The Vine and the Branches

“I  Am the Vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.”  John 15:5

When I was a child, we had a grapevine in our backyard.  My Dad built a place on which it could grow on metal fencing between two posts.  It had a main vine with a lot of smaller branches which bore the fruit.  At certain times of the year, it was very harmful to cut one of the branches off.  Naturally the branch that was severed would die, but also the vine would “bleed” sap which was the life of the vine.  The cut portion would be wrapped with fabric or melted wax could be applied to stop the loss of sap so as not to kill the entire plant.  Otherwise, it could bleed to death.

As long as the branches are all intact and doing what they are supposed to do, depending on the vine to give them what they need to produce fruit, the plant prospers and grows.  Jesus used examples from nature to illustrate spiritual truths.  He compared Himself to a Vine and believers to the branches of the Vine.  The Vine can exist without the branches, but the branches cannot survive without the Vine.  The fruit that the branches produce is a direct result from being connected to the Vine.  Jesus made it clear:  without Him, we can do nothing.

Because we were cut off from God, our Father, by sin, it caused Jesus to bleed to death.  As the Vine, Jesus died because of our sin, but because He was obedient to and abiding in His Father, the Root of the Vine, He came back to life again and made it possible for us to be grafted into the Vine, forgiven of our sin, and given new life.  While our lives need pruning from time to time in order to grow in Christlikeness and produce good fruit, no one can ever sever us from the Vine.  To abide in Christ means to reside, stay, and submit.  Webster’s Dictionary also gives a meaning of abide as “to put up with”.  I suppose we could use that definition to describe how God puts up with us.  To think about the holiness and magnificence of God, and then to consider how He condescends to accept sinful men and women into His family, not begrudgingly, but joyfully and lovingly.  He even allowed His Son to suffer excruciating pain and death because He wanted us to be able to come back into a relationship with Him.  Why would anyone not desire to abide in One who loves him or her so much?