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 ye can do nothing.
We introduced this study by looking at the vine as a whole plant including the stem, branches and fruit. Jesus said he was the True Vine and it is out of this True Vine the branches grow to produce fruit.
One of the first things we notice is the word John uses for branches. It is different than the one Paul uses in Romans 11 for the descendants of Israel, or Matthew uses for the triumphal entry, or Matthew, Mark and Luke uses for the fig tree. This word denotes a tender new growth such as a sprout on a vine. This helps visualize the nature of these ”branches” relative to the vine. These are not mature branches grafted into the vine. This is new growth nurtured by the Vine and its root. These tender new growths depend upon the vine root to supply nutrients to form its character and the quality of its fruit. This Greek word for “branch” clearly gives us the defining nature of our life in Christ. It distinguishes new life flowing from Christ rather than branches grafted in which is Paul’s point regarding the Gentiles being grafted into Jewish stock, a different point entirely. John’s context is being ”born again” and having life in his name. The Romans passage does however make the point that the root supports the branches whether they are Jew or Gentile branches. This suggests a larger context in which the branches do grow.
John’s description of Jesus’ deity is germane. It directly relates to the nurturing coming through His relationship with His Father. This tender new growth becomes a branch rooted in the Godhead being nurtured from the highest order. This is important because it describes the setting of our intimate relationship with Jesus, the Son of Man, with the Father. We need to focus on this truth because it will dispel human notions about our relationship to the Father. On the surface, it may not seem important but notice John includes in each chapter a reference or instruction concerning God the Father. In his epistle John tells us our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son. This kind of content shapes our interpretation of any single verse or passage we consider.
The oneness of Jesus with the father is established in verse one, and the Word was God. We move down to verse 18 and Jesus the Son of Man is identified with the Father; the only begotten of God, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him. The deity of Jesus as God is established in the very first verse but Jesus shows his intimacy with the Father throughout His ministry as the Son of Man. He is separate from the Father by his body of flesh but spiritually He is still united with the Father. During separation in the flesh, He demonstrates his dependency upon the Father and yields to the Father’s position and authority. It is in yielding our flesh to the Father’s authority that we become one with Him through our resurrected Lord.
In chapter 2 we have Jesus referring to the temple as his Father’s house. In chapter 3 we have John the Baptist’s testimony: for He whom God has sent speaks the words (ρημα) of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand. In chapter 4 Jesus instructs the woman of Samaria concerning the Father who seeks people to worship Him in Spirit and truth. Then, later in the same chapter, Jesus instructs his disciples that: my food is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to accomplish His work.
After healing the lame man at Bethesda in Chapter 5, Jesus says to him, My Father is working until now, and I myself am working. He then goes on to explain to the Jews, Truly truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for what ever the Father does, these things also the Son does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and greater works than these shall He show Him, that you may marvel.
The ministry of Jesus on earth was among the Jewish people. The culture of these people was dominated by the reality of God as a living person. Jesus demonstrated to the religious Jews that He was ”in God” and shared the deity of God. His signs and wonders affirmed this relationship. It is also relevant because Jesus, a man on earth, teaches us who are in him, that He relied upon God the Father with the full measure of the Spirit given to Him. He sustained himself in the flesh through this relationship. Jesus intimately shared His life on earth with His Father God in heaven just as we are to share our life in the flesh with Jesus.
We were formed and fashioned in the image of God. This means our capacities are similar so we are able to share uniquely in his life. We have the ability to reason, to have passion of the heart, to exercise judgment and will. This makes us suitable candidates for His agape love. But we are much less capable of sustaining our separate life in the flesh even though we have been given his Spirit than was Jesus Himself who came out of God and was God Himself, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men. The relationship Jesus had with his Father clearly is our model and example.
Each chapter in John continues to stress this essential nature of our life in him. In chapter 6 the wonderful story of feeding the 5000 is told. After this event, Jesus spoke to the people, truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled. Do not work for the food which parishes, but for the food, which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, for on Him the Father, even God, has set His seal. Consider what food the Son of Man, Jesus, is giving us! Jesus goes on to explain, for the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven… for I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent me.
My teaching, Jesus says in chapter 7, is not mine, but His who sent me. If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from Myself. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but he who is seeking the glory of the one who sent him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him. I know him; because I am from Him, and He sent me. There was no unrighteousness in Jesus Christ. He did not seek His own glory but rather that of the father. He wore the clothing of skin and the weakness of self was a constant menace. His abiding in the father was His constant focus and reality.
