Many of us know what it is like to live the Christian life as if we are on a spiritual roller coaster. One week we feel close to Christ, and the next week we feel like frauds. A good day makes us breathe easier. A bad day makes us wonder if we even belong to Him. When we obey, we feel secure. When we sin, we feel exposed. And that kind of living never leaves us neutral. It pushes us toward predictable escapes.
Some of us turn inward and begin dissecting ourselves, replaying every motive, searching for something inside us that can finally quiet the fear. Others cover the fear with activity, more serving, more studying, more visible effort, because if we can look fruitful, maybe we will finally feel alive. And some of us, tired of the whiplash, do the most honest thing we think we can do, we just stop trying. We settle into distance because at least distance feels simpler than disappointment. Where does lasting Christian confidence come from? Confidence grows when you stop trying to manufacture spiritual life and start staying close to Christ.
John 15 takes place in the upper room, on the night Jesus will be arrested. Judas has already left. He was close enough to hear the teaching, see the miracles, and participate in ministry, and yet he walked away from the Lord. With that tragedy sitting in the room, Jesus gives the remaining disciples a metaphor. The Christian life is like a grapevine.
When Jesus says, “Abide in Me,” He is drawing a line between being around Him and belonging to Him. He is telling His disciples “Do not do what Judas did.” Do not walk away from Christ. A branch remains in the vine by receiving life from the vine. That life shows up as repentance, obedience, love, endurance, and prayer that has been shaped by Christ’s words. A branch cannot manufacture grapes. It either has life, or it does not. Jesus is going to tell us that real life comes from remaining in Him, and that remaining shows up as fruit that glorifies the Father. Let’s look at Jesus’ words.
John 15:4-5 NASB "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. 5 "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
Notice that Jesus does not build your confidence on what you can do for Him. He builds it on what you cannot do without Him. Spiritual life is not self-made but is received. So lasting confidence comes from Christ’s supply, not your skill.
Confidence grows as reliance on Christ increases.
At first glance, “apart from Me you can do nothing” sounds like the death of confidence. But Jesus is actually relocating it in your connection to Him. This is not confidence in your past fruitfulness or present spiritual maturity. A branch has confidence because it is attached to the vine, and the vine is responsible for the life.
That is what Jesus means by “abide.” Stay connected. Keep receiving. Keep depending. If you are in Christ, you are not trying to generate spiritual life from scratch. You are learning to rely on the One who already has it.
A believer becomes unstable when they stop relying on Christ and start relying on self again. One of the most common ways we can become imbalanced is when we become hyper fixated on examining ourselves. The Christian life does require honest self-examination. Scripture does not treat self-deception as a small danger. Paul can say,
2 Corinthians 13:5 NASB Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!
The Bible tells us to confess our sins and ask hard questions about whether we are obeying Christ. But self-examination can turn into spiritual navel-gazing when it becomes the main conversation in your head. It quits leading us to holiness and starts leading to ungodly despair. You become obsessed with yourself. Hyper-fixating on your failures can sound humble, but it is just another form of self-occupation. It is as self-centered as pride, just darker. And it drains joy, because it keeps your attention trapped inside you.
Abiding in Christ breaks that trap because the center of attention moves. The focus shifts from me to Him. I do have areas in my life I must watch. But the main focus of my faith is Christ Himself. Instead of letting my inner narrator dominate the conversation His words become the controlling voice. You and I will never be good enough, but Christ is. And at your worst, He died for you gives me His righteousness, so that you are accepted by the Father because you are joined to Him. This is what the writer of Hebrews calls…
Hebrews 12:2 NASB fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
The believer whose attention magnetically shifts to Christ whenever the opportunity arises is abiding in Him. Self-examination helps you face sin honestly. But abiding keeps you from turning your spiritual temperature into the ground of your assurance. Dependence replaces self-evaluation. And confidence grows in His ability to complete the good work He began in you. This kind of confidence does not need constant reassurance because it knows where real spiritual life is coming from.
