My Father is glorified in this; that you bear much fruit and become my disciples...John 15:8-11
that you bear much fruit and become my disciples..."*
There are two types of disciples of Jesus, the difference between the two is one bears fruit. There are the chosen in Christ, "you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed to go and bear fruit and that your fruit remains so that my Father gives you whatever you ask in my name."* We see two important things in this verse, God chose and appointed (to put, place, establish, make) which aligns with us being His workmanship prepared beforehand by grace, not based upon works we do. And that the chosen will bear fruit that remains. Actually, there is a third one, that the Father gives whatever is asked in His name to his children. Bearing fruit that remains speaks of abiding in the Vine. If you do not abide, you become like stubble, chaff which withers and is thrown into the fire. Malachi prophesied of Jesus's coming as a great and terrible day, it is both great and terrible because the "sun of righteousness" brings healing for the chosen but a fire to the chaff.* Do you think that bearing fruit has something to do with bearing the fruit of righteousness?
neither present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin rules not, not ruling you since you exist not under Law but under grace.*Who are those under grace? We are chosen by grace, and we stand in grace which we have access to by faith. The chosen are under grace and will rule over sin, which is by His power not through works. Where is sin? Sin is in the "member," it is in the body where evil is near, waging war against our soul to bring us into captivity to sin.* Jesus has overcome the world and died to free us from sin, and the Spirit of life in Christ frees us from the law of sin and death. John writes the one born of God will not continue in sin. This leads us to the conclusion that being "instruments of righteousness," implies ruling over sin in the body. Which also gives meaning to the concept that grace reigns through righteousness. We bear fruit that glorifies God in the body. We can say this in another way, we glorify God in our bodies, the body in which sin dwells when the transforming power of Christ is victorious in us over sin.
for you were redeemed valuable, now, glorify God in that your body.*
My union with Christ is in Spirit, not body, as my salvation is not yet complete, I await the redemption of my body. But since my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit gives me the power to put to death sin in the body, the fruit of my being a child is bearing the fruit of the Spirit and ruling over sin in my body. Christ became like his brethren, of the same flesh, in order to redeem us. Paul tells us redemption is a spiritual blessing we have received in Christ because God has highly favored us in the Beloved. But God did not send his Son just so we go to heaven, "He chose us in Him before the world was created to be holy, in his presence, in love, he predestined us for adoption as His own through Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of his will."* God chose us to be like Him, his divine nature, holy. The concept of redemption is not like we were bought to be slaves and servants but redeemed to be sons. And the Spirit is a pledge of our inheritance until our complete redemption when God takes possession of His own people, people like Him.
A fruit of being a disciple of Christ is freedom over sin in the body. Since God is holy, a requirement to be blameless before Him, in His presence and loved, is to be holy, like Him. "accordingly as the one calling you is holy also become holy in all your conduct, for it is written be holy because I am holy, and if you call on the Father who judges impartially according to the work of each, return in reverence, in the time of your exile."* My salvation is completed in spirit, soul, and body. I await the redemption of my body thus my reasonable service Paul writes is to present my body a living sacrifice unto holiness. It doesn't matter other sacrifices I give, if I neglect this sacrifice unto holiness I do not have pure religion. Glorifying God in my body is really about being conformed to the image of Christ, it is what God purposed in Christ, and is working out all for good according to that purpose.
to know the love of Christ, surpassing knowledge, so that filled unto all the fullness of God.*
The Father is glorified in that I bear fruit. The fruit we see is to abide in Jesus, in His love, keeping his commands, and when I do, I abide in the Father's love, filled with joy.* So to glorify God I must glorify God in my body by bearing the fruit of his divine nature, being filled to the fullness of God. This new nature will do the works of Christ, works that will remain for all time. God is glorified in me when I am free from the rule of sin. When I experience freedom, joy, and life, the life of Christ in me, God is glorified. When God's work is being accomplished in me, I give glory to God, when I grow up in knowing Jesus, into the fullness of him. When I trust, when I experience His power through the Spirit, have unshakable faith, and know of the love of Christ, I am being filled to the fullness of Christ And God is glorified in me, and I give glory to God.