“Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”
This verse introduces the closing scenes of Jesus with His disciples on earth. The first closing scene begins with the “last supper” where Jesus is lounging with the remaining eleven disciples around the table. Another closing scene is in the garden where mortal Peter cuts an ear off of a soldier. Jesus restores the man’s ear and continues to submit to our redemption and the cross. “Jesus was delivered up for our transgression and raised up for our sanctification.”
Between this opening and closing scene, Jesus explains to His disciples the secret of His life on earth as a man. He came to earth, not as God, He was God, but on earth He was the Son of Man. He was working the works of the Father in submission to His Father. This was difficult for the disciples to grasp and a challenge for us as well. In the disciples case, they were mentally adapting to the physical absence of Jesus. They were apprehensive, fearful of facing this world alone.
We, on the other hand, have 2000 years of experience and the printed Word explaining truth to us. In addition, we have the indwelling Holy Spirit revealing the things of Jesus. Still, we have a hard time understanding Jesus on earth just as a man. He laid aside, in heaven, His deity for this redemptive earthly task. It is tersely expressed in this short but not simple phrase, I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Lets absorb this reality into our understanding since it is our personal model. We are to participate in this same relationship , I in you and you in me, John 14:20. This is Jesus speaking to you and me!
This literal truth is the gospel message. It is not symbolic language about how we should try to live. “Trying” is a our notion of being spiritual. Jesus the man died so that we can put self to death in Him. He was raised from death, in resurrection power, so that we too can walk in newness of resurrection life. We don’t have to try, rather, we are to be who God has made us to be, righteous in Him! His resurrection life is created in us when we are created in Him.
We began this discussion in the “righteousness” of God’s life. Righteousness is a structure or principle of His life in us. Now we are switching to the flip side, the living, organic nature of His life in us.
This faith discussion began in Romans. Paul describes our faith as a principle of righteousness, not our righteousness, but righteousness in absolute purity flowing from God Himself. This is the same principle Paul describes in Ephesians 3 when we are “grounded” in love. “Grounded” is the foundation upon which we build our spiritual structure. It is the “Rock” on which everything else is built. The deeper the foundation, the higher we build our building. Faith is our response to God’s grace. It is what we do with the foundation we are given.
God is an absolute being. He has qualities of character and being that become ours, created in His likeness. Righteousness is one of those attributes we receive by faith. The act of God giving us all He does, when we don’t deserve it, is what we call grace. Grace is God reaching out to us in love, bringing us into Himself, so that we can be like Him. Our last discussion was about righteousness becoming ours when we are created new in Christ Jesus.
Now we turn to the organic side of faith. In this same passage of Ephesians, Paul refers to being “rooted” in love. This is in addition to being “grounded.” This organic side of our faith is speaking to our relationship. Jesus wanted His disciples to understand the security of their relationship in him before He was crucified.
John provides this narrative beginning in chapter 15. At the end of chapter 14, notice, Jesus and His disciples left the upper room. Our vine discussion is a stop on their way from the upper room to the garden and to the cross.
Surrounding the outside walls of Jerusalem were vineyards. Most expositors agree Jesus stopped at one of these vineyards on the way to the garden. There is another possible scenario. The Jerusalem gates were plated gold and silver. One gate had welded on its brass frame a great vine with the fruit of grapes hanging on it. Everybody in that day understood this was the national symbol of Israel. Jesus may have stopped at this gate using the great vine welded onto its huge frame saying, “I am the TRUE vine.” This is not “gate beautiful” referred to in Acts.
When Jesus finished His prayer in chapter 17 He is quoted as saying, Let us leave and go across the Kidron Valley to the garden. The east side of Jerusalem is where their garbage and refuge area was located. Its not likely this is also where vineyards were planted. Whether Jesus stopped at an actual vine or a symbol on a gate, He was using the symbol of Israel to show He is the true vine, not only for Israel, but of eternal Life.
Jesus dipped a morsel giving it to Judas and the scripture says, Satan entered into him. When Judas left them at the table, Jesus begins to share intimately with these disciples His relationship with the Father. He already had laid down the principle of His word and work being from the Father, John 12:49-50. He continues to explain many things including the Helper who will come “into” them, the Spirit of truth. He assures them He will come back again to take them home. They leave the upper room, making their way toward the garden but Jesus pauses in route emphasizing the point already made, “I in you and you in me!” Jesus now moves the attention of the disciple’s to the fruit on the vine.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me an I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” –John 15:1-5.
