I was enjoying John 15:4-5 this morning, which says,
Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
Through our regeneration, Christ as the universal vine tree (the tree of life) has branched out into us and made us branches of Himself. Now we are branches in Christ, joined to Him as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). As the branches in the vine, we are filled with Christ as life – His life has become our life, and He is our unique source of supply.
We are organically united with Christ, grafted into Him, joined to Him in life. Our entire existence now depends upon Him. Christ is our life now (Col 3:4) – all that He is, has, has done, has attained to, has accomplished – all His life, is ours. As the branches, we need to absorb and enjoy all that He is in our spirit, so that His riches in us will overflow into bearing fruit.
The branch cannot do anything of its own – it depends entirely upon the flow of the richness of the vine. If the branch abides in the vine, it will bear much fruit (John 15:5); if the branch does not abide in the vine, it simply has no use (it will be taken away and burnt…).
That’s why the Lord said that apart from Him we cannot do anything – our destiny and our goal is to abide in Him. We are nothing, we can do nothing and we have nothing apart from Christ as the vine. All that we are, we do, or we have must be in the Lord and of the Lord – who is in us. In our Christian life, we must not do anything of ourselves, but by abiding in the Lord.
We abide in Him first, and then He abides in us. Our abiding in the Lord is a crucial matter – our life and living, our fruit-bearing – all depends on this. We need to clearly see that we are branches in the vine – we need to have a clear vision that we need to abide in Him.
Actually, it is our pleasure and enjoyment to abide in the Lord – we were created and destined for this! Our real life is hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3), and we cannot do anything good apart from Him! Of course, we can do many things in ourselves – but they are not part of what the Lord is doing today.
Lord, show us clearly that we are just branches abiding in the vine! Supply us continually today, Lord, with Your divine life! We want to abide in You today!
