I Am the Vine, You Are the Branches!

"I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing" John 15:5.

Though Jesus was about to be removed from the disciples, their spiritual union with Him was to remain unchanged. The connection of the branch with the vine represents the relation the followers of Christ are to sustain with Him. "As the scion is grafted into the living vine, fiber by fiber and vein by vein, it grows into the vine. The life of the vine becomes the life of the branch. So the soul dead in trespasses and sins receives life through connection with Christ. By faith in Him as a personal Savior the union is formed. The sinner unites his weakness to Christ's strength, his emptiness to Christ's fullness, his frailty to Christ's enduring might. Then he has the mind of Christ. The humanity of Christ has touched our humanity, and our humanity has touched divinity. Thus through the agency of the Holy Spirit man becomes a partaker of the divine nature…

"This union with Christ, once formed, must be maintained. Jesus said, 'Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me' Ibid. 15:4. This is no casual on-and-off connection. The branch becomes a part of the living vine. The communication of life, strength, and fruitfulness from the root to the branches is unobstructed and constant. Separated from the vine, the branch cannot live. No more, said Jesus, can you live apart from Me. The life you have received from Me can be preserved only by continual communion. Without Me you cannot overcome one sin, or resist one temptation.

" 'Abide in Me, and I in you.' Abiding in Christ means a constant receiving of His Spirit, a life of unreserved surrender to His service. The channel of communication must be open continually between man and his God. As the vine branch constantly draws the sap from the living vine, so are we to cling to Jesus, and receive from Him by faith the strength and perfection of His own character.

"The root sends its nourishment through the branch to the outermost twig. So Christ communicates the current of spiritual strength to every believer. So long as the soul is united to Christ, there is no danger that it will wither or decay.

"The life of the vine will be manifest in fragrant fruit on the branches. 'He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing' Ibid. 15:5. When we live by faith on the Son of God, the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in our life; not one will be missing.

" 'My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away' Ibid 15:1, 2. While the graft is outwardly united with the vine, there may be no vital connection. Then there will be no growth or fruitfulness. So there may be an apparent connection with Christ without a real union with Him by faith. A profession of religion places men in the church, but the character and conduct show whether they are in connection with Christ. If they bear no fruit, they are false branches. Their separation from Christ involves a ruin as complete as that represented by the dead branch. 'If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned' Ibid, 15:6.

" 'And every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit' Ibid. 15:2. From the chosen twelve who had followed Jesus, one as a withered branch was about to be taken away, the rest were to pass under the pruning knife of bitter trial. Jesus with solemn tenderness explained the purpose of the vinedresser. The pruning will cause pain, but it is the Father who applies the knife. He works with no wanton hand or indifferent heart. There are branches trailing upon the ground; these must be cut lose from the earthly supports to which their tendrils are fastening. They are to reach heavenward, and find their support in God. The excessive foliage that draws away the life current from the fruit must be pruned off. The overgrowth must be cut out, to give room for the healing beams of the Sun of Righteousness. The husbandman prunes away the harmful growth, that the fruit may be richer and more abundant.

" 'By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples' Ibid. 15:8. God desires to manifest through you the holiness, the benevolence, the compassion, of His own character. Yet the Savior does not bid the disciples labor to bear fruit. He tells them to abide in Him. 'If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you' Ibid. 15:7. It is through the Word that Christ abides in His followers. This is the same vital union that is represented by eating His flesh and drinking His blood (John 6:53, 54). The words of Christ are spirit and life. Receiving them, you receive the life of the Vine. You live 'by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God' Matt. 4:4. The life of Christ in you produces the same fruits as in Him. Living in Christ, adhering to Christ, supported by Christ, drawing nourishment from Christ, you bear fruit after the similitude of Christ" Desire of Ages, pp. 675-677.

May the nourishment from Jesus, the Vine, bless your soul today and every day!