Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - How to Abide in Christ: Why Apart from Jesus You Can Do Nothing

Episode Date: May 12, 2026

What does it mean to abide in Christ — and why does Jesus say it's the key to everything in the Christian life?This episode is sponsored by The Master's University. To learn more about how you can invest in a college education devoted to Christ & Scripture, visit https://www.masters.eduIn this episode, we open up John 15 and break down what abiding in Jesus actually looks like in practical, everyday terms. If you've ever felt like your Christian life was running on empty, or wondered why real joy and spiritual fruit seem out of reach, this conversation is for you.We cover:✔ What "abide in me" means (it's simpler than you think)✔ Why union with Christ is the foundation of all spiritual growth✔ How abiding in God's Word leads to abiding in His love✔ The role of prayer in staying connected to Jesus✔ What you're missing out on if you're not abiding — including the unshakeable joy Jesus promises✔ The difference between being positionally in Christ vs. practically living it out Whether you're a new believer or a seasoned Christian, Jesus' command to abide in Him is the heartbeat of the Christian faith — not for pastors or super-evangelists, but for every follower of Christ.📖 Key Passage: John 15:4–11📚 Also referenced: Romans 8, Galatians 2:20, Philippians 3, John 17🔔 Subscribe for weekly conversations on theology, discipleship, and living the Christian life.

Statistically, everybody listening or watching this episode checks their phone 186 times a day. We spend seven hours a day looking at a screen. We abide in our devices. We abide in our hobbies. But the Christian is to abide in the Word of God. I don't want to be harsh when I say this. But if you have a shallow relationship with the Word of God, you will always have a shallow relationship with the love of God. because God's word is the love letter that he gives

so that we would understand his unfathomable love. There's only one type of person on planet Earth that has an unassailable joy regardless of the trial or sorrow they are experiencing. And it's not just someone who claims Christ. It's someone who abides in the vine. And out of all of the things you're missing out on if you don't abide in Jesus,

at the top of the list, according to Jesus, is you're going to be wanting and lacking of his joy that, is available to you. Hank, how we doing? Doing great, Johnny. How are you doing? Very good.

I need to address one thing. Last week, I asked people to tune into this week's episode because I had an announcement, an idea. I've been nervous for the past seven. I did not. But I need to punt, delay. It's not ready for the world to see. I want it to be right when it's released.

So our audience knows to pull the curtain back, I am as in the dark as they are. And I'm sincerely frustrated. Yeah. And all the, if you missed last week, I just said I had something that I needed to tell everybody. It's better be good because it's becoming a problem. Now I know, I know now. Now it's going to be disappointing. What were you talking about?

Well, first of all, before we jump into this episode, this week is brought to you. This episode is brought to you by the Master's University. If you or someone in your life is looking to continue higher education, I would highly recommend the Master's University. It's a place that is committed to the Lord Jesus Christ and the truth of his word. you can go and find out more information at masters.edu, and you can use our unique code dial in to waive the application fee, and you can look at more information in the description below.

Last week, Hank, we talked about this reality that I've been personally growing in my understanding of, and that is what it means to be in Christ. And we framed it by looking at this general question. If you were to ask Paul, are you religious? He wouldn't respond by saying, yes, I'm a Christian. he would respond by saying, well, I am someone who is in Christ. That term Christian is only used three times in the New Testament. Every single time it's employed, it's used as a pejorative,

like a mocking dis towards those who follow Jesus. But 200 times we see in the New Testament that those who love the Lord Jesus are in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ is in them. And this reality of our union with Christ is really the basis upon which all spiritual growth is, you know, fostered. Yeah, well, and I think the important point that you helped unpack last week was oftentimes I'll think of Christian as almost like a identity marker or like I'm a Bears fan. I work in finance.

But this point, what we potentially lose in saying I'm a Christian is actually at the core of that identifier is actually a relationship. And it's a relationship with a living being that you're personally in communion with. Yeah. And that means that, you know, Paul says that we, because we're in Christ, can look at all the sin in our life that we're tempted to and say the old man is dead. That's been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And so every temptation in our life, we can look at and we fight it based upon this reality and this understanding of our union

and that the old man is crucified. It no longer has any power over us. We don't have to submit to those temptations anymore. And so understanding our identity is very critical because every ounce of spiritual growth is the product of understanding who we are. We're not trying to be holy so we earn God's favor and we earn our status. We understand our status as someone who is in Christ, and as a result of that, we grow more and more into his image. Now, that's a positional reality. We're in Christ. But in this episode, I want to talk about that pursuit and how we live in light of that, because Jesus says to those who are in Christ, and John 15 will look at this in a moment, you have to abide in me, abide in me.

