15 Christ the Living Vine
CHAPTER
15
Christ the Living Vine
I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)
The vine is the most important production of the vegetable creation; therefore it has been used by the devil for greater harm than anything that God ever made, for Satan ever loves to steal God’s best gifts. God has always used the vine as the symbol of the most sacred things, its juice being the type of Christ’s blood and its stems and branches the most perfect figure of the mystery of godliness, Christ’s union with His people. The Scriptures give us no profounder view of Christian life than these verses in John 15 contain. Let us look first at the spiritual teaching and then at some illustrations of this in the figure itself.
The first truth conveyed in the Master’s teaching is that of union with Jesus. There are two sides to this. The first is “in me,” the second, “I in him.” The first expresses our justification; the second our deeper union with Christ in sanctification. To be in Christ is to accept Him as our Savior and to be justified through His blood and righteousness, accepted by the Father for His sake and received into all His rights and privileges as the children of God and the redeemed family of Christ. There are two races: the Adam race and the Christ race. We are all born in Adam, and in Adam all die, but all who are in Christ will be made alive. And so we came into Christ by receiving Him as our Head and our Savior and being born again into His life through His Holy Spirit. Every believer is in Christ, and there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, for we are made accepted in the Beloved.
To be in Christ has reference rather to our standing than actual experience. It denotes the relationship between us and Christ rather than the actual life and realization of His presence and communion. Of course, it will bring an actual experience; but that is more fully described by the other phrase, “I in him.” This is the other side of our union with Jesus. It is that which brings Him personally into actual touch with us, for this is the great mystery of redemption, that Christ actually comes to dwell in the heart that is in Him, making it His personal residence and chosen home and filling it with His love and joy and purity.
In the previous chapter He had already explained this union and declared that it would be the first result of the Holy Spirit’s coming into the heart, that He should reveal it, consummate it and make it intensely real to our consciousness. “On that day,” He says (the day of the Holy Spirit’s coming to abide with us), “you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you” (John 14:20). And still later He added, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him” (21). And then He adds still further, “My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (23). This is the glorious reality to which He refers in this figure, “I in him.”
Again and again it is unfolded in the later teachings of the New Testament. The apostle declares that it was his great mission to unfold it: “the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations … which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:26–27). It is the last appeal of the ascended Lord to the churches in Asia, that they will open the door and let Him come in and dine with them and they with Him. It is the last thought in His own intercessory prayer as He commits His dear disciples to His Father’s keeping, and prays that “the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them” (John 17:26). It is the secret of peace; for He says, “My peace I give you” (14:27b). It is the secret of faith; for the apostle says, “Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20b). It is the secret of holiness; for “Christ … has become for us … holiness” (1 Corinthians 1:30b). It is the secret of power; for “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13). It is the secret of all spiritual blessings, for they are all in Christ Jesus. Such then, are the two sides of our union with Christ, He in us, and we in Him. Even as the branch is in the vine, the members are in the body, the Son is in the Father.
Communion
The next truth conveyed here is communion. “Abide in me.” We must act according to the fact of our union and keep up the fellowship and mutual relationships involved in this union. When the wife is married it is expected that she will act accordingly and maintain the attitude of a wife by fellowship and dependence. When a partnership is formed between two human beings, they are expected to cooperate according to the agreement. When the soul and Christ become united, there are certain actual relationships and mutual fellowships which are to be constantly maintained. This is spoken of as abiding, and upon the steadiness and simplicity of this depend the happiness and power of our Christian life.
One of the attitudes implied in abiding is dependence. It is the habit of continually looking to Christ for everything; for He says, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5b). We are to continually distrust ourselves, feel our utter inability to think a right thought and to look to Him in utter helplessness; and yet in trustful reliance for every breath, thought and feeling, taking our life each moment from Him, both for soul and body, bringing every temptation to him, every need, every desire, and living really by Him and on Him, as a babe upon its mother.
Another idea expressed by abiding is fellowship in prayer. There is a near atmosphere of prayer and communion which may be ceaselessly maintained between the soul and the Savior. Its spirit is very subtle, its home is like the Holy of Holies, its atmosphere is pure and fragrant as the inner chamber of the sanctuary. It is sullied by a breath of sin; it is broken by a thought of distrust and disobedience. It is a very close place in the “shelter of the Most High … in the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1). There it is that we learn to pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks, and like Enoch, walk with God.
Another thought suggested by abiding is the momentary life. It is not a life of drift and impulse, not a life in which we act on general principles, but a moment by moment dependence upon Christ. It is simply finding that the life that can be maintained for one moment can be equally maintained for innumerable moments. It is just living out the simple word of Paul in Colossians, “As you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him” (2:6).
