“The True Vine”
John 15:1-8
Jesus and His Disciples are about to leave the Upper Room where Jesus had just washed the feet of His Disciples, they had shared a final meal, and now He walked with them to the Garden of Gethse-mane, where He prays, and later will be arrested. By midday, the very next day, Jesus will be on a cross. The evening in the upper room ended when Jesus said, “Arise, let us go from here.” (John 14:31.) They go down the stairs and out into the night. The Disciples follow Jesus out of the city and into the Kidron valley.
In John chapter fifteen Jesus begins a discus-sion of the vineyard. Why does Jesus use the vine and its branches as a parable? Some speculate that it because He and the Disciples have just passed by the huge gold grapevine, the symbol of Israel, which decorated the gates of the Temple in Jerusalem - which some have estimated was worth 12 million dollars. Or it could be that as He and His Disciples head out of the city into the Kidron valley that there is a vineyard readily visible on their walk and Jesus uses what is close at hand to make His point. I don’t know that it matters which is the case, perhaps both are true.
But one thing is for sure, every good Jew understood that the image of the vine had been used many times to describe Israel and its relationship to God. (Psalm 80:8-9). The vineyard portrays God’s concern and care for the vineyard in planting his people in the Promised Land. And the Lord expected a rich harvest of fruit from his vineyard. The problem was that Israel never produced the fruit the Lord had desired. Through the prophets the Lord had expressed his displeasure with the fruit that Israel had produced calling them a “degenerate and wild vine” (Isa 5:7, Jer. 2:21)
It is in contrast with this picture of Israel that Jesus declares Himself to be the “true vine.” Israel had become the wild vine with which God was displeased and Jesus was the true vine that would produce and bear good fruit.
Perhaps Jesus stops and stoops down and picks up branch of the vine that surrounds them as an illustration and then He says beginning in verse one, “I AM the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. (2) Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. (3) You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. (4) Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. (5) “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (6) If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. (7) If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. (8) By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”
For a few moments Jesus talks quietly with them about branches, and grapes and how a vinedresser cares for the vineyard. Here He revealed to them the secrets of fruitfulness. Jesus now gives His seventh and final “I AM” statement in the gospel of John. All conversation must have stopped as He made this powerful declaration. Every time Jesus uses the phrase it conveys the same thought as the covenant name of God which was given to Moses in the wilderness, “I AM that I AM.” So that when Jesus said, “I AM the Door,” “I AM the Good Shepherd,” “I AM The Way the Truth And the Life,” or “I AM The Resurrection and the Life,” and now “I AM the Vine.” Each time He is identifying another aspect of Himself as God in the flesh. But this passage is unique among the “I AM” state-ments of Jesus in that is the basis for an extended metaphor or parable.
First, Recognizing the Parable. (15:1)
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vine-dresser.”
Understanding the basics is not very difficult. There are three essential things that we need to understand to grasp the word picture that Jesus is using.
First, Jesus is the vine. Most of us, when we think of the grape vine we think of the limbs that runs along the trellis. But what is actually being described here is the trunk of the plant where it grows out of the ground. It is the trunk that provides life and nourishment to the branches.
Secondly, The Father is the Vinedresser. The vinedresser is the person whose responsibility it is to keep the branches healthy and producing the most fruit possible.
Third, You and I are the branches. It is the branches that produce fruit. The vinedresser does whatever is needed so that each branch will produce as much fruit as possible.
Just hours before His death Jesus used the illustration of the vine to show the Disciples what God considered important in life, the producing of fruit.
Second, The Responsibility of the Vine-dresser. (15:2-3)
The difficulties begin when we try to interpret some of the phrases that Jesus uses in describing the duties of the vinedresser. There are two things that the Father who is the vinedresser is said to do in his care of the vines.
• He Takes Away (lifts up) That Which Produces No Fruit. (v. 2a)
“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; (airei) and every branch that bears fruit He purges (kathaire), that it may bear more fruit.”
In verse two Jesus said, “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away;…” What does Jesus mean when He says every branch that bears no fruit He “takes away”? Those who do not believe in security of the believer use this verse to support their belief that even true believers can fall away and be lost.
