THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES, PART V.

John 15:6 If a man abides 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.

This verse refers back to vs. 4. ….. As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine ……

There can be no fruit except through life union with the vine, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Through this life union with the Lord Jesus Christ, his life will flow from him through us, so that we may be the bearers of much fruit.

This fruit in practical terms, is the expression of the Life that is in the Vine and becomes visible as fruit in the lifestyle of the branches.

Time and again Jesus says: “This is my commandment, that you love one another”.

Loving one another, is the expression of the Life that is in the Vine.

We will remain in that condition of abiding, not by our efforts and Christian performance, but by the faithfulness and the power of God working in us to will and to do that which pleases him.

I Peter 1:5 ….. who are kept by the power of God ….. .

Our part is to always yield to him, like, “Lord do with me whatever seems good to you”. Resting in the truth that he is our shepherd and that in him all our needs are met.

The next verse, verse 7 has for many years been a mystery to me.

Ask what you will, anything, and I will do it. That is plain enough.

But we all know that, even by our own experience it really does not work.

And we also believe that Jesus would never lie to us. But what does verse 7 say?

“If you abide in me”…… We now know that abiding is not the problem, we abide, we remain in Jesus, not by our own efforts, but by his faithfulness and his power.

….. “And my words abide in you …..”.

In other words, do his words resonate in our hearts, as do the words of a loved one?

What did Jesus say the reason was that he came to earth in the form of our human nature?

We find that reason in John 10:10 …… I am come (so) that you may have LIFE, and that you may have it in abundance.

That, and that only was the mission of Jesus, to restore LIFE, real life, life that is found only in the Father.

Life that was lost to man when Adam and Eve decided they would chart their own way independently, when darkness and death enveloped them and all of their decendants.

Everything Jesus taught was in direct relation to restoring that LIFE, that eternal LIFE, Life that is in the Father. That LIFE that we have been made partakers of, by grace, through faith.

In that relationship we need to see the verse that says: “Ask anything and I will give it to you”.

“Seek and you will find, ask and it shall be given unto you, knock and it shall be opened unto you”.

All this has to do with LIFE, the LIFE that is in Jesus.

When we ask him to do whatever it takes so that we might experience more of that LIFE, he will certainly do as we ask.

When you rest assured that you are a child of God and you take to heart those things that he told us, ask what you will and he will give you to experience that LIFE that is already in you in greater abundance, (my free translation).

And that is exactly the thing wherein the Father is mostly glorified, the outward expression of that new LIFE in the believer.

Isn’t that wonderful? We ask and he gives. Why?

Because the Father seeks to glorify himself in his children.

Remember, the expression of that new LIFE is what we call the fruit of the Spirit of Gal.5:22 and 23.

All this we find in verse 8, Herein is my Father gloryfied, that ye bear much fruit, so shall you be my disciples, (thereby proving that you are my disciples indeed).

Verse 9, As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you ……

How much does the Father love his son Jesus?

That is how much he (Jesus) loves us.

To rest in that love, that is what abundant Christian living is all about.

To wake up in the morning and know: He loves me……

To put your head on your pillow at night and know: He loves me…..

I Cor.13: 4-8 gives us a glimpse of what the Father’s love means in it’s expression to us.

Verse 9 ……. continue in my love.Bask in it, bathe in it, be immersed in it.

That implies we must not attempt to enhance his love for us by any sort of works that we might do for him, however noble these works may seem.

Invariably these works will diminish instead of enhance that very glory.

God’s love is perfect, wholly complete, altogether sufficient.

That love has provided that new LIFE, it has made us ALIVE in him, not for the purpose of what we might do for him in this world, but for the purpose of what he might do in us to bring us to maturity in him. To glorify himself in us, his children.

Does all this imply that the Christian life is supposed to be a life of passivity?

Certainly not. But it does imply a total change of attitude.

No longer will obedience to commandments of all sorts be what drives us.

What motivates us now is that new LIFE, the expression of it, the fruit of the Spirit compells us to reach out in love to our Father in adoration and also to our neighbors in love and compassion.

This Life is also a life of wholly trusting our Father that all our circumstances are in his hands and work together for our good.

Through this new resurrection LIFE our Father gives us a foretaste of heaven in this dark world.

St.Thomas, Oct./’10. Simon VanderKooy.

THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES, PART IV.

John 15:4, 5. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can you, except you abide in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abides in me and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit; for without me you can do nothing.

We started out in Part I by saying that in the natural setting the branches of grape vines are indelibly connected to the vine itself.

Likewise it is God’s doing that we have been grafted into the Vine which is Jesus Christ, Rom.11:17.Therefore, abiding in Jesus is not a condition, but a position.

(The word “abiding” comes from abode, which indicates a dwelling place.)

Our Father has accepted his children in the beloved, Jesus Christ, Eph.1:4. That is a permanent position, for God is forever faithful.

The condition is that we, being children of the light, live in a constant awareness that only by God’s grace we are what we are.

Abiding in the vine does not call for any action on our part, anything that we must do, except a moment by moment awareness that Jesus, (the vine) is the source of our life and being. Jesus is very clear about this when he says: Without me (the life that flows from the vine into the branches), you can do nothing!

We do not even have the wherewithal to abide, to dwell in or to remain in the vine.

But Jesus is all sufficient, he is the provision for that situation also.

I Peter 1:4 and 5 tells us that we are partakers of an incorruptable inheritance, one that does not diminish with time.

And that we are kept, preserved in order to partake of that inheritance by the power of God through faith, that power of God being the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Or Rom.5:10 ……For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being (having been) reconciled, shall we be saved (kept, preserved) by his life.

Abiding (being constantly aware of our position, provision and protection in Christ Jesus) will produce much fruit.

The fruit being the peaceable fruit of righteousness also called the fruit of the Spirit.

Fruit like love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance and such like.

And the fruit of righteousness will make us fit for the Father’s use, to be his instruments of mercy in a fallen world.

Philippians 4:13 …….I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength, (no, he is my strength, my life).

When anything is done through Christ, then he is the one who is doing it, not I.

Conversely, when I can do all things only through him, then that also means that without him I am incapable of doing anything.

An old and still very relevant song goes like this:

I’ve found a new way of living, I’ve found a new life divine,

I have the fruit of the Spirit, I’m abiding, abiding in the Vine.

St.Thomas, Dec./’08. Simon VanderKooy.