Jesus is the Vine

The extended allegory of Jesus as the vine and us as the branches is written In John 15.  One of the main ideas that Jesus is portraying with this example is our inability to function well outside of His help. He provides life and health to us. In fact, there is no other way to life and health.

Note: All quotes are from the King James Version.

Very simply, branches cannot bear fruit when cut off from the vine; they can’t even survive. The branches on the vine in the image above are alive and healthy because they are all connected to the vine. Verse 4 states, “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 yet abide in me.”

Verse 5 further reveals our helplessness apart from God: “…he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”

The flip side of doing nothing outside of Christ’s anointing (help) is that we can do anything with his anointing. Verse 7 expresses the full extent of our power in Christ: “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”

How amazing is that?! We can ask what we will, in righteousness, and it will be given to us.

On the other hand, is this whole process easy? Is it easy to lean completely on God and do everything His way? Absolutely not!!!!! Yet, it’s necessary. It’s as necessary to allow God into every aspect of our lives as it is necessary to allow a gardener to prune vines. Vines must be pruned in order to make them healthier. A gardener can only get rid of dead weight and improve growth through trimming.

God prunes us (if we follow Him) to get rid of our dead weight in order to promote growth that we can only imagine right now.

My Conclusion

God can see what we cannot. (He’s God, and we aren’t.) He is not bound by our limited vision. He can see the end result of the traumatic times (pruning) that we go through. He is the metaphorical master gardener. He sees the beautiful, green vine in us the same as the master sculptor, Michelangelo saw finished masterpieces in almost 30-year old imperfect slabs of Carrera marble.

Do you trust Him?