Week of March 30: I am the Vine, You are the Branches
John 15:1-5
What does it mean to abide in Christ? I mean really abide?
Sometimes we feel like a branch separated from the Vine, even though we know we are not. But we feel no fellowship and no real fruit. Sometimes we struggle and strain as we try to produce fruit in order to get back in fellowship with the Vine. Jesus tells us that it is impossible to produce real fruit apart from Him, just as it is impossible for a branch to produce fruit apart from the Vine.
How do you reach the point that Jesus is not just part of your life but your very life? The point at which you become convinced that without Him you would rather your lungs cease to draw in air and your heart to become silent?
Perhaps Paul answers this for us in Colossians:
Colossians 2:2-7 HCSB
(2) I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding, and have the knowledge of God’s mystery–Christ.
(3) In Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.
(4) I am saying this so that no one will deceive you with persuasive arguments.
(5) For I may be absent in body, but I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the strength of your faith in Christ.
(6) Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him,
(7) rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
Focus on verse 6 for a moment, “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him…” How did you receive Him? Read on to verse 7, “rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith…” You received Him in faith. Your salvation is completely “rooted and built up in Him”. You could do nothing to ‘help’ gain your salvation. You simply received what He offered. Now, we walk in the same way – “rooted and built up in Him” and receiving from Him.
Now re-read John 15:4-5. It’s tempting to believe that we must do something to reach this point in our life, that I must try my hardest to do the right things – the things God expects. But God expects nothing of me without Him. He said “without Me you can do nothing.” In reality, the things we think that we should do are actually part of the fruit He produces. We simply focus on abiding. We don’t trust in ourselves – we trust in Jesus in ourselves. And that’s a big difference.
In this very same chapter of John, Jesus gives this commandment in verse 12: “love one another as I have loved you.” All of those things that once seemed impossible, like loving others selflessly, become possible by abiding in the Vine.
I believe it’s no coincidence that just a few verses later Jesus refers to the Helper (the Holy Spirit) that He will send. God continues to demonstrate His amazing grace day-by-day, step-by-step, breath-by-breath, as He teaches us to abide in Him and works in us so that we can experience victory and rest and have complete joy (John 15:11) in all circumstances.
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