So sometimes we look at those positional realities like, I'm already in Christ and now it's let go, let God. Yeah, stagnant identifier, so what? Yeah, so what. But the Christian life is not let go, let God. Jesus says that we are to abide in him. And I want to read this passage in John 154. You'll probably be familiar with it.

Jesus says, and this is the night before he's betrayed or in the night in which he's betrayed, he tells his disciples to abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me. And then he says in verse 5, apart from me, you can do nothing.

Verse 7 of John 15. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it'll be done for you. My father is glorified by this that you bear much fruit. And so prove to be my disciples. Verse 9, just as the father has loved me and I have also loved you, watch this.

He says, abide in my love. Last verse here, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. So this element, this reality of abiding in Christ is of critical importance for all followers of Christ to understand. And it would be one thing to understand our identity in Christ. It's another thing to say, well, what does that actually look like? Yeah, I was going to say to lean in, like practically, what does it look like maybe to abide in Christ? Yeah, so let's just ask that big question. What does it mean to abide?

This is obviously a major thrust of what it means to follow Jesus is to abide in Jesus. And I think on the surface, we don't really need to overthink this. To abide in Jesus, again, that's a command. That's an imperative. It means that we live in close communion with Him. It means that we cling to Jesus. It means that we live near to His presence. It means that we live a life of reliance upon Him.

It means that we are aware of our dependence upon Christ, each and every moment of our life. and it means that we recognize our total inability to live the Christian life without Jesus. Jesus says here in verse 5, apart from me, you can do nothing. And I remember one time my friend Eric Tana said that we cannot live a single moment of faithfulness to Jesus outside of the power of Jesus. And that always stuck with me because I think sometimes we feel like we can kind of hit some gear in our life where we kind of, we're not so bad, we're good. And then as it relates to massive temptation, that's when we need Jesus to step. But no, Jesus says, apart from me, you can do nothing. And so to abide in Jesus means that even for the most mature Christian,

the most mature believer in reality is someone that understands that each and every day they are having to cash their whole weight on Jesus and to be resting in and resting on the God that gives us rest for our souls. Well, that's just such a profound point. And I don't think I have necessarily anything super valuable to add other than the reflection of that's so true. Like practically, when you come to Currower, there's a there's a dependence there's almost a sweetness to a dependence of like a baby believer

where it totally transforms kind of every segment of their life they're breaking old habits they might be breaking into a new community they might have to actually seek out like new relationships it might change the place in which you work and not saying that every time you become a believer you have to abandon everything like that but then for maybe a mature believer someone who's been along that sanctification journey for many years many decades and has maybe in a healthy sense dedicated themselves to the spiritual practices, like the spiritual sweat, as Hughes would say. It's such a profound reminder to come to John 15 and to hear Jesus saying,

no, no, no, it's abiding in me. And that's just, it's that like disrupts your common thinking if you start to think about your own habits as what brings about the change. Yeah, I think every young believer in every season saint needs to hear the same thing. and have the settled conviction that I cannot live the Christian life in my own strength. And when Jesus says to abide in me, it also means that when someone places their faith in Christ and pursues Jesus, that it is a real, vibrant, personal union and communion with the creator of the universe. And so, you know, and I've heard Sinclair Ferguson say that in Scotland, they ask the question,

where do you bid? Like, where's your home? Where do you dwell? and for the Christian, they abide in Christ, meaning that their life has lived in such close proximity to Jesus that if you were to say, where do you bid, where do you dwell? Well, I dwell in Christ.

And I think this is important, even going back to what you just said about Ken Hughes, talking about spiritual sweat, meaning that this is a not let go let God, but is a determination to live dependently on Jesus. And if you are actually understanding and cognizant of your dependence, then you're going to live close to him. But Kent and Hughes says something about the reality that our good works, the way that we

reflect Jesus, they're not ornaments hung on a tree. They're not something that you attach. Like you start acting certain ways. The fruit of the Christian life is organic, meaning God is bringing it out of you because he's changing your heart. You're not just changing your behaviors. And so when you abide in the vine, the vine begins to produce fruit. on those branches.

It's really helpful. And I already mentioned this, biblically speaking, but theoretically, God is already in the believer. John 14, 16, that in John 14, 23, the father and the son come and make their abode in the believer. John 17, 23, Jesus says,

I and them and you and me, that they may be perfected in unity so that the world may know that you sent me and love them, even as you love me. Don't get lost there. Jesus is just saying that the Godhead, takes up a residence in the believer. Do you have Romans 8? Yes, absolutely.

