We are examining aspects of being “in Christ.” We looked at the Biblical description of our relationship to each other as members in Christ’s body. Then, we inserted a comment on “koinonia-parousia”focusing onthe intimate nature of our one-nessin the Body of our Lord Jesus.In John15, our one-ness is also seen in Jesus Himself, as the Vine, andthe Father Vinedresser.
Being born from above seals usin Christ with the Holy Spirit until our arrival in glorified bodies. In John 14,Jesus told His disciples, the Holy Spirit will be within us forever. “Forever” is a long time! It could mean a postrapture,everlasting, relationship.This is included in the koinonia we discussed in our last GraceNotes. Even though we occupy vessels of clay and don’t physically see Jesus, we are profoundly aware of His presence, not only in daily experience, but as we walk in the darkness of our presentworldliness. But even aftershedding our fleshly body, this passage suggests a Holy Spirit unioninto eternity. This is also included in the parousia we talked about in our last GraceNotes.Even thoughwe are still in this flesh, we are already “transferred,” staked down into our Lord Christ’s kingdom of light.
The born from above presence of God’s Spirit, joined to our spirit within us, is continually providing living waterfor the needs of our soul. We are not alone, although at times we are prone to “feel” we are. Our spiritual adversary uses vulnerable feelings and fleshly habits, like fear and shame, to undermine our faith. Its not a frontal attack, Satan uses our comfort zones to distractour trust in our Life giver. But even under attack we are sealed in God’s kingdom of light.
Koinoniais much more than just temporal fellowship with another, it is intimacy entered into with God through Jesus. It reminds us of our passage in Romans 8about the Holy Spirit lifting us up to God our Father so that He can reach down into our hearts, and ministerintohidden needs. Our Lord continually observes our response to evil even while under attack. We are never tempted beyond our capacity to be victorious.
Parousiaspeaks to the coming of Christ, first, for His Church, second, for judgment upon those who remain in unbelief on the earth. But in a spiritual sense, He is already in the believer judging our soul in the light of His holiness and word. This intimate ministry is probingwithin us. It speaks to the continuing workof our spirit joined to God’s Holy Spirit because we arebirthedin a new creation in Christ Jesus in the likeness of God.
We need to be constantly mindful ofthis koinonia-parousia effectwithin us as we look at being branches bearing Spiritual fruit. Constantly be rememberingwhat God has begun inside us, He will bring to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Our God has steadfast lovedirected at each one of us!
“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.” –John 15:1-2.
In these first two verses we have jumping out at us obvious factors demanding our attention. It is a graphic for being “in Christ.”
1. Jesus is the vine. His life in us is our source and substance.
2. The Father is an active participant handling the externals of our branch’s environment.
3. Our purpose is to bear fruit.
4. Our Father will prune us so wewill produce “more fruit.”
5. Our branch will be removed if we do not bear fruit.
Collectively, these five factors speak about our life as a result of being a branch in the Vine, which is Christ Jesus. In other words, fruit is our purpose or we will be removed from the Vine. We will physically be allowed to die! On the other hand, if we do bear fruit, we will be nurtured to produce even more fruit. Fruit bearing is obviously our divine priority. Living life is for this purpose. This should get our attention! We are called to bear fruit.
John 15:1-2 is only two sentences. Lets bring back into our memory the context of this scenewith the disciples. They are on their way to the garden where Jesus is about to submit to Roman custody prior to being crucified. Jesusjust left the “upper room” with His disciples. Hejust spentHis last evening in communionwith these men who will carry the gospel storyinto the world through the Holy Spirit for thebuilding up the Body of Christ, His church!
The first sentence of this text identifies the primary players, Jesus is the Vine and the Father is the overseeing Caretaker. You and I are also inthis story. We are identified in the second sentence, “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he (The Father) takes away.” We are branches in the Vineof Christ so thatwe, and the disciples, will produceHis fruit in our lives.
We are merely branches, but branches with a will to make choices. Whatnecessary thingsare required for us, as branches, to produce fruit? We must internally submitto the Vine. But at the same time we are the object of both internal and external divine ministry because we are in Christ. God the Father is on the job as the “Vinedresser” while the Holy Spirit is applying the word we supply to our soul, but … our will to choose is the gatekeeper, allowing divine ministry to take place. It is our will to choose that makes the difference. It is a form of belief or … unbelief!
The Holy Spirit is in us performing tasks enabling us to bear fruit. We can do nothing within ourselves except respond because we are talkingabout Spiritual Fruit.What we can do,is grow in grace, enabling the Life of Christ within us to flourish. This is called faith, yielding to the work of the Spirit in expectation of being more like Jesus Himself. In other words,we can be the branchin the Vine.
