I AM THE TRUE VINE

In Old Testament times the house of Israel was the vineyard of the Lord, Isa. 5. 7. Transplanted from Egypt, Ps. 80. 8, 9, and nourished in the land of promise. They were blessed by the Lord with every blessing of field, barn and orchard. They were fur­ther supported by the word of the Lord, spoken by His inspired messengers, the prophets. They were collectively held responsi­ble by the Lord to produce fruit for Him. This should have been shown in moral separation from the nations around them, and in displaying in their lives the holy and righteous character of God. The Lord looked for such sweet fruit of righteousness that would have cheered His heart. Sadly, He found oppression of the poor, immorality, breakdown of families and, worse still, idolatry. The cup of their iniquity was filled up when they rejected and crucified His Son. They indeed became a degener­ate and strange vine, Jer. 2. 21.

In this day of grace, God did not replace Israel, the fruitless vine, with another set of humans who are as prone to failure as Israel was. The church could not replace Israel as the vine. God has replaced it with His blessed Son; Christ now is the ‘true vine’ who can never fail, for He is not only human but truly divine. Our Lord, in the metaphor, is the stem into whom individual believers are incorporated as branches, totally dependant on Him for their fruitfulness. Everyone is held individually respon­sible for fruit bearing by the Father who is the Husbandman. Therefore, He removes the fruitless false professor, but cleans and purges the fruit bearing true believer so that he may bring forth more fruit, v. 2. That purging is brought about either by disciplinary action of the Father, Heb. 12. 11, or by the applica­tion of the word to the hearts of the believers, v. 3.

However, abiding in Christ is the indispensable condition for fruit bearing. He is the only source of nourishment and power for the branches so that they may be able to bear fruit. Abiding in Him results in displaying the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, Gal. 5. 22, 23; and, since without Him we can do nothing, we need to cultivate a dependence upon Him so that He may live His life through us, in the power of His Holy Spirit, v. 4.