Read Romans 8.10. Just bear with me. I'm not in my regular daily driver Bible. A little ambidextrous, but the great ones are just. Romans 8.10. If Christ is in you. Pause there. We read that too fast, but literally, Theologically, Christ is in you. First Corinthians 6, we're temples of the Holy Spirit. Second Corinthians 6. We are temples of the living God. Galatians 220.

We've already mentioned. First John over and over again. Christ is in you, Christ is in you, Christ is in you. But to be a Christ follower is to, first of all, understand that as a reality. And then the irreducible minimum of the Christian life in an ongoing way is that you abide in the God who abides in you. And to this, Ferguson says, this is Christianity's essence, living close to Jesus. He's already in you positionally. But practically every single day you want to live in close proximity with him. And so maybe they're like you're setting some theological ground on which for us to stand on.

And that's important. That's good. You often reflect the Christian faith as a thinking faith. If I were to ask the question, then what does that look like practically? Like how do we begin to abide in Christ? What are some of the fruits that might show up? Yeah, you know, I don't like to overthink things. You know, and I say it often when I'm preaching, hey, there's no need to be creative here.

So what does it mean to abide in Christ? Well, Jesus says in the same breath, he says, abide in me in verse 4 of John chapter 15. And then he says in John chapter 15, verse 7, three verses later, if you abide in me and my what? Words abide in you. You cannot abide in the Son of God if you are not abiding in the Word of God. Spurgeon once wrote, we cannot separate Christ from the Word, for in the first place, he is the word. And in the next place, how dare we call him master and Lord, and do not the things which he says and reject the truth which he teaches. So Jesus says, if you want to abide in me, live your life in close proximity to me, you have to abide in my words.

Abiding in the word is more than just listening to and reading the scripture. It's internalizing it, meditating upon it, ruminating on it. When it says abide in my words, that's Ramah. It's the sayings of Jesus. It's the aggregate picture of everything Jesus has said. So big idea, and I keep on saying that, but practically to boil it down, to abide in Jesus, means that you feed on the words of God. We eat meals.

Statistically, everybody listening or watching this episode, checks their phone 186 times a day. We spend seven hours a day looking at a screen. We abide in our devices. We abide in our hobbies. But the Christian is to abide in the Word of God. And this is what we'll talk about more, actually makes the Christian life real to us.

This is Psalm 1, you know, how blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the seat of scoffers and so forth, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in this law, he meditates day and night. You know, Hank, I think about it often, and the older I get, you know,

and obviously I'm not that old, but the more, I used to think I was busy, right? And now you're kind of like, well, life just gets fuller and fuller. There are so many things that vie for our attention that compete to become a priority in our life. But Christianity 101, not super, not super saints, not for Cory Temboum and Billy Graham, but for the everyday child of God, Christianity 101,

is someone who abides in Christ, which means that they abide in His Word. Yeah. And so the two points they're worth doubling back on are one, as life gets more busy, you make time for that, which is a priority. For sure. And so we have no excuse to say,

oh, Lord, I just didn't have time to abide in your word. Like that, if we have time to eat, we have time to abide in his word. And maybe the second point I'd make that you made so eloquently, but midway through, is growing up in a church that had a super high view of scripture, I could get dull at times, and this is just maybe a personal reflection for my own life, of like, yeah, the Word of God is so important through which we understand God. But it actually is like, no, the Word of God isn't a book to be approached for the intellectual pursuit over and over again,

though we definitely want to bring our intellect to its reading. But we're approaching the Word of God, hoping to see, behold, and worship, fall in love with, trust, obey, and abide with. And know the person of Jesus Christ. Who's animating the word for our benefit and for our building up. I think sometimes we overly mysticize what it means to abide in Christ. But Jesus says, if you want to abide in me,

very plainly in verse 7, if you abide in me and my words abide in you. We don't have to overly mysticize something that, which our relationship with Christ should be experiential, but this is real practical. Secondly, to abide in Christ means we abide in his love. In verse 9, Jesus says, just as the father has loved me, I have also loved you.

And then he says, abide in my love. This is just an amazing thing to think about that it is a command from Jesus that your day and your heart, in your mind is planted in the conscious awareness of his profound love for you. So when Jesus says abide to me, and this is the way you live the Christian life, he's not just saying have these rules and regulations constantly on the forefront of your mind, don't do this, don't do this.

He's saying that means that you pray with Moses, satisfy me in the morning with your loving kindness. I don't want to be harsh when I say this, but if you have a shallow relationship with the Word of God. You will always have a shallow relationship with the love of God because God's word is the love letter that he gives so that we would understand his unfathomable love. Psalm 11941 says, may your loving kindness also come to me, O Yahweh, according to your word. As we come to God's word, we read, Your loving kindness is better than life. Psalm 63, Psalm 103 for as high as the heavens are above the earth so great is his loving kindness towards those who fear him.

