Book Notes: Abiding in Christ (Ch.3 of Maturity Book for Discipleship Partners)

Abide in Christ (chapter 3) 

- Maturity by Sinclair Ferguson

Review of Chapter 2: Symptons of Decay

Key questions to ask when facing a decision:

Poor appetite, as shown in my indulgence in things that are not always sinful, but not edifying me. Need to ask instead:

1. Is this helping my Christian life? e.g. more thn 1 hour of Prime Video is not, especially 16+ ( 1 Cor 6:12)
2. Does this have a tendency to enslave me, so that I might develop  a dependency on it, and thus get addicted to it? e.g., R movies or checking 401K sizes
3. Does this edify me, and bring me to maturity? (1 Cor 10:23)
4.  Does this build up my neighbor?

Disceernment Deficit

1. not just discern between good and evil, but also whtat is comparatively harmless and what is postively valuable and spiritully strengthening. 
2. what is passing and what is lasting.
3. 
   

A. Union with Christ

1. Already you are clean because of the word I have spoken to you

==> we have received the washing of forgiveness

2. Union with Christ: we are united to Christ by trusting him

- like "graft" that has "taken" to a vine / trunk
- evidence of a "taken graft": bear fruit
- United / planted together / grow together in death and resurrection
or has "congenital features or characteristics of union with Christ in his death and resurrection.
-Christ's death to sin and resurrect to live for God are defining  aspects of our new life in Christ.

3. We are called to be Under-gardeners of our own soul

1. Learning the great lessons of grace, like the cultivation of the best fruit, requires time, care, thought, and patience. 
2. Lasting influences develop by understanding rather than by feeling.

B. The Father's Cultivation

"My father is the vine-dresser": this word picture depicts the character and the activity of God:

1. constancy
2. patience
3. interest 
4. labor 

John 15:2: "every branch that does not bear fruit he prunes (Kathairo)"
- meaning cleansing. The divine cutting has my cleansing in view.

Leon Morris:  "Left to itself a vine (or pomergranate tree) will produce a good deal of unproductive growth. For maximum fruitfulness extensive pruning is essential. This is a suggestive figure for the Christian life. The fruit of Christian service is never the result of allowing the natural energies and inclinations to run riot".

B.1 Cleansing by Pruning is a Must

 - Includes his providence and interventions in my life, aimed at fruitful well rounded characters

 

B.2 Initial Pruning

- not to produce fruit immediately, but to prepare for future fruit

- future fruit example: in all of our daily relationships with others to be shaped and fashioned in obedience to God's clear revealed will, so that we become letters to them.

- Protects us from the kind of immaturity that ruins relationships before there is time for our witness to have any effect.

 

B.3 Ongoing Pruning, pain, times of disappointment or sorrow, all serve as his pruning knife.

God prunes with perfect skills. His providence seems to cut deeply times, but his purpose is to enable us to grow strong enough to bear new, juicy fruit.

- death is at work in us, but life in you / others (2 Cor 4:12)

 

B.3.1 There are no accident in the Christian life

B.3.2 There is no waste in the Christian life

C. Abide in Christ

1. Allow his word to fill our minds and our affections; to  dominate our lives. 

2. A willing submission in heart, soul, mind and strength to his revealed will, immersed in his Word.

C.1. Let the word be absorbed by mind mind

- reading Bible is a "acquired taste".

C.2. Learn to read the Bible properly

- hold all of God's gifts with an open hand
- Let its truth, understood in its biblical context, engage and direct our thinking and feeling.

C.3. Let the word influence my will

- too often my mind is slave to feelings, and pretty soon our will will be captured by feelings too

===> We will then discover the lasting enjoyment of our spiritual privileges.