We can choose to be who we are in Christ!
Here are a couple insights into these two verses givingus a clearer picture of what Jesus is telling us so that we can accomplish our task of being who we are created to be!
The firstone is the Greek wordJohn 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 worddenotes a tender new growthsuch as a sprout on a vine. This speaks to the new creation and Spiritual nature of our new identityin Christ Jesus.
We are a tender new growth because we have been created a Spiritual person. Remember Jesus’ talk with the Pharisee, Nicodemus, in John 3, “…that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.” This is the context for John 3:16. This is why Paul tells us in Romans 8:9, “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.” This forthrightly contradicts the idea that we are still in the flesh because we feel and experience strong influences from ourfleshly body afterbecomingSpiritual.
This is why we are exhorted in Galatiansto walk in the Spirit, not just live in the Spirit. It becomes a question of faith, that is, living in the resurrection power of Jesus’ life, so that, we experience the victory of overcoming, putting to death in our own soul what Jesus alreadynailed to His cross and ours. We are to effect His death in our life.
We are not mature branches grafted into His Vine. We arenew growthnurtured in the Vine by its root. Ournew shoots depend upon the Vine supplyingnutrients toformquality and character. The Greek word for “branch” clearly distinguishes new lifeflowing out from Jesus, the Vine, rather than Paul’s point regarding Gentiles being grafted into Jewish stock, a different point entirely. John’s context,here,is being ”born again” and having life in his name. Paul’s Romans passage, does however, makes our larger context since the root supports the mature branches whether they are Jew or Gentile.
John’s emphasison deity is to our point. It relates directly to nurturing through Jesus’ intimacy with His Father. Our “tender new growth” becomes a branch nurtured in the Godhead. This gives focus for our setting of intimate koinonia with Jesusand the Father. The frequent references to the Father by Jesus draws notice to our inclusion into this divine intimacy. On the surface, it may not seem important but when we realize each chapter of John’s gospel contains instruction concerning God the Father we had better take notice. In his first epistle,John also says, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son. This emphasis shapes our interpretation of any single passage and directs our understanding into the reality of our position “in Christ” and the Father.
This is the context in which we find our branch. It is in the Father’s care who is the “Vinedresser.” This leads us into our second insight.
The Father’spruning referred to in this verse sounds as though it is a cutting away, “a pruning.”Although it may include a cutting off, the Greek word means to make pure by cleaning. The verse is saying the Vinedresser is doing necessary tasks to keep the new sprout healthy. He is examining the new growth for dirt,spiders and the bugs causing infection. He is tending to the new growth, not only protecting it fromcontamination, but also providing conditions for it to bear not just fruit, but much fruit. If the branch develops growth in an unhealthy direction, he prunes it away. He cleans, wraps and nurtures the new growthinto blossoms and fruit, into maturity.
God is in unity tending to our healthy growth in Christ. The Father has the hairs on our head numbered. The Son is providing us with resurrected Life and the Holy Spirit is revealing in us the things of Jesus while lifting our needs to the Father. The Holy Trinity is acting together in our behalf.
But we have a big job too. We still have the will tochoose. We need to let go of self and allow our Heavenly Father to pour out His grace into our life. We can put our self to death so that the Life of Christ can be made visible in our mortal flesh or we can hold on to the desires of our flesh and loose the rich reward of our Spiritual inheritance in Christ. We can consume God’s grace with our faith so God can pour into us even more grace or we can walk in fear producing shame into our soul. Either we enjoy sin for a short while and experience death or we take on the burden of Life and let our Father God carry our load.Having received the Life of our risen Jesus,it becomes our choice.
John’s gospel reveals our intrusion into this divine intimacy. In the first verse of his gospel we fine the oneness of Jesus with the Father, “and the Word was God.” We move down into the chapter and we find this same “Word” became flesh and dwelt among us so that we beheld His own glory, “the glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” He came to His own people and they rejected him. So He became savior of all those who received Him. Those who believe in Him He gives the “right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor the will of man, but of God.”Move on down to verse 18, 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 His separation in flesh, He demonstrates His dependency upon the Father and yields to the Father’s position and authority. Jesus sets this example of yieldingto illustrate the model of our yielding to our LordJesus. It is in yielding our flesh to the Father’s authority that we become one with Him through our resurrected Lord Jesus.We have seen how Jesus shared the secret of His life in the Fatherwith His disciplesin the upper Room, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”This is also the pattern for our “branch” life in John 15.
It is our choice to believe and accept the ministry of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in our personallife or not. It is our choice to possess the land already given to us or not. Our most important Spiritual challenge is choosing to love God and be whom He has made us to be, “Because I live, you will also live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me, and I in you.”
This is the secret of living our life and producing His fruit.