The True Vine

Dear Weekly Readers!

Jesus is the True Vine!  John 15:1-8

Have you ever pondered this statement?  Why would Jesus, the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings, compare himself to a vine, a plant that grows in the ground, here on earth?  Let’s turn to scriptures:  Isaiah 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

The Lord of all the universe came to this earth, to feel what we feel, so He could know what we go through.  Have you ever taken shade under a tree or enjoyed the fruit of the vine?  We can in a natural sense enjoy the picture and appreciate its wonder!  Now we have the Great I AM making another one of His many I AM statements:  I AM the true vine.  He has also made known to us who He is with these statements:  I AM the Living Water.  I AM the Bread of Life.  I AM the Way The Truth and the Life.  I AM the Living Bread.  I AM the Light of the world.  I AM the Door.  I AM the Good Shepherd.  I AM the resurrection and the Life.  Imagine that, the Great I AM has come to this earth for you and I.  Why?

Because just as the husbandman in our text planted and takes care of the vine, God the Father has in His Mercy, Love, and Grace seen fit that His Only Son would come to this earth as a payment for sin.  Jesus only did what was the will of the Father.  John 5:19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. So we can see that Jesus came at the will of the Father, and He compares himself to a vine, and His Father the husbandman.  The husbandman not only plants the vine, but takes care of it as well.  Christ came to earth, sent by the Father, to provide us the way back to the Father.  God is over all, and above all.

Our Father is the husbandman, the one that takes care of us, and works on us so that we can bring forth fruit as He would see fit.  In Verse 5 where Jesus explains the parable, He says "...ye are the branches..."  Let’s look at what it means to be a branch.  First, the branch, in order to be alive, must be attached to the vine.  No branch can live without the vine.  Without Christ we are dead.  You can never find a branch living with its own life.  No fruit will ever grow on a branch that is not attached to the vine.  Let us humbly turn to our Father, the husbandman, asking that we would always be attached to our Lord Jesus so we can be partakers of the Living Water, The Living Bread, and all the good things that He provides for us so we can go to heaven.

The next very important words we see are in verse 5: ...he that abideth in me, and I in Him...  When a husbandman grafts a branch into a tree, he very carefully does all the proper steps.  The job cannot be rushed and shortcuts cannot be taken.  Then the grafted branch will begin to grow little tiny finger-like attachments into the main vine.  The main vine will also do the same into the branch.  1 John 4:13 tells us:  Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of His Spirit.  See, we become one with Jesus Christ when we are adopted, or grafted in!  This is amazing, that we are ONE with Jesus!

Now, when we are abiding in Him and He in us, the nourishment, the life blood, flows from the Vine, Jesus, into us, and then and only then can we bring forth fruit.   Notice it says fruit, not works.  It is not many fruits, but only one!  That is because only the Fruit of the Spirit is the acceptable fruit.  Only the fruit that comes from what Jesus has done to make us acceptable is worthy fruit.

Dear Beloved, let’s not leave our Jesus.  He said: I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

I have not covered much of our text in this short article.  But I will finish with verse 8:  Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

Without Christ the Vine, we cannot bear fruit but are in fact dead.  However, because Christians are grafted-in branches, getting all we need for salvation by Christ, then the Father is glorified.  No glory to ourselves, only to our Father in Heaven!  We cannot be followers or disciples, in any other way, but to have the Life Blood of Jesus flowing through us.  We must have the Living Water feeding and nourishing us.  We must be one with Him in order to be a partaker of Him and all the Wonderful things He has for us, both in this life and in eternity. 

  

May God Bless your Week!

John Ruotsala