So we abide in God's love and even going back to what we just said about the scripture and I just want to conjoin these realities, one of the reasons we abide in the Word of God is so that we would live with a conscious awareness of his love for us. And when we do that, Paul says it changes everything about the way we live. And just we can lose, like we can miss the force for the trees, but in John 15, he's talking to his disciples in the upper room before he's going to be betrayed, go to Gassimony and ultimately to the cross. And just in paragraphs later

in John 17, he's praying for his disciples and then for everyone who's going to come to know through the work he's about to do on the cross. And so it's just amazing to think, like, we can divorce. He's telling these guys he has an actual relationship with to abide in his love

for them. And by extension, us, who he has a relationship with, like, it's a personal command that we can kind of depersonalize when we just read it as like ink on the page. No, this is the Christian life. Yeah, and I think that's so true, Hank. I think sometimes we forget this.

Bottom line, you're not living the Christian life unless you're abiding in the love of Jesus. Jesus says in John 17, his final prayer before he's crucified is, Father, I pray that they would understand that you love them even as you have loved me, meaning he wants us to understand the height and depth and breadth and width of that love.

This is Paul's prayer for the Ephesian Church, so we have to do that. We abide in God's word, in Jesus' words, we abide in his love. And then also functionally and practically, we abide in prayer. Jesus says, you know, ask whatever you wish and it'll be done for you. In verse 7, right after saying, if my words abide in you, and he's just talking about the reality that we abide in real communion with Jesus. Our relationship with God is a two-way street.

Though, I mean, obviously, you cannot have a real relationship with someone that you do not talk to. I like what John Piper says. He says on the last day, social media and Netflix are going to reveal to us that prayerlessness was not for lack of time. And, you know, one of the things that we see about Jesus, who is probably the busiest person who ever lived because he lived his whole life, like, I must do the works of him who sent me while at his day. But he's often withdrawing to pray and to align his heart with the Father.

And that's one of the ways that we abide in Christ is by communing with him in prayer. and asking that he would continue to transform our lives. And I just want to come back to this again because sometimes I think that people say like abiding in Christ and ooh, you know, like, but it's not this mystical mumbo-jumbo, but with that said, it should be experiential, it should be thrilling.

It should be real communion with the God who lives in you and who has made your heart the temple of his Holy Spirit. And so I personally just want to experience more and more of this going, I want my relationship with Jesus to feel real. And so that means I have to abide in his word and get to abide in his love and abide in prayer. And this is one again for the audience. I don't know if I don't identify with this. For me, this one's convicting because I'm often quick to almost count my thought life as a prayer life.

And we can pray in our mind with thinking I'm not trying to muddy the waters. But practically, there is a difference between carving out space. in time for like extended conversations with our father. And this has been just something that's been at the forefront of my mind recently of like actually anchoring it into my morning routine before everyone else is up in the house. And noticing like a palatable change in what I'm holding like anxiously on my heart of when you're genuinely just talking to the Lord. And like he already knows these things but there and yet the way he's organized the world such that

As I start unpacking that to him and asking for help and bringing it back to him, it's having like a physiological response on my own DNA. Well, it's true. I mean, I don't think the renewing of your mind is just a metaphor. You know, there's a reality there. And so one of the things that we do pray is that God would give us a greater understanding of our need for grace. So we live in close proximity to him, that he would enlarge our appetite for his word, that he would open our eyes to behold the wonderful things in his word,

that he would become all the more real to us, that we would live in. of our life with the perpetual sense of God consciousness, like he's with me all the time. So that's how we abide. Now, maybe just a couple questions as we land the plane. What does abiding produce? Well, fruit.

You don't pursue the fruit of the spirit. I think sometimes we get this messed up. It's a huge distinction. You don't pursue the fruit of the spirit. The fruit of the spirit is the product of living attached to the vine. And when you pursue Christ, those fruits, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,

are the products of living attached to the vine. And that's why Ephesians 5 says, fruit is all goodness and righteousness. Colossians 1-9, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in all respect, bearing fruit in every good work. Meaning this is what happens

when you live your life abiding in Christ. If you struggle with purity, you abide in Christ, abide in his words, and abide in his love, or anxiety, whatever it may be. So the fruit of righteousness. righteousness is the product, the attitudes of the spirit, the demeanors of the spirit,

meaning Jesus says, blessed are the poor and spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. The person who abides in Christ continually grows in their understanding that they cannot live for Christ without Christ's power. And as a result of that, they're poor in spirit, not because they're, oh man, oh man. Or a false sense of humility. Yeah, false sense of dependence and humility. just a worm, you know, but they understand their spiritual bankruptcy. And sometimes I think we talk about, you know, they understood that without Christ,

they're nothing in a pre-salvation way. In a past tense. In a past tense. But no, in an ongoing sense, it's not just that he saved you by grace alone. It's that he sanctifies you and sustains you by grace alone. We have work to do, right? Philippians 212 and 13. But it's still Christ's power that works in and through us.