The first problem in using this verse in this way is that the Bible clearly teaches the security of the believer. Jesus in presenting Himself as the good shepherd said, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish and no one can snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:28). This is a repetition of what Jesus taught in John 6:39, when He said, “this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.” These and many other passages prove the perseverance of the saints. Such as Roman 8 which teaches that salvation is an eternal matter and that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Also 1 John teaches us repeatedly that we can know for certain that we are saved. If one can lose their salvation, it cannot be wholly a work of grace as taught by Ephesians 2, Romans 3 and Titus 3.
It is also worthy of note that, IF you accept that this teaches that one can lose their salvation, I must warn you, then it also teaches that when the Father removes them they can never come back. People who say that the branches that are burned refer to Christians, who have lost their salvation, put themselves in a very difficult position (v. 6). The burning of the branches would then seem to imply that if you lost your salvation, you could never get it back again.
But we should be clear that Jesus is referring to conditions of fruitfulness, not to eternal security. We should not understand the passage to mean that God will remove from the number of the saved those who are not fruitful.
A consideration of the first part of this verse is helpful in understand this matter for it says, “every branch that is in Me” (v. 2). There are plenty of people “in” religion; and there are plenty of people “in” the church. But that does not mean they are “in” Jesus!
Some commentators (Wilkerson, Boice, and Guzik) see the answer is to understand the word translated “take away” (the Greek word - airo) can be translated “take up,” or “lift up.” It is translated in Matthew where the disciples “took up” twelve baskets of food after the feeding of the five thousand (14:20), and it is translated “bear” when describing Simon was forced to carry Christ’s cross (27:32). In John, John the Baptist calls Jesus the Lamb of God who “takes away” the sin of the world (John 1:29). In none of these cases does the term ever mean “cut off”; but rather “lift up” suggesting the image of a vinedresser leaning over to lift up a branch.
• He Purges (Cleanses) For More Fruit. (v. 2b)
The second thing that the Father is said to do to care for the vine is to prune it (KJV uses purge it) “and every branch that bears fruit He prunes (purges), that it may bear more fruit” the word is (katharizo) which means to cleanse. The point then in verse two is that when branches fall in the dirt God does not throw them away or abandon them. He lifts them up, cleans them off and helps them to flourish again. God’s goal with unfruitful Christians isn’t destruction but rather restoration
A modern person who works in vineyard provides the understanding we need. “New bran-ches have a natural tendency to trail down and grow along the ground, But they don’t bear fruit down there. When the branches grow along the ground, the leaves get coated in dust. When it rains, they get muddy and mildewed. The branch becomes sick and useless (the caretaker) goes through the vineyard with a bucket of water looking for those branches. He lifts them and wash them off…Then he wraps them around the trellis or ties them up. Pretty soon they are thriving.” [Bruce Wilkerson. The Secrets of the Vine. (Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah Pub., 2001) pp 34-35.]
David asked the question, “How shall a young man cleanse his way.” He answered, “By taking heed unto your word.” Jesus speaking to His Disciples said, “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.” (v.3)
Third, The Responsibility for Fruitfulness. (15:4-6)
• The Necessity of Abiding (vv. 4-5)
The secret of fruitfulness is found in “Abiding” Jesus says “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. (5) “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
The key is found in understanding what Jesus means by saying “abide in me” It can be a simple statement of fact, “You must abide in me and I must abide in you! It can also be seen as a promise, “Abide in me and I will abide in you.” Or it can be seen as a command, “Abide in me and I will see to it that I also abide in you.” (Boice. p. 1026)
According to Jesus here and throughout the Gospels, the mark of those that truly belong to Christ and are saved, is the bearing of good fruit. We are not saved by good fruit or any other work of our own, but by faith in Christ alone (Eph. 2:8-10). The presence of fruit however is the only visible proof of that our profession of faith is true. It is unfortunately possible to believe in the basic truths of the Christian faith and yet not truly be saved.
? Bearing Fruit is a responsibility.
We love to sing the old hymn, “Just As I Am.” And that of course is a wonderful truth, at the point of salvation, God does indeed take us as we are, but He will never be content to leave us as we were! Bearing fruit, however, requires a lifelong commitment of work and discipline. No plant "casually" produces a lot of fruit. Instead, it's a slow process, a structured process, and a process that produces fruit only "in season."
? Bearing Fruit is a life-long Pursuit.