If I glorify myself, he says in chapter 8, My glory is nothing; It is my Father who glorifies me, or of whom you say,” He is our God”; and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I should be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep his word. There is an oneness between Jesus and His Father constantly being demonstrated not only in His miracles but by the demeanor of his words and the spiritual culture He carried as He presented Himself, presented His truth and presented His Father. The power of His presence filled the space around Him. Rather than being politically correct, He is the essence of truth and that made Him seem radical.
In chapter 9 the disciples noticing a man blind from birth asked Jesus, Rabbi, Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind? Jesus answered, it was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him. Later in the same chapter, after the blind man is healed, we have the blind man teaching the teachers: Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of one born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing. Later he confesses to the Lord, Lord I believe, and he worshiped him.
We recognize John 10 as the “Good Shepherd” chapter. It is not our purpose to focus upon this application but I want to bring our attention to verse 2, which we will come back to at a later time. Here, Jesus identifies us who are in Christ, as shepherds of sheep. You and I are shepherds! It is not a responsibility reserved solely for professional pulpit people, it belongs to you and me. We are commanded to agape love each other as members of His body. It is fruit we will yield by abiding ”in him”.
Having made that observation, let us look forward toward the end of this section where we again find the emphasis on the Father’s work performed through Christ. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one has taken it away from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative, I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from my Father. From this foundation He again asserts His deity. I give eternal life to them (My Sheep) and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one. There we have it! How can it be any clearer than that!
Jesus presented spiritual qualities of His deity within the Trinity, the unity and oneness existing in Him with the Father. Now HE defines the believer’s reality and oneness in Christ. He established His authority by altering natural laws and reveals His dependency on the Father still in heaven. This is our pattern also because we are in Him. Paul argues these same truths in his letters to churches. This is the meaning of ”tender new growth” on the vine. It is this same divine life given us in Christ. It is contained in the sprout coming out of vine from the root of God the Father. The deity of Christ is in us if we are in Christ.
Jesus demonstrates his authority by having power over natural law and life itself. The next chapter we have the death and resurrection of Lazarus. The sickness of Lazarus is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God maybe glorified by it, He is telling this to his disciples before going to Bethany, the village of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. After his arrival, He tells Martha, I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?
He is both the resurrection and life. He does not say He is just the resurrection, more than that, He is also life. He goes on to make this distinction by saying everyone who lives and believes in me she’ll never die. We have not only the power to live but also the need to continue in our belief by abiding in Him.
An example of this is Joshua in the Old Testament. God had given Israel the land but He required the people to process it. Prepare provisions for yourselves, for within three days you are to cross this Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you, to possess it. The story of Joshua is the story of conquest. It is a story of appropriating what God has already provided. It is a story of possessing salvation already secured. In New Testament terms, if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Jesus made us alive by new birth. He also provided resurrection power to live life daily in him. This is the new growth, the life that comes from the resurrected Jesus flowing into our tender new growth.
This new growth is possible only because a death has occurred. Jesus explains the link between physical death and spiritual life. After the resurrection of Lazarus, Mary anoints Jesus feet with perfume. Judas chides Mary for this extravagance and Jesus comes to her defense, Let her alone in order that she may keep it for the day of my burial. Later in chapter 12, He explains, truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies it bears much fruit. He who loves his life looses it; and He who hates life in this world should keep it to life eternal. But Paul explains in Corinthians, but now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. This is the essence of having life in his name. This enables a tender new growth to grow through death, first His and then ours.
He concludes chapter 12 with a word to those who do not believe him. He who believes in me does not believe in me, but him who sent me. And he who beholds me beholds the one who sent me. I have come as a light into the world, that everyone who believes in me may not remain in darkness. And if anyone hears my sayings, and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for if I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects me, and does not receive my sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him in the last day. For I did not speak on my own initiative, but the Father himself who sent me has given me commandment, what to say, and what to speak.
We have seen how the deity of Jesus is a major theme leading up to this point. It continues to be a thread throughout the whole book of John. The emphasis has been on His deity, the one in whom we are to believe as our savior. Now we begin to see Jesus caring individually for His disciples, explaining to them what it means to have life in his name.
In chapter 13 Jesus washes His disciples’ feet. The emphasis changes from deity to intimacy innate within our relationship in Jesus and essential to having life in his name. Truly, Truly, I say to you, he who receives whom ever I send receives me; and he who receives me receives him who sent me. The relationship between the Father and the Son is extended to include you and me. The Father sends the Son and now the Son is sending us. He can do this since He has equipped us with himself. Jesus explains to his disciples, before and after his death, they not only have life eternal but also life in their bellies flowing from God through Jesus himself into and through us.
A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you love one another.
