Abiding in Christ: Studies in John 15

by James E. Rosscup

Abiding in Christ

Genres: Theology, Christian

256 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2003

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author of this book was one of my professors in seminary. He is a man who truly abides in the vine! When I was teaching through John and getting close to John 15, I figured it would be one of the only times where I might read an entire book on the first six verses of John 15. As you can imagine, this book attempts to look at John 15 from every angle (up to 1973) and state the author’s position while interacting with and rejecting other interpretations of the passage. One of the big issues in this passage deals with the Lordship debate – Must a Christian bear fruit to demonstrate s/he is a Christian? Along with this question, the author makes the distinction between a “professor” or a “possessor” of Jesus. Much of the book is dealing with older issues that aren’t on the theological radar screen today. Personally, I would have preferred the author to spend more time in the theology, argument and literary structure of John to solve the interpretive dilemmas instead of comparing & contrasting other passages with similar themes. As far as personal application, chapters 11-12 are the highlights of the book. He emphasized the need of the believer to truly be relating to Christ through the gift of the Holy Spirit.

[Josiah Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

It reads more as a commentary than as a prose work. I enjoyed it and learned a lot from it, but he belabors some points to the level of research quality. This book is too developed for use strictly as a commentary or reference work, but Rosscup spends so much time defending his views after stating them that it seems a little dry at times from a casual reader's point of view.

[Janet (Muy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are great points of life, forgiveness and love that Dr. Rosscup brought up in the book. Page 52 brought me to tears.