 |
| Christ: The True Vine |
“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” (John 15:5).
Jesus is the vine. The vine carries the nourishing sap to the branches, from which fruit will grow. We are the branches. In order to produce fruit, we branches must remain connected to the vine. Branches which are disconnected from the vine and do not receive sap do not produce fruit. God the Father, the Vinedresser, removes those dead branches. Every branch that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Just as branches must abide in the vine in order to bear fruit, we must abide in Christ to bear fruit. Without Christ, we can do nothing. Apart from Christ we are dead, fruitless branches. Such branches are broken off and cast into the fire.
What is the fruit of which Jesus speaks? Good deeds? Certainly. We know that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.[1] Certainly a disciple of Christ who abides in Him and keeps His Word will exhibit these fruits to a greater, or lesser, degree. A good tree, Jesus teaches, cannot bear bad fruit. One does not collect figs from thistles. But Jesus is not simply talking about doing good deeds; He certainly isn’t telling His disciples to do good works in order to merit, increase, or strengthen their connection to the vine. After all, it is the Vinedresser’s job to graft branches into the vine, and cleanse the vine by pruning it back.[2]
God does this grafting in and pruning through His holy Word. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.[3] God’s Word lives and abides forever, and through it men are born again.[4] The Gospel of Christ is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.[5] Through His Word God shows us our sin; He brings us to repentance. In we who were spiritually dead and the enemies of God by our nature, He creates faith though the power of the Holy Spirit, working through His Word. Using His tools of word, water, bread and wine, He cleanses us from our sin and grafts us into the True Vine, where we receive the gifts of forgiveness of sins and everlasting life, won for us by the death and resurrection of Jesus.
We are still called to bear fruits worthy of repentance.[6] Our good works are evidence of our faith; faith without such works is dead.[7] You cannot separate faith from its natural fruit of good works. If you have one, the other follows naturally. And so, as St. Paul explains to the Philippians, we work out our faith in fear and trembling.[8] We cannot boast about all the good things we do; we cannot boast about our salvation. God’s action is the cause of both. And though we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, we go about it doing the works which God prepared beforehand for us to do.[9] It is God who works in you, both to will and to do, for His good pleasure.[10]
No comments:
Post a Comment