So here is a simple mark of abiding. When your heart starts spiraling inward, what happens next? Do you keep listening to the accusations, regrets, and what-ifs, or do you turn your attention back to Christ? The believer whose attention keeps returning to Christ is learning to abide. They are learning to live like a branch. Not boasting, not despairing, but staying connected, trusting that real spiritual life comes from Him.
A disciple’s confidence grows because Christ’s life is flowing into him from the Vine. But Jesus knows something about the human heart. We can hear words like “abide” and assume we are safe simply because we are close to Christian things. We can be around the Vine, around the people of God, around the teaching of Christ, and still not have His life in us.
That is why Jesus does not only comfort His disciples. He also warns them. On this very night Judas has already left. He was close enough to hear the truth and still walked away from the Truth. So Jesus moves from the necessity of abiding in verse 4 and the helplessness of the branch in verse 5, to the sober reality of what happens when a person will not remain in Him.
In other words, Jesus is not trying to ruin your confidence. He is trying to rescue it from being fake. When Jesus shows what a false attachment looks like, He is not pushing the real believer into panic. He is pulling the real believer off false supports and back onto Himself, which is where confidence actually belongs.
Confidence grows when false assurance is stripped away.
Some of us want confidence without this step. We want reassurance that never challenges us. But Jesus loves His disciples too much to leave them with a confidence that is only skin deep. Judas is the reminder in the room that you can be close to Jesus externally and still be dead internally. So Christ does not only tell you what life looks like. He tells you what death looks like. Not to crush a tender believer, but to expose a false attachment before it hardens into final ruin.
John 15:6 NASB “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.
Jesus is describing what happens when someone is close to the things of God, maybe even outwardly connected for a time, but does not truly remain in Him. The branch is not merely struggling; it is disconnected. And the result is drying up and judgment.
This fiery imagery is part of the Bible’s consistent way of describing final accountability before a holy God. Ezekiel 15 makes the simple point that vine wood is not like the kind of wood you build with. Its purpose is to bear fruit. If it bears no fruit, it is good for making a fire. Jesus is using that same picture here to make the end clear. The branch that does not abide is not merely unproductive but condemned. Jesus also uses fire imagery elsewhere to describe the final separation. He warns that at the end, those who only looked like they belonged to His kingdom will be gathered and judged:
Matthew 13:40-42 NASB "So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. 41 "The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, 42 and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
In Matthew 25:41, eternal fire is prepared for the devil and his angels. In Mark 9:43-48 hell is described as unquenchable fire. The point is not to satisfy our curiosity but make us aware that there is such a thing as false assurance. There is such a thing as being near Christ without belonging to Christ. And the end of that path is not inconvenience but destruction.
Is Jesus saying a real Christian can lose salvation, or is He warning us in order to keep real Christians close to Him? In this passage, the warning is doing something loving. It knocks down fake confidence, and it pushes real disciples back toward Christ, because staying close to Him is the only way to live.
Listen to how the passage itself answers. In verse 5 Jesus said, “apart from Me you can do nothing.” That includes the Christian’s ability to remain in Him. If the Christian life depended on our strength to abide in Him, none of us would last. But the whole point of abiding is that spiritual life flows from Christ to the branch. So when Jesus warns, He is not merely giving information. He is stripping away confidence built on appearances, and He is pressing His true disciples back toward reliance on Him.
The warning is real and the consequence is real, but it is not designed to make a genuine Christian insecure. It is designed to destroy false confidence. And it is one of the ways Christ keeps His people from drifting into presumption. It is one of the ways He keeps them abiding. The tender conscience that is clinging to Christ should not hear verse 6 and conclude, “I am doomed.” The tender conscience should hear verse 6 and conclude, “Then I must not trust myself. I must stay close to Christ.”
Abiding branches will struggle with weakness, sin, slow growth, and seasons of pruning, but they remain connected and alive. They bear fruit in their proper season because life is flowing into them from the Vine. Non-abiding branches may look fine for a while, but they eventually dry up because the life of Christ was never in them.
Verse 6 removes false confidence. Now verse 7 builds real confidence. Once the branch stops pretending it can live on its own, it draws what it needs from the vine. And in the Christian life, that drawing looks like asking.
