Re: Temperance 1.3 - By Doc Rick Flanders

Two Views of the Christian Life

When Jesus called men to be His followers, the call involved commitment and self-denial. See the call to discipleship in Luke 9:23. "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." Of course the call to discipleship is repeated in many places and in many ways in the first books of the New Testament. Look up Matthew 9:37-39, Matthew 16:24-25, Mark 8:34, Luke 14:25-35, and John 12:25-26. See that the Christian life viewed as discipleship involves commitment to obey Christ, denial of oneself, and great sacrifice.

But Jesus seems to give a different view of Christian living in John 15, where He says, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye , except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." (verses 4 and 5)

The concept of abiding in Christ as the key to victorious living comes to us in the discourse of our Lord given to His disciples the night before He died on the cross. In that talk, and throughout that talk, Jesus tells about the coming of His Spirit to live in us, and about the difference the Holy Spirit will make in the life of the believer (See John 14:15-26, and then read all of chapters 13-17). It is the Spirit of Christ that enables us to live the Christian life. After three and a half years of learning to live the disciplined life of a disciple, the Spirit of Christ was sent to the disciples to give them the power to live it.