There are certain principles affecting this life of abiding. It is a principle of human nature that a succession of momentary acts repeated for a certain time produces a habit of thought and feeling, which at first is a somewhat labored purpose and requires much vigilance to maintain, but gradually grows into a delightful habit of dependence. And the momentary acts of abiding are so simple that they are like the breathing of the lungs.
Our abiding depends upon our obedience. “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love” (John 15:10a). We will find ourselves, sometimes, in positions where we cannot touch Christ for help and blessing, and the reason is that there is some obstacle between us and our Lord, some disobedience or sin which must be removed. It is a matter not only of trust, but also of rightness, and we will find that our peace and communion depend upon walking closely with Him and hearkening unto His holy will. It is if His words abide in us that we have the promise, “ask whatever you wish” (7b). He will show us faithfully the disobedience or the cloud and will enable us to put it aside, and then will restore to us the joy of His communion and the fullness of His very Spirit. So let us abide in Him.
The effects of abiding
1. Cleansing. “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you” (3). This word was spoken in the 13th chapter. It came through the washing of the disciples’ feet. And so He still waits to wash our feet from the stains of the way, and except He wash we have no part with Him. We must be cleansed and keep clean in order to maintain our communion.
2. Fruitfulness. “If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit” (John 15:5b). Fruit is different from effort. The farmer toils in his garden as he prunes and waters the tree and cultivates the ground, but the tree has no toil or effort but the spontaneous freedom sends forth its leaves, its blossoms and its fruits.
And so in the Christian life there is no effort in bearing fruit if we have the life of Christ within us. It springs spontaneously from the full heart, the mother of liberty and love. And the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering and all the sweet graces of Christian life, besides the reproducing of ourselves in the lives and souls we bring to Christ.
3. Answered prayer. “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you” (7). The reason for this is our prayer will be His prayer, our desire will be His desire, our thought will be His thought, our faith will be His faith, and we will know as we ask that He accepts and gives because He prompts the prayer as He walks with us.
4. Love. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love” (9). It is a blessed thing to live in love. Some people love in an atmosphere of constant duty. Our privilege is to live in an atmosphere of love, and to be so pervaded with the dear love of Jesus that we will know that He is always pleased with us, though we often make mistakes, yet He accepts our true heart and loves us with all His heart.
5. Joy. “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (11). If He is in us, His joy will be in us, and our hearts will spring and sing with a gladness not our own, but wholly prompted by His Spirit within us.
6. Obedience. “You are my friends if you do what I command” (14). This is not obedience usually, but it is obedience unconditionally and under all circumstances to “what I command” (14).
7. Friendship. “You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (14–15). It is delightful to walk with Jesus in holy confidence and know that we have His freest communion and that He treats us as His beloved ones.
8. Permanence in our work. “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last” (16a). That which springs from Him will last and will meet us again, not only here, but in the life to come.
These are the blessings of abiding. How precious, how complete, how eternal! Oh, that we may not miss one of them, but live so closely to our Lord that we will have all the good pleasure of His goodness and the fullness of His blessings!
Some illustrations of these truths
1. The vine and the branch are one. The vine is not separate from the branch, but the vine includes the branch. And so Christ is not the vine separated from us, but the full Christ consists of Christ the Head and us the body. Christ has become forever so identified with us that He needs us to complete Himself. His joy is not complete without us. His glory is fulfilled in our glory and blessing.
2. The branches need much pruning. Much of the gardener’s work is to prune down the growth that is excessive and that would simply produce show and not fruit. And so our gentle and gracious Father cuts back much of our life that would simply grow into selfish luxuriance and only leaves that which can bear real fruit unto Him. Let us trust Him. He is not destroying the tree, but only correcting it and its form and enriching its fruitfulness and value.
3. The branches that bear fruit in the vine are the fresh ones. The little shoots that will come forth this spring, they alone bear the fruit. The old dried branches bear no fruit. They support the ones that do. And so there must be constant freshness and growth to our spiritual life if there is to be fruit. Only that which God is really doing in you, and doing today, will bear fruit to others. You cannot take the experience of a year ago and serve the Lord with that. You must know Christ today in fresh and ceaseless communion, or you cannot accomplish any effective work for Him.
4. The vine is of no use for anything else but for fruit. It cannot be made into lumber or furniture; it has but one purpose. And so the Christian, especially the consecrated Christian, is worthless and useless unless he abides in Christ and bears fruit for God. Oh, that we may continually abide and bear much fruit, for “this is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit” (8a), and thus the Son will be satisfied for the travail of His soul and the sacrifice of His life.