John 15:1, 2, 4 I am the true vine and the Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me not bearing fruit He lifts up and every branch bearing fruit He cleanses in order that it may bear more fruit…. Abide in me and I in you. Just as the branch does not have the natural ability to bear fruit from itself except it abides in the vine, thus neither can you, except you abide in me.
When we believed the Gospel for Salvation (Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures) we were placed into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit. This body is a new creation by God in which Christ is the head and we are the body. In this new creation, old thing have passed away. We are no longer in Adam and therefore no longer condemned. Behold, all things have become new. We are in Christ, were we are now counted to be righteous before God, our spirits are connected to God, we are no longer a slave to the sin nature, we have a quality of the mind of Christ, and share in a quality of the Divine Nature. The change that happens at salvation is not a visible change because it begins in our spiritual part, and ends with our full redemption at the rapture with a resurrected body and a saved soul. Nonetheless, this change is very real. We are now able to receive the things of the Spirit and live a life that manifests the character of the resurrected Christ.
How comfortable are you with who you are in Christ? When Jesus first revealed the new relationship that was coming between man and God, He used an illustration of the vine and branches to show how the new relationship will work. Just as a branch has no power of itself to produce fruit, unless it is connected to the vine, we have no power within ourselves to produce the fruit of the Spirit, unless we are governing the manner of our lives from our position in Christ. The more we feel at ease with our new position in Christ the more fruit we will bear.
So how do you feel at ease with who you are in Christ? It starts with how you frame your mind. We must actively set our minds on the things above, not on the things of this earth. We do this by aligning our opinion of ourselves with God’s opinion of us. As we begin to think this way, we are able to take every thought that comes into our minds and bring them into obedience to our new position in Christ. Since it is impossible to sin in your mind, sin is an action not a thought, we can stop the process of sin before it actually becomes a sin and rather than manifesting the works of the flesh, we can produce the fruit of the Spirit. When we walk by the Spirit we will in no way fulfill the desires from the flesh.
What is God’s opinion of you? Think about that today!
Romans 5:12-21; 8:1; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 6:17; 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore since someone is in Christ; a new creation, old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new; 2 Peter 1:3, 4; 1 Peter 1:9 (the soul is the last part that is saved); Colossians 3:1-3; 2 Corinthians 10:5; James 1:14, 15; 1 John 3:4; Galatians 5:16, 17