John 15:7 NASB “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
Confidence is not quiet but learns to ask.
Prayer is not the reward for strong Christians; it is the reflex of dependent branches. If Jesus says, “Apart from Me you can do nothing,” then asking is not optional. Asking is what dependence sounds like. And it is not just that prayer is commanded. Prayer is the most honest evidence that a person has stopped pretending. When a branch is truly connected, the life of the Vine does not just flow into it, it draws a response out of it. Dependence does not stay silent; dependence asks.
But Jesus also protects us from turning prayer into entitlement. “Ask whatever you wish” can sound like a blank check, and people often go one of two directions. Some turn prayer into a gimmick, like faith is a lever and God is the machine. Others get disappointed and quietly stop believing prayer matters at all. Our Lord addresses both errors with one condition that explains everything: “and My words abide in you.” He is not promising raw power. He is promising answered prayer that flows from a life staying close to Him and being shaped by what He has said.
This is where real confidence becomes clear. Jesus is not telling you to speak your dreams into existence. He is telling you to remain in Him so deeply that His words live in you. That means Scripture is not just something you agree with. It becomes something that trains what you want. It corrects your motives, focuses your requests, and changes your definition of “good.” Prayer is not starting a conversation and hoping God joins. It is responding to a conversation God has already started. He speaks first, through His Word, and we answer Him. That is why John says we can pray confidently:
1 John 5:14 NASB This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
The Christian’s confidence is not, “I can get whatever I can imagine.” The confidence is, “As His words reshape my wishes, I can ask according to His will, and He hears me.” That also explains why some prayers get blocked. Sometimes God is mercifully refusing to feed what would ruin you. James captures this when he write:
James 4:3 NASB You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
So what does Word-abiding prayer look like in real life? It looks like taking what God has said and turning it into asking. One of the simplest ways to do this is to pray Scripture in four movements. You can do it with one verse. You can do it in five minutes. You can do it when you feel strong and when you feel dry.
Adoration: “Father, You are wise and good. Your Son is the Vine. Life is in Him.”
Confession: “I keep acting like I can run my own life. I keep treating prayer like a last resort.”
Thanksgiving: “Thank You for saving me by grace. Thank You for not letting me go when I drift.”
Petition: “Make Your words live in me. Shape what I want. Teach me to ask for what honors You.”
This changes prayer from vague wishing into clear dependence. It also changes prayer from being centered on comfort into being centered on Christ. You start praying for what God loves to grow: love, repentance, obedience, endurance, courage, purity, humility, patience. You start praying for fruit, not just relief. Jesus taught His disciples to begin their prayers in a way that welcomes the Father’s work:
Matthew 6:9-10 NASB "Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 'Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
That does not mean you cannot ask for relief. Not only should you, but God commands it. But you ask as a branch, not as a customer. You ask as someone who trusts His wisdom more than your urgency. And when prayer feels dry, that dryness is not proof that prayer is pointless. Sometimes dryness is simply the moment you learn you are not the vine. You keep going to Him. You keep asking. You keep placing yourself under His words until your heart is steadied again. Prayer is not a trick. It is the steady act of placing your life back into God’s hands instead of trying to hold everything together yourself. And this is exactly why Paul connects prayer to peace.
Philippians 4:6-7 NASB Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
In John 15:6, Jesus strips false confidence with a warning. In John 15:7, He builds real confidence by showing you what abiding looks like. It asks, not with swagger and not with entitlement but with Christ’s words shaping what you want. It is the durable confidence of a disciple who stays connected to Christ, lets Christ’s words shape what he wants, and therefore asks with faith. Prayer is not you pretending to be strong. Prayer is you admitting you are a branch, and rejoicing that the Vine is alive.
And when you start asking with His words abiding in you, God does not only answer in circumstances. He answers in you. He produces fruit. And that fruit becomes visible proof that you really are His disciple.
Confidence is confirmed by fruit that glorifies the Father.
