Author: Jay Lehman

“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” (Jn 15:4-5).

“Abide in Me, and I in you” is a statement of fact, not a statement of options.  We, as true believers, are always abiding in Christ and He is always abiding in us.  We cannot choose to disconnect from the vine.  Only the farmer can remove a branch.  A branch cannot remove itself.  And God, the farmer, has promised to never cut us off from the vine.  (“I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand” [Jn 10:28].)  When you embraced the gospel of Jesus Christ, you became a child of God, a branch permanently attached to the True Vine.  A Vine who is living His life through the branch.

This hearkens to Galatians 2:20, “For I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.”  Christ, the true vine, by virtue of our unbreakable connection to Him, is living His life through us.

This is why our passage can end with, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.”  Jesus did not say we will do less or not accomplish as much … no, He said we can do NOTHING apart from Him.  We will not bear little fruit apart from Him; we will bear NO fruit apart from Him.  Why?  Because Christ is our life.  Our life is no longer our own, a branch trying to live on its own.  We belong to Jesus, and praise be to God that Jesus is living His life through us.

So with Christ having secured our abiding, is there nothing for us to do?  What is our role in our abiding?  I think the best word to describe it is  “cooperating”.  We can hinder the abiding.  We can hinder the fruit.  By asking us to continue to abide in Christ, Jesus is asking us to cooperate with what He is already doing in our heart.

There is a difference between producing fruit and bearing fruit.  God has already produced the fruit of the Spirit in us by giving us His Spirit.  We are not required to produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  They are already ours by virtue of the Spirit within.  But bearing fruit?  That is another story.

We have the choice to bear or show or demonstrate the fruit inside or suppress it in sin.  Paul makes the choice clear in Romans chapter 6.  “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.  For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace” (Rom 6:12-14).

The choice is ours.  Our abiding can never be taken away.  You are forever secure in Christ.  But your cooperation, your bearing the fruit of the Spirit, your loving one another, your serving one another, your walking in your righteous identity … is a choice that rests in your lap.  But it is a choice for good that you have the power to make, “For sin shall not be master over you!”  May you feel the literal life flow of being connected and cooperating with the True Vine.

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.  Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He cleanses it, that it may bear more fruit.  You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.  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.  (Jn 15:1-4).

The thought of our mutual indwelling, I in Christ and Christ in me, is a theme repeated often in John chapter 14.  In chapter 15, the same idea is conveyed in a word picture about a vine and its branches.

Jesus is the vine.  God, the Father, is the farmer.  We are the vine’s branches.  And we derive all of our life and fruit-producing energy from Jesus Christ, the true vine.  Branches that “bear fruit” represent the true branches, the true believers, connected to the vine.  The farmer “cleanses” or prunes us.  And as this passage makes clear, we are “clean” because the word of God, in the person of Jesus, has taken root in our hearts.

But what about the fruitless branch, the one being taken away?  Remember what John recorded just a couple of chapters earlier, “Jesus said, ‘You are clean but not all of you.’  For Jesus knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, ‘Not all of you are clean’ ” (Jn:13:10-11).  Judas was connected to Jesus per se as one of the twelve, but not “attached” in a life-giving way by faith in Jesus.  He was not a true follower.  That type of situation of somewhat connected to Jesus, but not by a true faith, is represented by the unfruitful branch.

But we are fruitful branches abiding in the Vine while the Vine sends its life-giving energy into us.  Now it is very important to understand the “abiding” and “bearing fruit” that is going on here.  The English syntax makes it sound like our choice to “abide” (and the fruit bearing that goes with it) could be an on again-off again process; like the abiding choice is up to us.  Is that the case?  We will talk about it next time.

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.  You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’  If you loved Me, you would rejoice, because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.  And now I have told you before it comes to pass, that when it comes to pass, you may believe.  I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; but that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do” (Jn 14:27-31).

One of Jesus’ gifts to you is peace.  Not as the world gives, but a peace (as Paul would later write) that is beyond our natural comprehension.  And Jesus shares it here as an antidote to a fearful heart.  There are so many things going on in our world right now that are pouring gasoline on the fire of fear.  We need Jesus’ peace.

Jesus explained to the disciples that He is telling them things which are about to come to pass.  He is giving them this preview so that when these events happen, they can return to Jesus’ words and believe.  They can believe that Jesus was telling the truth when He spoke of these things.  They can believe that He is the Son of God as the “knower” of these things.  And they can believe that everything else Jesus said is true.

