GOD’S WORD FOR APRIL 18 ~ ~ John 15:5 ~ ~ “I am the vine, you are the branches.”
We are beginning Chapter 4 in Andrew Murray’s classic book, “Abide in Christ”
It was in connection with the parable of the Vine that our Lord first used the expression, “Abide in Me.” (John 15:4). That parable, so simple, and yet so rich in its teaching, gives us the best and most complete illustration of the meaning of our Lord’s command and the union to which He invites us.
The parable teaches us the nature of that union. The connection between the vine and the branch is a living one. No eternal, temporary union will suffice; no work of man can create it. The branch, whether an original or an engrafted one, is such only by the Creator’s own work, in virtue of which the life, the sap, the fatness, and the fruitfulness of the vine communicate themselves to the branch.
It is the same way with the believer too. His union with his Lord is no work of human wisdom or human will, but an act of God, by which the closest and most complete life union is created between the Son of God and the sinner.
“God has sent forth the Spirit of His son into your hearts.” (Galatians 4:6). The same Spirit that dwelled and still dwells in the Son becomes the life of the believer; in the unity of that one Spirit and the fellowship of the same life that is in Christ, he is one with Him. As between the vine and branch, it is a life union that makes them one.
The parable teaches us the completeness of the union. So close is the union between the vine and the branch that each is nothing without the other; EACH IS WHOLLY AND ONLY FOR THE OTHER.
Without the vine, the branch can do nothing. To the vine it owes its right of place in the vineyard, its life and its fruitfulness.
So the Lord said, “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). The believer can each day be pleasing to God only in that which he does through the power of Christ dwelling in him. The daily inflowing of the life sap of the Holy Spirit is his only power to bring forth fruit. He lives alone in Him and is dependent on Him alone for each moment.
BUT….Without the branch, the vine can also do nothing! A vine without branches can bear no fruit. No less indispensable than the vine to the branch is the branch to the vine. Such is the wonderful condescension of the grace of Jesus that, just as His people are dependent on Him, He has made Himself dependent on them. Without His disciples, He cannot dispense His blessing to the world; He cannot offer sinners the grapes of the heavenly Canaan. Marvel not! It is His own appointment; and this is the high honor to which He has called His redeemed ones: as indispensable as He is to them in heaven, that from Him their fruit may be found, so indispensable are they to Him on earth, that through them His fruit may be found!
Believers, meditate on this until your soul bows to worship in the presence of the mystery of the perfect union between Christ and the believer.