Fruit is not the foundation of your union with Christ. He is not saying, “Earn your way into discipleship.” He is saying, “When My life is in you, it will show up.” Fruit is the confirmation of it. You do not become a branch by producing grapes. You produce grapes because you are a branch that is truly connected to the Vine. That is why verse 8 is both comforting and clarifying. It gives you something real to look for, but it refuses to let you boast.
John 15:8 NASB "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
Some people hear, “Bear fruit,” and naturally start relating to God in terms of earning His favor again. That start treating Christianity again like every other religion they have ever imagined. The gospel says something different: you are saved by grace, then changed by grace. Good works do not purchase your place in God’s family. They reveal that you have been brought into it.
Ephesians 2:8-10 NASB For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
So confidence is not, “Look what I did.” Confidence is, “He is alive in me, because nothing else explains this new obedience, this new repentance, this new love.”
But what counts as fruit? It would be a mistake to hear “much fruit” and assume Jesus means constant visible success, nonstop productivity, or a life where everything looks impressive. Fruit is Christ’s life expressed in real holiness. Some of it is internal and slow, like roots growing underground. Some of it is external and visible, like words and deeds that bless other people. But it is all the same life of Christ showing up through the branch.
Galatians 5:22-23 NASB But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
So fruit includes Christlike character that develops over time: repentance, humility, love, purity, patience, courage, self-control. Fruit also includes Christlike impact through your words and deeds: service, generosity, witness, helping others follow Christ, repairing relationships instead of burning them down.
Here is what this protects you from. It protects you from thinking, “If my life is not impressive, I must not belong to Christ.” A Christian can have seasons of weakness, seasons of pruning, seasons where the fruit is mostly unseen, and still be truly alive. Fruit grows in season, and the Father is not in a hurry.
Colossians 1:10 NASB so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Now Jesus tells you the aim of it all. “My Father is glorified by this.” That means fruit is not mainly about your self-esteem. It is not about polishing your image. It is not about proving you are better than other people. The purpose of fruit is to make the Father look great, not to make you look impressive. Some “fruit” is just self-improvement wearing religious clothes. It still ends in self: self-respect, self-control, self-image, self-approval. That kind of life may look clean, but it does not smell like worship. It smells like personal branding.
Jesus says real fruit has a direction. It goes upward. It gives credit away. It carries an aroma that makes people say, “God is real,” not “You are remarkable.”
Matthew 5:16 NASB "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
This is why fruit can confirm confidence without feeding pride. Because the moment you see real fruit, you know where it came from. Not the branch. The Vine. The Father gets the glory, and the branch gets the joy of being used.
Finally, fruit does two things at the same time. It comforts the real disciple and it exposes the false one. That is why Jesus can warn in verse 6 and reassure in verse 8 without contradiction. The same vine imagery that terrifies the pretender strengthens the believer. If you are only near the Vine, you can look alive for a while. But over time, life shows itself. A branch with life will bear fruit. A branch without life will dry up.
Matthew 7:16-17 NASB "You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? 17 "So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.
So if you are tender, if you are fighting sin, if you are repenting, if you are learning to obey, even with stumbling steps, this is meant to steady you. Growth can be slow, but life is real. And if you are relying on appearances, if you are using religion to look safe while refusing Christ’s rule, this is meant to wake you up. Jesus is not playing games with souls. He warns because He loves.
So hear verse 8 the way it is meant to be heard. Fruit is not your resume for Christ. Fruit is Christ’s signature on you. And when you see that signature over time, your confidence grows, because it is no longer grounded in your performance. It is confirmed by the Father’s work through the life of His Son in you.
Lasting confidence comes from abiding in Christ.
Lasting confidence does not come from tracking your spiritual temperature. It comes from abiding in Christ. The Father is holy. We are sinners who cannot produce life. Verse 6 warns what happens when we refuse Christ. But God sent His Son to save sinners: Jesus obeyed where we failed, died under judgment we deserved, and rose so that all who repent and trust Him are joined to Him like a branch to the Vine. If you are clinging to Him, do not live on the roller coaster. Stay close. Let His words live in you. Ask. Receive. Bear fruit. And if you know you are only near Jesus but not in Him, today do not pretend. Come to Christ. Turn from sin. Trust Him. Abide by faith.
