bible (John

15), we see a lot of advantages of abiding in the same book. Anything that is good has some

best transforming benefits, in addressing the question we are have Pruden Coz M.A. M.Div.

brings in three interesting benefits of abiding in Christ:

1. Fruitful life which means that people who is connected to the vine will be fruitful. And if

we are given a chance to become a fruit-bearing tree, the sure thing, is we want good fruits,

not bad ones.

2. we will have better relationships verse 9 shows us an interesting phrase that says remain in

my love which we interpret to have a strong and better connection with the Lord, we need to
 abide in Him in a steady basis. A lot of people find it hard to form strong relationship bonds

with people simply because they don’t feel connected.

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3. answered prayer we see this in verse 7, and it says, “ask whatever you wish and it will be

given to you.” This is a very elevating promise by the Lord. this promise assures us that He

will answer our prayers. All we have to do is to abide in him and our prayers and petitions

will be answered (Coz 2020).

In light of what Coz say a lot of benefits can be seen from the passage of scripture, because

This parable of the vine and the branches shows that answered prayer, quality and

effectiveness of children of God, is dependent on how deep our relationship is with Jesus.

This is the reason why in first hand every believer should know that the first condition to

bear the fruit that God wants we should remain attached to the Vine. Below are other benefits

we have formulated from the text when we abide in Jesus Christ:

a. Divine Peace and happiness that we experience all-around It is the peace that passes all
understanding.
We can’t feel lonely or alone.

b. confidence and increased will of God “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens

me” (Philippians 4:13). which can help us overcome any difficulties we may have in life.

c. we receive a deep divine connection with Jesus Christ he become friend, teacher,

companion, mentor and helper for life.

 d. We are empowered with the Holy Spirit to help us in our day today life.

e. We have victory over sin. we are called to have victory and be aware of all kinds of sin;

Impatience, anger, lust, and envy.

f. This the most outstanding one we will take up the virtues of Christ and be transformed

into his image. We are called to live this victorious life, just as Jesus did.

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g. It gives us surety of eternity as the Bride of Jesus. if we abide in the Lord, we know

exactly what will happen after we die.

h. He Strengthens us. When the prize is so great, the price to pay is insignificant. God gives

us everything we could want or need. (David 2017).

The list goes on and on and we see that there a lot of benefits of abiding in Christ but The main

benefit of abiding in Christ is He will abide in us as well. Through His word, teaching,

instructing, directing, strengthening, supporting, encouraging, comforting. The holy Spirit will

witness to us, and his fruits, which are “love, joy, peace,” will be seen in us. His presence will

indwell in us we will have wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption and, we will

have access to have fellowship with Him has.

e. What are the hindrance to abiding in Christ?

Many new, and young believers dream of a clear and wonderful Christian life without obstacles

and hindrance which is possible by God’s grace, never the less there are some hindrance to

abiding in Christ down the line we realize that people had fallen from grace. It very important to

know the hindrance to abiding in Christ. We are going to talk about Unconfessed Sin, luck of

commination with him, loving the world over him, lucking faith and conviction, lucking effort

and self-justification and Misinterpreting the Father’s pruning.

 1. sin caused the great gulf between God and man, the story of Lazarus and

the rich is an interesting example of how sin can bridge a gap in the

process of abiding.

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Not dealing with sin and disappointment properly can hinder our

relationship with God 1. Life of sin will hinder us; don Stewart wrote “The

practice of sin is not to be the normal lifestyle of believers. When we sin it

has an effect upon us as well upon others” 2. Sin has separated a lot of

prominent believer from God, sin make God and angrily and it quenches

the holy spirits, you stop studying Gods word and makes you unfruitful,

abiding in Christ guide us from the power of sin but if we allow sin, it

prevents us from connecting to God, it robs us from joy, kingdom

excitement, peace and fellowship.

2. luck of constant commination hinders us from abiding, Abiding requires

us to push daily with disciplines, that draw us close to Jesus and if we stop

communicating we stop abiding.

3. The most important commandant Jesus gave was that we should love,

Matthew 22:37 ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart,

with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ Many people now love the

1
F.F Bruce, the Hard Saying of Jesus, Jesus Library set, Use, 1983, 190.
2
Don Stewart, What Are Some of the Effects of Sin on the Life of the Believer?,
https://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/don_stewart/don_stewart_562.cfm.
 world over God and other people. Once we channel our strength, will and

power to the pressures of the world we automatically disconnect from

God.

