THE VINE AND HIS BRANCHES

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

² Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

³ Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

⁴ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

⁵ 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 15:1-5}

Jesus is the vine and we are His branches. We cannot bear fruits without Him. We cannot be righteous without Him. He is our righteousness as long as we are part of Him. To abide in Him means to have faith in Him, to trust in Him.

²³ And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. ²⁴ Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God,^[a] and God^[b] in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.{1John 3:23-24 ESV}

 He alone can take away our sins. Once we take our trust away from Him and put it on ourselves, we become cut off from Him.

⁴I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. {Galatian 5:4 MSG}

Once we become cut off from Christ, we fall from grace and to fall from grace means you are no longer saved. We are only saved by grace and without grace there is no salvation. No man can have eternal salvation by himself.

⁸ For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: ⁹ Not of works, lest any man should boast. {Ephesians 2:8-9}

We must have faith in Christ to be saved by grace. Trust in Him alone for without Him we can do nothing. We remain saved as long as we abide in Him. If we become cut off from Him due to self- righteousness, then we can never survive. The branches have to be attached to the vine in order to survive and bear fruits. The branches have got no root of their own and so dies off once cut off from the vine. Therefore the life of the branch is from the vine and without the vine the branch has got no life. Only in Him can we find life. To have Him is to have life and to lose Him is to lose life.

¹¹ And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

¹² He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. { 1John 5:11-12}

If we believe in Him as our righteousness then we are justified. If we believe not in Him but on our works of righteousness, we are condemned.

¹⁸ He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. {John 3:18}

I know someone may be saying; but I believe in Jesus. Yes what do you believe Him for? If you still think that you will make heaven by your works of righteousness based on your ability, then I ask you again, what do you believe Him for?

He said “without me you can do nothing” and truly the branch can do nothing outside the vine. We must stay connected to the vine and draw from His life. He alone has roots deep enough to reach the waters beneath the soil. All our nutrients come from the root, Christ the foundation. We would wither without Him. He supplies us with life not only from beneath but also from above. He is the sun we need to survive and bear fruits unto righteousness.

¹¹ May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ^[b]—for this will bring much glory and praise to God{Philippians 1:11 NLT}

 Brothers and sisters, notice that the fruits of righteousness are produced in our lives by Jesus Christ. He alone can produce such fruits. We cannot produce fruits of righteousness by ourselves. I have heard a lot of preachers stressing that we must bear fruits and they emphasize on our works of righteousness as the fruits we have to bear. They even preach from the same passage in Philippians chapter one but they fail to note that it is by Christ Jesus that the fruits are born. We must abide and trust in Him so that the fruits can reflect from us for men to see and glorify God. Once again, the glory goes to God not us. We didn’t produce the fruits by ourselves. He did it for us.  A righteous tree must bring forth righteous fruits. He is the sun that shines on us from above to produce the righteous fruits. That sun of righteousness.

² But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.{Malachi 4:2}

We can only grow when He shines on us. Not only is He our sun of righteousness but also our righteousness rain. As we seek Him, he rains down righteousness on us. Without His sun and rain we would die in unrighteousness.

¹² Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you. {Hosea 10:12}

 We therefore must remain engrafted in Him. We got engrafted into Him when we believed in Him as our only source of righteousness and we began to bear fruits through Him. If we then now remove our faith from Him as the only source of righteousness, we will stop bearing fruits and any branch that doesn’t bear fruits will be cut off by the husbandman who is God the father.

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

² Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.{John 15:1-2}