- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
ABIDE IN CHRIST,
By Andrew Murray.
“I am the Vine, you are the branches” (John 15 v5).
Our Lord first used the expression, “Abide in me”, in this parable of the Vine. This parable, so simple and yet so rich in its teaching, gives us the best and most complete illustration of the meaning of our Lord’s command and the union to which He invites us.
The parable teaches us the nature of that union. The connection between the vine and the branch is a living one. No external or temporary union is enough. The branch, whether an original or a grafted one, is only so by the Creator’s own work, because of which the life, the sap and the fruitfulness of the vine may pass to the branch. It must be the same with us. Our union with our Lord is no work of human wisdom or human will, but is an act of God, by which the closest and most complete life-union is effected between the Son of God and the sinner. “God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts”. The same Spirit which lives in the Son becomes our life. In the unity of that one Spirit we become one with Him in the same way that the branch lives in the vine. It is a life-union that makes us one with Him.
The parable teaches us the completeness of this union, The union between the vine and the branch is so close that each is nothing without the other, and each is wholly and only for the other.
Without the vine the branch can do nothing. It owes its right of place in the vineyard to the vine, its life and its fruitfulness, and so the Lord says “Apart from Me you can do nothing”. We can only be pleasing to God in what He does through the power of Christ living in us. The daily inflowing of the life-sap of the Holy Spirit is our only power to bring forth fruit. We must live in Him and depend on Him alone, moment by moment.
Without the branch the vine can also do nothing. A vine without branches can bear no fruit. No less indispensable than the vine to the branch is the branch to the vine. Such is the wonderful condescension of the grace of Jesus that, just as we are dependent on Him, He has made Himself dependent on us. Without His disciples He cannot dispense His blessing to the world, and He cannot offer sinners the grace He longs to bestow. It is His purpose, and this is the high honour to which He has called us.
All that the vine possesses belongs to the branches. The vine does not gather from the soil its sweetness for itself, all it has is at the disposal of the branches. And Jesus, to whom we owe our life, has completely given Himself for us and to us, “I have given them the glory that You gave me” (John 17 v22). “Anyone who has faith in Me, will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these” (John 14 v12). All His fulness and all His riches are for us, for the vine does not live for itself, it keeps nothing for itself but exists only for the branches. All that Jesus is in heaven He is for us, He stands before the Father as our representative.
All that the branch possesses belongs to the vine. The branch does not exist for itself. It bears fruit to proclaim the excellence of the vine. It has no reason for existence except to serve the vine. What a glorious picture of our calling and of our consecration to the service of our Lord. As Jesus gives Himself wholly over to us, so we must be wholly our Lord’s. Every power of our being, every moment of our life, every thought and feeling, belong to Jesus, that from Him and for Him we may bring forth fruit. As we realise what the vine is to the branch, and what the branch is meant to be to the vine, so we have but one thing to think of and to live for and that is the kingdom of our blessed Lord, and to bring forth fruit to the glory of His name.
The parable teaches us the object of the union. The branches are for fruit and fruit alone. “He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit”. The branch needs leaves for the maintenance of its own life and the perfection of the fruit which it bears to be given away to those around. It is for fruit, much fruit, that the Father has made us one with Jesus.
This wonderful parable of the Vine, unveils the mysteries of the Divine love, of the heavenly life and of the world of the Spirit. Jesus the living Vine in heaven and we the living branches on earth. It is when we try to understand the meaning of the parable that the connection with it will come home to us in its true power. The thought of what the Vine is to the branch, and Jesus to the believer, will give new force to the words, “Abide in me”. It is as if He says, ‘Think how completely I belong to you. I have joined myself inseparably to you. All the fulness of the Vine are yours. Now you are in Me, all I have is yours. It is to my interest and honour to make you a fruitful branch. Abide in me. You are weak but I am strong. You are poor but I am rich. Only abide in me, yield yourself wholly to my teaching and rule. Simply trust my love, my grace and my promises. Only believe that I am wholly yours. I am the Vine, you are the branch. Abide in me’.
From: ‘Abide in Christ’.