So the Cross was not enough - some performance on our part is also needed ?
We will have to agree to disagree.
John 15:16
You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and
that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
This imo, are talking to us, who have been grafted into the true vine, when we became Born Of God’s seed.we will bear the fruit of Jesus, fruit that will last, we can’t bear fruit by ourself, as we must remain in the true vine to be able to do this.
We too are the disciples of Jesus on earth now.
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” That's the fruit that God is looking for in you. Branches don't live off their own fruit because it's for someone else. Branches live off the Vine.
He’s at work in his children constantly, those imo who aren’t in the true vine are the tares/ fakes, 6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
The Holy Spirit keeps us in the true vine, as we are Born Of God’s seed, he continues to do this below, just my thought.
2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit
We should be growing in Christ, if we are in the true vine, showing more of Jesus character from within us, bearing his fruit that will last, after all, we have been Born Of God’s seed....the seed of life, that was planted into our heart/ spirit, when we became Born Again by the Living Holy Spirit..
2 Peter 3 tells us to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” This is not referring to physical growth like you might see from a plant. Rather, this passage is referring to spiritual growth and growing closer to God.
John 15
King James Version
15 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4 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.
5 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.
6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.
18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.
22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.
23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also.
24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.
26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
