Christosis: Participation in Christ and Imitation of ChristНамуна

Remember our big idea: Jesus became like us, so that we could be with Him and become like Him.

My dad’s favorite band is a rock band from the 1970s called the Doobie Brothers. Just a few years ago, I had the opportunity to take him to a Doobie Brothers concert, and that is a memory I will forever cherish. One of their lead singers is a guy named Michael McDonald. And I must admit—I like Michael McDonald’s music too.

His music has been placed in a category called Yacht Rock. HBO recently produced a documentary titled Yacht Rock. In the documentary, Questlove from The Roots describes Yacht Rock as:

“The perfect sitting-down dancing music.”

Which immediately makes you think, “How do you sit down and dance?” or “How does that work?” It’s what we might call oxymoronic.

In John 15, Jesus is saying that Christosis—formation into Christ’s likeness—requires sitting down and dancing.

In the NLT translation, Jesus says “remain” ten times. Your translation might say “abide.” But he also emphasizes “bearing fruit” and “doing.”

For Jesus, remaining or abiding is deeply connected to bearing fruit and doing.

It’s kind of like sitting down and dancing.

Jesus is painting an oxymoronic picture of Christosis. In John 15, Jesus teaches us that:

Christosis includes remaining and going.

Or…

Christosis includes sitting down and dancing.

How can we possibly do both?

Well, more on that in just a moment. But first, we have a hurdle to jump over. Jesus does something quite startling in this text, and we need to pay attention.

1. Remaining and going will start with disruption.

I’m not sure if you’ve picked up on this or not, but Jesus was a disruptor. He is still a disruptor. You could also say He was controversial. But Jesus was never controversial simply for the sake of being controversial. If he had truth to communicate, He would say it. He didn’t hold back.

The first three verses of John 15 would have been highly controversial to His listeners:

“1 I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you.” — John 15:1-3 (NLT)

In our modern understanding, it could appear as if Jesus is simply using a gardening metaphor. But Jesus does three very disruptive things here:

Jesus refers to Himself as the “true vine.”

In the Old Testament—through Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea—Israel is referred to as the “vine.” Let me give you two examples:

“In that day, sing about the fruitful vineyard. 3 I, the Lord, will watch over it, watering it carefully. Day and night, I will watch so no one can harm it. 4 My anger will be gone. If I find briers and thorns growing, I will attack them; I will burn them up— 5 unless they turn to me for help. Let them make peace with me; yes, let them make peace with me.” 6 The time is coming when Jacob’s descendants will take root. Israel will bud and blossom and fill the whole earth with fruit! — Isaiah 27:2-6 (NLT)

“How prosperous Israel is— a luxuriant vine loaded with fruit.”

— Hosea 10:1a (NLT)

Jesus is taking up the role of Israel. Some of His listeners would have found that offensive or confusing. It was disrupting.

New Testament scholar Gary Burge puts it this way:

“That is, in ancient imagery he has taken the place of Israel as God’s true planting. The new concept is that God’s vineyard holds one vine and Israel must inquire if it is attached to him. No longer is Israel automatically seen as vines growing in God’s vineyard. Men and women are now branches growing from one stock.”

- Jesus states that pruning is required for bearing fruit.

Pruning requires cutting some things away.

What needs to be cut away from your life to bear fruit?

- Jesus states that He is the one who cleanses His people.

In Jesus’ world, it was through Torah observance and ritual purity that someone was cleansed. But Jesus declares that He is now the path to being cleansed.

Have you allowed Jesus to speak honestly to you about the areas where you need to be cleansed?

The path to remaining and going begins with disruption.

Now.. what does it mean to remain?

2. Remaining in Jesus

Remaining in Jesus assumes disruption. We live in a world that does not like to remain. We are constantly obsessed with “What’s next?” or “What am I missing?” or “How can I keep up?”

Remaining or abiding means slowing down to be present.

As I stated earlier, Jesus mentions remaining ten times in this passage. He highlights three out-workings of remaining in Him. One of them is bearing fruit (which we’ll get to in the “going” portion). But let’s look at the other two:

“But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!” — John 15:7 (NLT)

This is consistent with what Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount, and what He already said in 14:13.

Think of it this way:

The better you know Jesus, the more time you spend with Him, the more your desires will be shaped to ask for Kingdom things. Your heart becomes aligned with His. You will know what to ask for—and He will delight in giving it to you.

Jesus goes on to say:

“9 I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.” — John 15:9-10 (NLT)

When we remain in Christ—when we are present with Christ (corporately and individually)—we are in His love. John keeps returning to this idea of dwelling (John 1:14) and presence.

Jesus wants to be with us.

I love this definition of abiding from Michael Gorman:

“At the very least, ‘abide’ means maintaining an intimate, permanent, covenantal relationship with Jesus (15:4–7), as part of the community of disciples (which make up Jesus the vine). This includes remaining attuned to Jesus’ words and love (15:7, 9–10).”

Consider those questions…

Could your relationship with Jesus be described as intimate?

Could your relationship with Jesus be described as covenantal?

Walk through these concepts with others. Consider together how you are remaining or abiding in Jesus.

3. Going (a.k.a. Dancing)

Jesus describes the “going” as bearing fruit.

“4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. 5 Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing.” — John 15:4-5 (NLT)

Bearing fruit is connected to remaining or abiding.

Jesus says, “Without me, you can do nothing.” He means we cannot be productive in any eternal or Kingdom way without Him.

Jesus clearly influenced Paul. In Galatians 5, Paul outlines two types of life:

Life in the flesh vs. Life in the Spirit.

Life in the flesh:

19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. - Galatians 5:19-21 (NLT)

Life in the Spirit (fruit of the Spirit):

22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control.

There is no law against these things!- Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT)

Here’s some homework:

Read Galatians 5:19-23 with your spouse or close Christian friends. Then ask them:

What fruit do you see at work in me?

If you're struggling with some of the fruit, that’s just an invitation to abide more deeply. Congrats! We all get to grow together. Sometimes walking in the fruit of the Spirit can feel embarrassing or intimidating. It’s a little bit like dancing.

Check this out from John 15:8:

“When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.”

— John 15:8 (NLT)

Jesus continues something He’s done earlier in John’s Gospel: He connects discipleship to action.

Discipleship is a hotly debated word these days, but I like this definition from Gary Burge:

“Is discipleship a commitment to doctrinal beliefs concerning God and Jesus?

Is it a way of life, a way of ‘love’ perhaps, that sets disciples apart from the world? Or is it an experience, a mystical encounter that transforms? I believe it is all three: Discipleship is a way of thinking (doctrine), a way of living (ethics), and a supernatural experience that cannot be compared with anything in the world.”

Discipleship is more than just believing the right things or doing the right things. It requires the Spirit at work within us to fashion our beliefs and our doing into fruit that resembles Jesus.

I will end with this challenge:

Remain & Go.