Life isn’t primarily about evangelization or Bible memorization, or even obedience to Christ’s commands, important as all of those are. Life is, first and foremost, an abiding relationship with a gracious and loving Lord. It is living a D’Vine Life in Christ.

Yes, my title has a double meaning: The vine in John 15 is Christ, who is Divine, and we live life connection to the Vine. So one way to refer to the Christian life is: living a D’Vine Life.

A couple years ago I wrote a devotional book about inChristness in the letters of Paul—100 short devotionals on the various ways the Apostle Paul uses the expression “in Christ” (or similar expressions) in his letters. It turns out that one of the most important passages for understanding inChristness in the letters of Paul, surprising as it may seem, is not even in Paul’s writings. It is a passage spoken by Jesus, recorded for us by one of Jesus’s disciples in John 15. Notice Jesus’s use of the word “in.”

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:1-5)

It is almost impossible to believe that the Paul wrote so much about being “in Christ” without ever thinking about Jesus’s teaching about abiding in the vine. Paul didn’t make up the idea of inChristness at all; he learned it from what Jesus taught about living a D’Vine life.

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