13

4. In this generation of science, questions and technology a lot of young and

old people are lucking faith and conviction in their Christian walk which

strongly fights them from abiding and depending on Jesus.

5. The call to abiding in Christ requires every believer to make efforts to

follow him 2 Peter 1:5-9, lucking effort and self-justification for why they

are not committed breaks the abiding power and it hinders us from not

producing fruits.

6. We Misinterpreting the Father’s pruning and training, in order for

believers to survive the Christian walk we must allow God to prune us,

according to Hebrews 12:4-11 our Father discipline and correct us and if

we don’t allow this, it will hinder us from pruning.

f. What are the consequences of not abiding in Christ and bearing fruits?

We see a clear waring in the book of john: “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a

branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be

done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My
disciples.” (John 15:6-8). The came from Jesus himself he showed believers the consequences of

not abiding in Him. We will focus on the four consequences we see in the passage of scripture:

which are as follows; cast out, withered, gathered, thrown, and burned.

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1. Cast out from the vine, how can one bear if they don’t abide, one biblical factor that is

truth is that A branch can only have life once it is connected to the stock of the vine and a

disciple spiritually life can be built once they are connected to the Master. Failure to do

we are cut from the vine

2. no one wants to be gathered in piles and Gathered the life and future of every person is in

the hands of God, “The wood of a dead vine branch cannot be used to make a piece of

furniture or a utensil of any kind” (Bruce 1983, 309) . what Bruce is trying to say is that

if we don’t abide we will be good for nothing but fire.

3. Burned, the metaphor of vine, has a lot of significance, fire in this case symbolizes

judgment that is brought by self-will and condemnations (HUNTER 1965, 149). It’s

possible that if we refuse to abide in him we become irrelevant in his kingdom and the

devil begins to mess us up and by the time we realize we are burning in hell.

We see a lot of people who profess to be Christian, but no fruit is seen their lives which gives a

lot of question to new believer and people from other religion. The consequences of not abiding

in Christ and bearing fruits has deeply effects on a believer’s life, it makes one to fail to fulfil the

purpose of his calling, not bearing fruit leads to unanswered prayers, not bearing fruit brings
dishonor to God and excludes one from being part of the body of Christ, it leads to apostasy,

that’s why it’s very vital for our lives it be rooted in Jesus Christ.

15

III. Conclusion

The biblical approach to abiding in Christ and fruit bearing is to do it the Jesus way, this means

that in both Word and deep we model the style of Jesus when it comes to prayer, word, fast,

holiness, purity dependence and servanthood. The basis of fruit bearing is to know Jesus is the

only true vine and apart from abiding in him we can’t bear any fruit. the spiritual life of

believers is not our work that we may boost, even the fruit we bear is not ours also. God gives

grace to work and produce fruit to us. the vine draws its sustenance from the root and propels

that sustenance into the branches so they can bear fruit. This means that Christians who fail to

abide in Christ cannot bear fruit.

God has all called believer to the life of abiding in him, it does matter how much wealth or

influence you have, you have to make him the source of sustainability and the question of who

should abide in Christ should clearing be answered as ‘all’. This should push believer to accept

his law and teaching, be in constant meditation of his world and develop total dependence of him

as the only source of good fruit, this is How believers abide in Christ. Not forgetting lifestyle of

prayer hour by hour, day by day of connecting to the vine. We must not that The bearing of fruit,

only come by abiding in Jesus and taking walks inside the Spirit. This should be a normal way of

life that has approaches to stay in such a manner that we completely connect to him in both word
and deed, to stroll hand in hand with Him, to stay in line with His word. This is very clear that

abiding in Jesus follows the phrases in me taking residence in him with both heart and mind. We

should come to the place of obedience if we want to enjoy the benefits which come from the

strength of the Spirit, then the fruit of the Spirit, the virtues of Jesus, will also come forth in our

lives.

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We can live victorious lives when we allow Jesus to be our provider of fruits, the branches that

endure fruit are pruned so they bear even more fruit. The truth is pruning is quite painful but we

need it, in those areas we are still immature and weak in. The vinedresser comes to prune and

cuts off bad branches, when we develop graphical growth that always goes high we become

rooted in obedience to God’s and the holy Spirit takes total control, which brings us to the place

of divine growth in all spiritual and physical areas. We gain strength of the Spirit, and people

begin to see the manifestation of the fruit in our lives.

 BIBLIOGRAPHY

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