18. Abide—

John 15:4 (NRSV) — 4 Abide in Me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me.

When a new graft is placed in a vine and it abides there and there is a twofold process that takes place …

(i) the first is in the wood: the graft shoots its little roots and fibers down into the stem, and the stem grows up into the graft, and what has been called the structural union is effected. The graft abides and becomes one with the vine, and even though the vine were to die it would still be one wood with it.

(ii) the second process occurs when the sap of the vine enters the new structure: it uses the vine as a passage or channel through which sap can flow to nourish the young shoots, leaves and fruit. This is called the vital union.

When our Lord says: "Abide in Me, and I in you," He points to something similar to this process. "Abide in Me" refers more to that which we have to do. We have to trust and obey, to detach ourselves from all else, to reach out after Him and cling to Him sinking ourselves into Him. As we do this, through the Grace He gives, our character is formed, and our hearts prepared for the fuller experience: "I in you," God strengthens us with might by His Spirit in the inner man, and Christ dwells in our heart by faith.