This love is agape love. This is not a casual regard for another. This is passion and commitment. Agape love drove deity out of heaven to earth, to die a death so that God could lift up His created people into his level for fellowship with Himself. This is love at the highest order. This is the love we have to have for each other in Christ. This essence of agape love is contained in our tender new growth. This sprout out of Jesus is what we are. The manifestation of our life in Christ is our fruit, which we talk about in our next discussion.
I hope you have read the whole letter of John. It is the only way to get the perspective necessary to appreciate these individual chapters. Pause a moment, read chapters 14 through 17. This is a vital core of John’s message to us who are in Christ.
The Lord prepares His disciples for His departure. “Don’t be troubled,” He begins in chapter 14, “you have believed in God now also believe in me.” He explains the purpose for leaving; ”I go to prepare a place for you.” In response to Thomas’s inquiry, Jesus says: “I am the way, the truth, the life; no one comes to the Father, but through me.” He asserts his relationship in the Father providing the means for our guidance through him.
Chapter 14 affirms His teaching and who He is. But in addition, It is an extension of His deity to us because we are in Him. He responds to Philip, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father, how do you say, ‘show us the Father?’” I think I can hear a little bit of disappointment in the voice of Jesus. I think He is looking directly into Philip’s eyes and conveying to him the meaning of their relationship over the past three years. There was the changing of water to wine in Cana, the feeding of the 5000, the healing of a man who was blind from birth, Jesus walking on the water and the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Then, there were hundreds of miracles Jesus did which are not recorded. Believe me that I am in to us the Father, and the Father in me; otherwise believe on account of the works themselves.
It is easier for us to believe the physical things we see, touch and feel because they affirm to us a tangible reality. Our mind relies upon tangible things to determine if something is true or not. We are equipped to evaluate and discern people and things we can trust. This was the purpose of miracles. They give physical tangible evidence we can trust to believe Jesus concerning things that are not seen. Things of the mind are things that are corporeal. They are things we can measure, things we can reduce to reason and logic. We often submit ourselves to tangible evidences before risking our heart. Things of the heart are influenced by our mind but are predominantly things unseen, things felt and driven by our emotions. The Lord prepares our mind with tangible things so we can also submit our heart to act spiritually with our will. He brings His unseen absolute reality into our vulnerable visible reality so that we can trust in Him.
In chapter 14 Jesus turns to unseen things. The physical presence of Jesus is replaced with the physical presence of an unseen person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. I will ask the father, and he will give you another helper, that he may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not behold him or know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you. It is very important to note the distinction Jesus makes; He is with you but will be in you!
Jesus explains in verse 20: In that day you shall know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you. This is clearly not symbolism or philosophic. The reality of this truth is emphasized in John 17. We are permitted to eavesdrop on Jesus’ prayer to his Father in heaven. It is an expression of our Lord’s intent while we still are on earth. I do not ask in behalf of these alone (those who believe) but for those also who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in us; that the world may believe that thou didst send me.
This is one of the most fundamental and least taught truths in Christian doctrine. I am probably not qualified to make such a broad statement concerning the Christian faith. Yet, I find this truth to be new among “mature” Christians. Many of our teachers claim our oneness in Christ is merely a statement of legal standing. Anything more than that is conspicuously absent from pulpits and Christian radio. Yet, at the same time, it is clearly a major tenet of Jesus and New Testament teaching. It is plainly the subject of John and is meant to be conveyed in the analogy of the vine in John 15. The net result of the new birth, being born again, is new life. Peter put it this way, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God. Again from Peter, seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by his own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might partake of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
If we are born again, if you and I are in Christ, we are partakers of the divine nature. This is who we are in Christ. We can say with Paul, I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives within me, and the life, which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and delivered himself up for me. Paul tells us we have been sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise.
The translation for the word ”Branches” in the John 15 vine analogy as tender new growth fits the context of Scripture. There are many other scriptures, in addition to those used here, to support this truth. The word ”Branches” suggests a meaning concerning our new life not conveyed by the translator’s use of “branch” in this passage. We need to have in mind the intended meaning of the word ”branch” as we move on to consider fruit. The context of the “branches” is key to understanding the source and nature of the fruit that we, “the branches”, are to produce.
Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation the old things passed away, behold all things have become new.
We need to take this verse seriously. Jesus left his place in the heavenlies and experienced humanity, died and conquered death just to make this verse true in us. If by your experience you question the reality of it, where do you think the error is? Is it in your experience or in God’s word? Belief can probe the soul much deeper than many born-again people realize. Trust in the word first and act upon its declarations of truth and you may find your experience will change.
John’s testimony in his first epistle is this: What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have held and our hands have handled concerning the word of life - and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us - what we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you…
God willed to make known (to you and me) what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.