“So, I thought we were talking about faith,” I hear someone ask. Faith is not only about righteousness and structure. It is about righteous fruit produced in a righteous relationship. Faith is about living, whatsoever is not of faith is sin. We have to marry together the state of being with the act of living. Here Jesus is talking about the organic side of living in our relationship in Jesus Christ, so that we will produce, not just fruit, but much fruit. Faith is our totality. Faith speaks to who we are as a living person. It is not limited to reason, nor is it limited to religion. When we departmentalize faith, we separate faith into pieces and it looses its identity. Faith separated into things becomes idols. It is no longer faith if we are no longer breathing God’s eternal air.
The faith we are talking about is scriptural faith. G. Campbell Morgan put it something like this, Faith is the basis on which God works out His will in man and man can work out his salvation in God. Faith has the dynamic of organic life and the absolute quality of God’s truth and righteousness.
There are several elements of Jesus’ vine discussion of relationship that jump out at us. We need to prioritize the first one into our thinking; a healthy, good relationship with the “Vinedresser” will produce much fruit.
Our purpose, the branches, is to produce fruit. Our fruit production determines the actions the Vinedresser takes concerning our relationship. According to this passage, we can be cut off, pruned or cleaned. This is the sanctifying process of our life in the flesh. We need to keep this in mind while maintaining a healthy relationship, producing sweet fruit, Jesus’ love, faithfulness, purity and righteousness.
The vine illustrates what Jesus has already said to the disciples, “I in you and you in me!” Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. A branch cannot bear fruit unless it abides in the vine. What does it mean for us to abide in Jesus, the vine? The obvious seems too clear to mention. The branch is made to provide the vine’s fruit. There is a natural flow of life from the nutrients in the earth which are absorbed in the roots and filtered into the branches by the structure of the vine. The “structure” includes the whole plant, roots and all. We are His Body.
The real life meaning is getting rid of contaminates compromising our fruit and keeping our union to the vine clean so that pollutants, bugs and dirt, don’t allow infection and diseases. We have to be actively intentional about our relationship in the vine. We need to understand the things effecting fruit production.
What things hinder, in our life, the fullness of Christ’s love? These are the same things impairing our fruit’s quality and quantity.
Jesus defines a two part relationship. One is active and one is passive. Not only do we have to be intentional about being joined to the vine, “you in me,” but we must actively receive Christ’s work of love, righteousness, faithfulness and purity within us. Our Lord is dependent upon our will to accept and consciously receive His work in us. Remember, “I in you and you in me!” For us to be effective in Christ (“you in me”) we need to have “I in you.” Both I in you and you in me are dependent on our will to make each operational. We need desire and discernment, desire to actively be intentional about abiding in Christ, discernment to passively allow the continuing work of the Holy Spirit to be effective in us. He that hath begun a work in us will continue to perform it until the day of Jesus Christ, Phil. 1:6. We need to recognize and invite His work into the deepest part of our spirit.
God has desire and wisdom. He has declared His love and reconciled Himself back to us through Jesus. Now it is up to us to reconcile ourselves back to God. When we make this decision, we are born again and God creates within us a new nature. This becomes our eternal identity and then it is up to us to allow Christ’s resurrection power into the fleshly habits in our vessel. Enter Faith.
Faith is given in measure as a gift and grown by the consumption of God’s grace. Faith is our response to God’s grace both on the active side and the passive side of abiding in Christ. Grace allows us to experience the reality of our sin and God’s provision of righteousness and peace. Making the decision to accept God’s redemptive provision is our act of consuming His grace bringing us into many more choices of righteousness. Every time we consume one of these choices, we grow in grace and our faith expands to include wider spiritual knowledge of our loving Father and our Life in Christ.
The power to live and make these choices comes from the resurrection of Life over death. We cannot live in Christ without His power to make our Life effective. He must be alive in us and we must become conscious of His work in us so that we are able to consume the grace He provides.
Being born again, from above, is a brand new ball game!
Next time, Fruit!