In the most precise statement
ever written of what is Christianity, Jesus said, "Ye have not chosen
me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring
forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall
ask of the Father in my name, he may get it you" (John 15:16).
First, notice the sequential order of the statement. The way the word
"that" is used gives the statement a sequence of how God works
in our lives. Something occurs in order for something else to occur.
The choosing and ordaining produces something: "that ye should go and
bring forth fruit and that (italicized in the KJV, meaning it is not in
the original manuscript) your fruit should remain." The going, the
bringing forth fruit, and the fruit remaining are products of being chosen
and ordained.
They do not produce themselves. We are chosen and ordained that something
might be produced in us.
In turn, the going, the bringing fruit, and the fruit remaining also
produce something: "that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my
name, he may give it you." Again, "whatsoever ye shall ask . . .
may give it you" occurs out of the going, the bringing fruit, and the
fruit remaining. One is the product of the other.
Although it is not understood yet, everything that occurs in your life
hangs upon Jesus choosing and ordaining you. Previously, Jesus had said,
I am the vine, and my Father is the
husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruith he taketh away:
and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring
forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken
unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of
itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in
me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do
nothing. (John 15:1-5)
Fruit only comes when we are abiding in
Jesus and Jesus in us. This simple truth is the essence of all that is
Christianity.
All the days of our life is the story of what God does for us. Although
many perceive that the fruit of which Jesus is referring is what man does
for God: the number of people won to the Lord, the good deeds
accomplished, or any product produced by the believer. Fortunately, the
gospel of Jesus Christ tells a different story. It proclaims what God has
done for us.
Even though most struggle to perceive it, Jesus came into the world for
only one reason. He said, ". . . I am come that they might have life,
and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). Amazingly,
man was created just to have life in Jesus.
For example, the fruit of an apple tree is an apple. It is not apple pie,
or even another apple tree. Although the meat of an apple is the main
ingredient of an apple pie and the seed of the apple is the essence of
another apple tree, the apple does not have the capability to produce an
apple pie or to produce another apple tree.
The apple does not help the baker make the apple pie, other than be used
by the baker. The seed of the apple even has to die before another apple
tree can come forth. The apple is to be just the apple.
Although the visible church keeps trying to get "apples" to make
apple pies and apple trees, the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is
that man was created to be just the "apple." The secret of
experiencing life is in just being the fruit of what Jesus produces.
When man was created, he became a living soul (Gen. 2:7). Jesus came to
bring man back to "life, and that [man] might have life more
abundantly." Originally created to live and regenerated "that
[he] might have life," man is to experience the bringing forth of
fruit and that fruit should remain (not die).
Religion adamantly protests the truth that God did not create man to serve
Him, to worship Him, or to live for Him. The religious cannot perceive
that God created man out of His own good pleasure--simply because He
wanted man to experience His love, to experience His life.
Working so hard to produce apple pies and new apple trees, we often become
weary and frustrated when we see the "worm" eventually destroy
our efforts. Life, the essence of Christianity, is not in what man does
for God. It is in what God does for man.
This is not to say there will never be any apples pies or new apple trees.
What it does mean, however, is that the apple pies and the apple trees are
the product of something far greater that the apple. The meat of the apple
may be the ingredient of the apple pie and the seed of the apple the
essence of another apple tree, but the apple can never produce an apple
pie or an apple tree.
If we were created just to live in Him and to keep on living, how is it
then that so many of us never experience that abundant life?
The answer lies hidden in the meaning of "Ye have not chosen me, but
I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go . . . ." It is
unfortunate that too many of us regard "ordained" as being
"invested with the office of a minister, a priest, or rabbi."
The original word that is translated "ordained" means "to
place (in a passive, horizontal position as opposed to a vertical active
posture" Jesus said to His disciples that they had been chosen to be
placed in a horizontally and passive posture.
Then, Jesus said that the reason why His disciples were placed in this
horizontally and passive position was that they would "go." The
original word translated go in His statement is not the usual word for go
with its common meaning "to traverse." This word means "to
lead under, i.e. withdraw or retire (as if sinking out of sight)."
The mystery of life is hidden in this statement of Jesus. You and I, all
men, were chosen by Jesus to be placed in a horizontally and passive
posture until we sink out of sight. The fruit of the abundant life, which
is the manifestation of Jesus in our lives, will only come when this has
occurred. Jesus takes us down that He might come forth. He is life!
What is Christianity?
It is experiencing the manifestation of Jesus Christ in and through our
lives.
Where does this life occur? What is the realm of real living?
Jesus, again, tells us the answer. He said,
As the Father hath loved me, so have I
loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall
abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and
abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy
might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my
commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. (John
15:8-12)
When Jesus stated that "As the Father
hath loved me, so have I loved you . . . [and] that ye love one another,
as I have loved you," He is not giving a comparison of how love ought
to be. He is not trying to emphasize that He loved us to the same degree
as the Father loved Him.
Neither is He trying to emphasize that we should love one another to the
same degree that He loved us. Thank God, for we do not have the capability
to love as Jesus loved. He is simply revealing the power source of all
love.
Jesus loved man through the love He experienced in the Father. We can love
one another because we have experienced the love of Jesus toward us. His
love, "as I have loved you," enable us to love each other.
In reality, it is the actually the love of Jesus flowing through us to the
one we love. The experiencing of the love of Jesus in relationships with
one another is the fruit that God desires to produce in our lives. When
all is said and done, the joy of living comes down to being loved and
loving.
To be loved and to love is the reason you were chosen, ordained, and taken
out of sight. God takes you down in order that Jesus, who is love, may be
raised. In Jesus, we live.
What is Christianity?
It is experiencing the intimacy of Jesus Christ in relationships with
others. |
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