In verse two Jesus began talking about producing fruit. Over the years many who have read this passage have seen this as a general call to believer’s to bring others to faith in Christ. There is however no reason to restrict the meaning of “fruit” only to the winning of souls. A study of “fruit” and “good works” in the Bible shows that the terms are used almost interchangeably. For example, Titus 3:14 says, “And let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, that they may not be unfruitful.”
The Psalmist says in Psalm 1:3, “He [the righteous man] shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.” Paul later told Christians that they were in Ephesians 2:10, “…created in Christ Jesus for good works…” In practical terms then fruit represents good works, a thought, attitude, or action of ours that God values because it glorifies Him. This can be seen in both inward fruit and outward fruit.
You bear inward fruit when you allow God to change your inner nature with new Christ-like qualities. In Galatians 5:22 we read, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.” You bear outward fruit when you allow God to work through your life to bring him glory. 2 Corinthians 9:8 says, “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.”
? Different Levels of Fruit Bearing.
In the picture that Jesus draws of the different levels of fruit bearing we can get a clear picture of what our life is adding up to for God at this moment. Let’s look again at verse two in greater detail. “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit (no fruit) He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit (some fruit) He prunes, that it may bear more fruit… (5) I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
Level One – “No fruit” (v. 2)
Level Two – “Some fruit” (v. 2)
Level Three – “More fruit” (v. 2)
Level Four – “Much fruit” (v. 5)
The question of course then becomes, “How much fruit do you see in your life today?” But the truth is that bearing fruit is not some unique phenomenon reserved for the elite Christians, the super saints. It is the destiny of every believer. Believers do not all produce the same quantity of fruit but they do all produce some fruit.
• The Prospect of Not Abiding (v.6)
“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. This passage concerning being “cast out” is interpreted at least three ways with regard to the security of the believer.
• In the first view “cast out” branches are ones who, though once true believers, end up in hell for lack of abiding and fruit. They were once disciples but are now “cast out”. If we hold to this view, we must reject all the scripture that teach security (Phil 1:6, Rom 8, John 10:27-29).
• ·The second view is that the “cast out” branches are ones who only appeared to be disciples (nominal Christians, Christians in name only), they never really abided in Jesus, and therefore go to hell (like Judas). There are those who profess to be Christians but we are not and will be ultimately separated from the true Church but that is not what is under consideration here.
• The third view (and preferred view) sees the “cast out” branches as fruitless disciples who live wasted lives whose works are burned and this passage doesn’t refer to their eternal destiny (like Lot, Abraham’s nephew).
Fourth, The Results of Abiding. (15:7-8)
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. (8) By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”
But how are we to “remain” and “abide” in Christ? First, we need to understand that our being “kept” in the Vine is not our task … but God’s. It is His work in us through Christ that keeps us.
But having said that, we do have a part of re-maining …for Jesus says in verse seven, “remain in My Words” … this means more than merely keeping lists of does and don’t… more than just reading your Bible. It is taking God at His Word in every instance of life be it crisis or crisis-free moments.
• Prayers are Answered (v. 7)
Jesus is not just telling the Disciple that IF they pray certain things will happen, He is encour-aging them, even commanding them to pray – “ask” (v.7) is an imperative. But this does not suggest that God will be your personal genie obligated to do whatever you wish. The promise is conditional. If we are connected to the vine and we are becoming more and more like the Lord, THEN our prayers will not selfish. There are things that we can pray for with absolute certainty of receiving an answer; we can pray for the things taught in Scripture, such as prayers for greater faith to believe, for greater compassion for the lost, for more power to share our faith, for courage to stand for the truth.
• God is Glorified (v. 8)
We prove our discipleship by bearing fruit to the Lord. As we model the character of Jesus, obeying His commands in the same way He obeyed those of the Father, God gets all the credit. But
“…if we are not abiding Christ and bearing the fruit of changed lives, then we are denying God the glory that should be His.” (Phillips. p. 298)
Conclusion
When we get discouraged in our walk and in our work, it is good to find a verse like verse five which reminds believers, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
But What does “abide” mean? We first we have to acknowledge that it only applies to believers. But how does one “abide in Christ”? “Abide” means to keep fellowship with Christ so that His life can work in and through us to produce fruit. According to verse three this involves the Word of God and the confession of sin so that nothing hinders our communion with Him.