And knowing and believing will bring us peace.  We have peace because Jesus has not left us alone … “I go away, and I will come to you.”  We have peace because Jesus is coming to us with the heart of the Father … “because I go to the Father.”  We have peace because Jesus has laid out incredible promises yet to come … “I have told you before it comes to pass.”  We have peace because the ruler of this world – the author of so much fear – has no power over the Son … “the ruler of the world is coming, and He has nothing in Me.”  We have peace because the Son loves the Father … “I love the Father.”  And that love now lives in us … “By this the love of God came to live in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him” (I Jn 4:9).  And “living through Him”, we have the power to love through Him.  “If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us” (I Jn 4:12).

And finally, Jesus makes the same connection between love and obedience that He gave to us … in His love for the Father.  “That the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do” (vs 31).  Jesus loves and has loved the Father and carried out all that the Father asked of Him.  Because Jesus accomplished all that the Father had for Him to do – culminating in “He [Jesus] humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8) – He secured our peace.

“These things I have spoken to you, while abiding with you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” (Jn 14:25-26).

Here Jesus gives a reassuring word to His disciples.  “While abiding with you – while living with you, traveling with you, serving with you – I have had a lot to say.  Don’t worry about remembering it all.  Part of the Holy Spirit’s role when He comes will be to teach you all things, and to bring to your mind all that I have said to you.”

This word of reassurance so fits the need of the disciples as they have been processing Jesus’ message that He is going away.  Throughout these chapters in John, Jesus always pairs His going away with the coming of the Helper [Gr. Paracletos, one called alongside to help].  Here the Helper is more specifically identified as the third Person of the Trinity; The Holy Spirit.

Let’s look more closely at the two roles of the Spirit given in this verse.  First, He will teach them all things.  On the day of Pentecost, Peter – full of the Spirit – preached a powerful message of history, challenge, and invitation that came straight from the Spirit’s revelation to Him.  And it is safe to assume that Peter’s subsequent sermons and writings were filled with what the Holy Spirit taught him.  The other apostles too wrote as the Spirit revealed the message to them.

Second, the Spirit will bring to mind the words of Jesus to the disciples.  So much of the New Testament letters were an exposition of what Jesus taught.  Take John’s first letter as an example.  “And this is the promise that He Himself [Jesus] made to us: eternal life” (1 Jn 2:25).  “And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us” (1 Jn 3:23).

The two-part promise of Jesus came true; the Holy Spirit revealed truth to the disciples and reminded them of all that Jesus had said.  By extension to our day, I believe God is now accomplishing this in His followers.  As our minds are being renewed by the Spirit’s presence and power, we will find ourselves more and more hearing the voice of the Spirit and the word of Jesus.

There is a strain of teaching that calls us to be suspicious of our minds.  That treats our minds as suspect and still fraught with sin.  But empowered by the Spirit, your mind is being renewed, transformed, and growing into the likeness of Christ.  Part of the Holy Spirit’s role in your life is to teach you and remind you of Jesus’ words.  Listen for that message.  It is nearer than you think.

“He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me, and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him.”  Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that you are going to disclose Yourself to us, and not to the world?”  Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.  He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent Me” (Jn 14:21-24).

Jesus again visits the vital link between our love for Jesus and our keeping His commandments; the vital link between love and obedience.  But it appears that Jesus has extended that connection to suggest that God’s love toward us and revealing Himself to us and coming to abide with us depends on our keeping the love and obedience fires burning.  Is that what is required?

Let’s be careful not to let our experience in the world color our belief in what God says.  So much of our cultural interactions are based on transactional relationships; I will do X for you if you will do Y for me.  And at first glance, these verses seem to imply this kind of relationship with our Father such that “If we obey God, He will love us more.”  But we know from the rest of Scripture that a transactional relationship with God is exactly what we DON’T have.  We have a union based on grace, not on our actions.  We have a relationship based on what Christ did for us on the cross, not what we did for Him to gain His approval.

We always see distinctions and “what ifs” around the topic of obedience or lack of obedience and how God responds to us accordingly.  But I think when we do this, we are forgetting “whose” and “who” we are.  As a child of God, Christ now lives in us, living His life through us.  And He is the reservoir of divine love that we have the beautiful opportunity to put into practice.  And He is the reservoir of divine power that sends us on the path to obedience.  Our love and obedience are dependent on Jesus, because He is the source of them.  Our role is to tap into what Christ has already provided.

Because of our new righteous identity in Christ, loving, obeying, and abiding is what our new heart was made to do.  It is our new normal.  Rather than worrying about if we are doing enough for God to be pleased with us; for God to abide with us – as He promises in verse 23 above -, we can rest in the promise that He will always dwell with us.  We learned this very thing in our last post.

So is this path to love and obedience just automatic?  Have we arrived at everywhere we need to be by our new identity in Christ?  No … our enemy within (the Flesh) and our enemy without (Satan) conspire to take us away from what should be our new normal; our new life we were made to walk in.  But praise be to Christ who has given us the power of His presence to overcome the flesh and the evil one.  “You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” (I Jn 4:4).