Every disciple is to live the abundant life, the kingdom life, the heavenly life. Every disciple is to live the life of God, the life of Christ, the life of the Spirit. Every disciple is to live a life filled with grace, power, and love. Every disciple is to serve their neighbor, love their enemy, and make other disciples. In short, every disciple is to obey Jesus in all things. It sounds like an enormous responsibility. And it is! But it is also a tremendous joy to those who have answered the call and follow Jesus.  

How can we do all this? Pastor and author, John Ortberg, says it’s not the branch’s job to produce fruit; it’s the branch’s job to abide in the vine. Jesus said “I am the true vine” (John 15:1)—the locus, center, source of God’s kingdom, God’s people, and God’s life. The branch doesn’t have to reach heaven; the Vine came down to earth. The invitation to “abide in me” (15:4) is the invitation to learn from Him how to live life in the kingdom of God. 

Disciples don’t only seek good information, though. They also seek the inner transformation of their hearts. They abide in Jesus and He abides in them and together with Him they bear much fruit. It is His life, energy, and strength pulsating in their’s by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. It is a combined effort.

Food Scientist Michael Pollan points out that if a person has flour and water separate, they could live for several weeks. But if the flour and water combined to make bread, a person could live indefinitely.  

As disciples, we often try to keep our obedience and God’s life separate from each other. Either we try and produce God’s life by our obedience or we try and receive God’s life apart from being obedient. Yet not until the two are combined and mixed together can we know a new kind of life.  

It was in Jesus Christ that God’s life and man’s obedience combined, united. Jesus came down from heaven as “the bread of life” (John 6:35). It was in the Bread of Life broken apart on the cross that the eternal life bound up in God was offered to us all. And it is when we receive that Bread of Life that the life of God can enter us and make us come alive.

Jesus said we live on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Then He said His words would come to abide in us. Why? How? He was and is the Word of God, the Word of Life. He speaks life into us, He is Life Himself living inside of us. Our obedience is the natural result of something supernatural at work in us.