It's Christ power making war with the flesh in dwelling. Yeah, and I think as we abide them, we're going to be bold, we're going to proclaim Christ. Now, just big idea here as we end. What happens if we fail to abide? Because there are people that might be positionally in Christ, but practically aren't living in this sense of personal communion and union with him. Well, and this is actually, this is like an incredibly important distinction. I'd like to hear you flesh out. Because if someone's hearing this and it's resonating, like, man, there's a massive dissonance between the way I'm living.

And even as I hear you talking about living in Christ and Christ, that doesn't totally make sense to me. I would imagine there's actually like two wildly different groups of people here. So for the first one, who actually might not be tracking with what is difference between being a Christian and being in Christ? What would you potentially say to that person? Well, I think it's having a perspective shift, right? like a Christian is someone who's been changed by God and whose identity has been transformed, not just like some sort of badge.

Yeah. But to answer the question of, what if I'm not someone who abides in Christ at all, right? Well, I would say, well, Jesus says you're potentially not a real believer. He says, if anyone does not, verse 6 of chapter 5, abide in me. He has thrown away as a branch and dries up. There are false branches, Jesus says, in the Old Testament. This is not a believer losing their salvation.

He says, if anyone does not abide in me, from all appearances, you seem to be a branch, but you don't abide in the vine. He is thrown away as a branch and dries up, and they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. So if you don't abide, it might be because there's no real connection to Jesus. And to that person, they actually need to submit and repent and place their faith in the gospel. Yeah, and ask God to give them a new heart, right? A miracle.

Totally. And then maybe the second batch then, I would imagine, is someone who's listening to this. And it's easy to fall into the other ditch. Like, yeah, but look, I've been saved. And so, you know, let go, let God. You've referenced that a couple times this episode. But, you know, ultimately, like, all my works don't matter. My name has been written in the book of life.

And so really, is there actually anything else kind of to be done? Or is abiding just a total passivity? You know, I would say that to the other side, you know, the group of people, like, you're missing out on the personal thrill of knowing God. John 17.3, I'm going to preach this week. This is eternal life that they may know you. This is what Paul presses on for towards in Philippians 3, that I may know him.

And so often we use that language, a personal relationship with Jesus. But if you're not abiding in Christ, then you're wanting in that lack of thrill that is available to you. Like when CS Lewis said that so many people are content to play in a mud pile when the ocean is available. I would say additionally,

it's possible for a Christian to end up in glory and waste their time here on earth, waste their lives. That's why Piper wrote that book, don't waste your life. I think it's sad, and I think there's, you know, I've talked about the miserable middle before, like you avoid the big sin, but you're also not experiencing the pleasures forever more available at the right hand of God. And so you live your life in this middle area, no real power in the Christian life, no experience, no fellowship with God.

I'll tell you what you miss out on if you don't abide in the vine and then we'll be done. Jesus says in the same context, these things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full. There's only one type of person on planet Earth that has an unassailable joy

regardless of the trial or sorrow they are experiencing. And it's not just someone who claims Christ. It's someone who abides in the vine. And out of all of the things you're missing out on, if you don't abide in Jesus, at the top of the list, according to Jesus, is you're going to be wanting and lacking of his joy that is available to you. It's super helpful. It's challenging.

But I appreciate that said from a heart, from a place of encouragement and challenge, it's not said from a place of heavy-handed judgment. Rather, it's like, behold the joy, the treasures of a life this way. like brother sister come this way like there's so much more this is for that. And that's I think when Jesus is saying like if by to me, it's not as a ruthless dictator. It says the one who says in the same context, I call you friends and I'm going to prepare a place for you.

This is the God that loves you. And that's why he says to abide in his love. You're not living life with a capital L unless you live tethered to the vine. And so that's this is not for pastors only. This is not for, you know, super evangelist. This is for the everyday child of God. Jesus says again, abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself

unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me. Jesus says, apart from me, you can do nothing. And then also, if you don't abide here, you'll never be able to say his joy is in me. Well, it's challenging, it's thought-provoking, and most of all, it's encouraging. So thanks for them backing it, Johnny.

Yeah, thanks, Hank.