In John’s Gospel the Lord went on to tell us how He could give Himself to us. The Lord gave Himself for us by dying on the cross and shedding His blood. By shedding His blood, He redeemed us from our sins, cleansed us from all defilement, and made us clean and pure. Now as clean vessels, we can receive Him into us. On one hand, His death on the cross redeemed us, cleansing us from our sins to make us pure and clean. On the other hand, His death on the cross released the divine life from within Him just as a grain of wheat falls into the ground, dies, and grows up to produce many grains (12:24). The very life within the original grain was released into many grains. Through death and resurrection the Lord released Himself into His many believers. He was once the unique grain of wheat, but through His death He released His divine life and produced us in His resurrection to make us the many grains. As He was the one grain of wheat with the life element, so we are the many grains, possessing the same life. Through the processes of His death and resurrection, we have been made the same as He.
Not only so, He told the disciples that He would not leave them as orphans but that He would come back to them (14:18). While in the form of the flesh He would leave them, but He would return in another form as the Spirit. His intention when He left the disciples was to die in the form of the flesh. After His death in the flesh, He would be resurrected from the dead and come back to them not in the flesh but as the Spirit. As the Spirit He can enter into us and be one with us. Now that the Lord is the Spirit, He can dwell within us. In John 14:20 the Lord told them, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” That day refers to the day of resurrection. In resurrection the disciples would realize that He is in the Father, the disciples are in Him, and He is in them. Christ is in the Father, we are in Christ, and Christ is in us. Through Christ’s death and resurrection, He became the Spirit. Today this very Spirit is within us. He is both the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of God. That the Holy Spirit is now indwelling us means that Christ and God are also within us. This indicates that all three of the Triune God are within us.
We need to forget our natural thoughts about God. There are many concepts remaining within us concerning our relationship with God. Some have the consideration that they should behave themselves in a proper way in order to please God and that they should sacrifice themselves for the Lord’s work. Others have aspirations to go to faraway places to preach the gospel. Still others consider how to worship the Lord and how to do their best to serve the Lord for their entire life. This is what is in our heart, and these are matters which are always on our mind. Whether this is right or wrong is hard to say, but we should forget all these things. The one thing we need to realize is that today the Triune God in Christ and as the Spirit is indwelling us to be our food, our life, our life supply, and our everything. When we go to the Lord, we need to praise Him and thank Him that He is in us as our life, our food, our drink, our strength, and our everything. All we need to do is realize Him, enjoy Him, apply Him, and experience Him. We should have no intention to do this or that for Him but should simply learn how to enjoy Him and apply Him. Praise the Lord, we only care to enjoy Him.
At this point some may ask what will happen next. We should not be concerned. Please remember that we are all branches of the vine (15:1-5). As such, we should not consider ourselves to be so small and pitiful that we only have the thought of worshipping the vine or sacrificing ourselves to do something for the vine. No branch would serve the vine or bow down to worship the vine in this way. If it did, the vine might say, “Little branch, don’t be foolish. Simply realize that you are a branch and I am the vine. Abide in me and allow me to abide in you. There is nothing left for you to do.” When we abide in the vine, all that He has and is will be a life supply to us, energizing us to bear fruit. This is not to toil or do something but to bear fruit. Fruit-bearing is simply the overflow of the life of the vine through the branches. It is the overflow of Christ through us as His many branches. He is the vine full of life and life supply, and we are branches of this vine. Nothing else matters other than abiding in Christ and letting Christ abide in us. Then all that He is and all that He has will be our portion. We will enjoy Him, apply Him, and absorb Him. This is the way of life, and this is the way to deal with the Lord. It is not the way of knowledge or of doing things for Him. We should forget those things and remember only that He is the unique vine in the entire universe. He is the vine tree, and we are branches in Him. We need a full realization of this wonderful, glorious, divine, eternal, and spiritual fact. Abide in Him and let Him abide in you. That is good enough. Then He will be everything to you. He will be your life, your supply, and your everything.
Eventually, we will bear fruit without intending to do so. Branches bear fruit spontaneously without any labor because the fruit springs out of the life. We do not need to try to be humble, good, and patient. If we simply abide in Christ, all the human virtues, such as humility, patience, love, and goodness, will be manifested effortlessly. Although people may praise us for being humble, we will not be aware of our humility. If we try to be humble, we may be proud of our success and criticize others for not being humble and patient. This is an ugly humility and an ugly patience. This is not Christ. Fruit as the overflow of Christ flows out of us spontaneously without our consciousness or intention through our constant abiding in Christ. The way of abiding in Christ and letting Christ abide in us, not the way of knowledge or of working, is the way of life, which we as Christians must take.