Abiding in Jesus, Living in Him (4)

 

“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.” John 15:4 – 5.

 

Let’s return to our question, “How is 15:4 – 5 portrayed in the relationship of Jesus and the Father?”

What do you see about Jesus and the Father in the following verses?

 

“Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.” John 5:19.

 

“I can do nothing on My own initiative [from Myself].” John 5:30a.

 

“When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I Am, and I do nothing on My own initiative [from Myself], but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.” John 8:28.

 

“For I did not speak on My own initiative [out of Myself, of Myself], but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.” John 12:49.

 

 Do you see a connection between what Jesus says about His relationship with the Father and what Jesus says to us about abiding in Him, the Vine?

 

Can we see that Jesus lived life in the Father, that He did nothing out of Himself? He said, “I can do nothing out of Myself.” The Father was the very source of life for Jesus Christ, and Jesus says that He is to be our very source of life. This means that Jesus could do nothing on His own “initiative” (the word used by the NASB) just as He says, “…for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

 

As Jesus Christ lived in the Father, we are to live in Jesus Christ. As the Father was Jesus’ source of life, so Jesus is to be our source of life. As Jesus could do nothing of Himself (on His own initiative), so we can do nothing of ourselves – not really. (See 1 Cor. 3:10 – 15 to see the end result of our works).

 

We have actually seen this already in the Upper Room, and we will see it again, especially when we arrive in the Holy of Holies in John Chapter 17. For example, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” How are we to love even as Jesus loves? We cannot do it, we simply cannot do it – we are bound to fail…unless we are abiding in the Vine and therefore drawing our life from Jesus Christ. If we abide in the Vine as our Way of Life, then loving even as Jesus loves is our naturally – supernatural Way of living.

 

When we enter into the Holy of Holies, we see that we are called into the very koinonia of the Trinity (John 17:21 – 23). In that holy koinonia we partake of the Divine Nature, and the depth of what it means to abide in the Vine engulfs and dwarfs our comprehension, it is beyond our understanding, but it ought not to be beyond our experience in Christ!

 

Now let me say that there is much mystery in all of this, and we simply cannot understand the depths of it all. For example, to those who say, “Well Jesus could live the life He lived because He is God,” the answer is, “No. that is not true. Jesus lived in the Father, by the Father, and out of the Father; and He calls us to live in Him, by Him, and out of Him – the Vine.”

 

The Incarnation is a mystery in so many ways. Perhaps in one sense the simplest element of the Incarnation is the physical aspect of what we call the Virgin Birth, while the depths of mystery lie in the nature of the Incarnate Christ Jesus – fully God and fully Man.

 

Consider Philippians 2:5 – 10:

 

“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross. For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

 

What does it mean that Christ Jesus “emptied Himself” in the Incarnation? (See also Hebrews 2:9 – 18). Whatever it means, I do not think we can define it, but we can behold it throughout the Gospels. One of the ways we behold this “emptying” is in what Jesus says about living out of the Father and doing nothing on His own initiative, doing nothing of Himself. The life of Jesus in the Father is the model for the Vine and the branches – we cannot really understand either one, but we can see Jesus in the Father and we can live our lives in union with Jesus Christ.

 

And this brings us to one of the great liberating statements in life, an understanding that sets us free to live as our Father intended, “There is only One Person who can live the Christian life, and that is God.” This is what the Vine and the branches teaches us, that we must abide in the Vine, drawing our life from Him, and that apart from Jesus we can do nothing.