READING: John 15.
Considering
the subject of this part of our Lord's discourse on the
way from the upper room to the Cross, we have to bring
into the foreground the governing object of all these
discourses, and indeed of all that is reported and
recorded in this Gospel. It is an object that is seen in
a peculiar way to govern the early part of this chapter -
the discourse on the vine. Before we can understand all
the rest - everything that the Lord is saying here - we
must see the object for which the vine exists. That
object is clearly shown to be nothing less than the
glory, pleasure, and satisfaction of God.
We
have previously defined the glory of God as being His
Divine nature satisfied in seeing His purposes realized:
His very nature in its peculiar requirements satisfied -
satisfied in the realization of its objects. But we must
not just take that as a definition or a statement in
words; we must feel it. It is the very being of God -
what He is in His nature - finding an answer in kind, as
embodied in purposes of His heart. When there is a
correspondence between God and the object - the sentient
object - of His work, there is a sense of
glory; it may express itself in worship, joy, rest,
gratification, a burst of praise. But this is something
rather to feel than to grasp mentally.
Thus,
it is the glory or the glorifying of the Father for which
the vine corporately exists. He is glorified in that
which is the fruit or issue of the existence of the vine.
So we let the glory of God interpret every statement of
the Lord Jesus in this remarkable, wonderful discourse.
We cannot just now go through the whole, sentence by
sentence, statement by statement. But if we take this
matter of God requiring to be satisfied in His nature,
and bring it alongside of each utterance of the Lord
Jesus throughout this discourse, it will explain
everything. It will even solve some of those
long-standing problems which this chapter holds. For the
moment we must confine ourselves to the statement that
the governing object of the existence of the vine is the
glory, or the glorifying of God: that is to say, His
satisfaction in the realization of His purposes.
Christ the True Vine
Having
established that, we proceed to consider the way to that
object, the way to the glorifying of God, as it is
revealed in this chapter. As we should expect, right at
the very beginning we are confronted with His Son, and
the first thing we meet here is a statement which
signifies the exclusiveness and uniqueness of the Son of
the Father. In words of comparison and contrast, He
begins, almost abruptly, it would seem: for, rising from
the supper and the upper room, and saying, "Let us
go hence," He just proceeds. It sounds almost an
abrupt continuation. But there is no interruption; He
just goes on talking. "I am the true vine."
"I" and "true" are words of
comparison and contrast. They follow in the line of many
such things already said. "I am the good
shepherd" (John 10:14); that is comparison and
contrast. It is invidious. "My Father giveth you the
true bread out of heaven"
(John 6:32).
This
comparison of the vine is, of course, with Israel who was
the Lord's vine. He "brought a vine out of
Egypt" (Psa. 80:8), but that vine failed to produce
the fruit for the glory of God; that is, the satisfaction
of God's nature in the realization of His purpose. It
proved a false vine - false to the Father's nature, false
to the Father's expectations, false to the Father's
purposes; still remaining in the earth for the time,
still in a way growing, developing, making a show, making
a profession, but now set aside as a false thing, in no
way corresponding to the intention of God in its
existence.
The
Son says: "I am the true vine."
What He is saying is that everything now for God's
satisfaction, for the satisfaction of the Father's nature
in the realization of His purposes, is centered in the
Father's Son; everything now is summed up in the Son.
"I am." When we gather together all those
"I ams" of this Gospel, how many there are of
them, and how tremendously emphatic they are, even in the
language itself. The "I" is emphatic. If we had
heard the Lord say it, in familiarity with the language
used, we should have heard the emphasis there: "I
am the true vine." So, everywhere in this Gospel, He
brings things away from all other connections, centers
them in Himself, and says: "Everything now of God's
expectation, God's purpose, God's satisfaction, and
therefore God's glory, is centered in His Son."
"I am." As I said just now, that is what we
should expect, when we are looking for God's satisfaction
and God's realization of heart-purpose. It is in His Son
we know that so well.
The Branches
But
then a wonderful thing about that - about the glory of
God, the satisfaction of God in realized purposes - is
carried by the next statement. "Ye are...."
"I am the vine, ye are the branches" (vs. 5),
and in between "my Father" (vs. 1). We must
always keep the terms clearly before us: the husbandry is
that of the Father; this has come as from a Father. It is
something begotten of God, something born of God;
something with which He, as Father, is bound up in a
heart-relationship, for which He is jealous with the
jealousy of a Father. This is not just a proprietor, an
owner. This is something of an inward relatedness, not
merely outward. The Father's heart is bound up with this.
It is pre-eminently a matter of love.
Identity of Life
"Ye
are the branches." In this statement there is at
once struck the note which is fundamental to the whole
New Testament revelation: the note of identity of life.
What a dominant matter that is in the New Testament, as
well as in our own experience! Of course, we are now able
to read into this the so much greater revelation which
came afterward as to its meaning, that of which this was
but an illustration. We "know it all" now; it
is one of the most familiar truths to us; and yet it is
the matter upon which the Father is concentrating every
day of our lives, and it is the matter which gives rise
to by far the greater measure of our troubles and
difficulties.
There
is not an adhesion to Christ; there is not a "coming
to" Him. There is a sense in which we come to Him,
in the sense of His words "Come unto me" (Matt.
11:28); or else "ye will not come to me" (John
5:40); but no one would ever say, in the light of the New
Testament, that coming to the Lord Jesus makes us an
organic part of Him. We need all those other
illustrations that are in the New Testament really to
express this, e.g. "planted together,"
"born anew," "buried-raised with
Christ," and so on. We do not just come as people,
and range ourselves at the side of a certain One, and
then go on together. That is not the teaching of the New
Testament. We come to Him and then are plunged into His
grave, and out of that grave we do not rise in our old
life, separate and different. "I have been crucified
with Christ; yet I live; and yet it is no longer I that
live, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. 2:20).
Now
we are familiar with that truth, but that is what the
Lord here lays down as the essential and indispensable
basis of any satisfaction to the Father and realization
of His purpose. It is basic to that; for only the Son can
satisfy the Father, and only in the Son can the Father's
purposes be realized. Therefore, if that is to be in any
way fulfilled through a corporate instrument, there must
be an absolute identity of life. We know now how that
takes place: whatever there is going to be will not be
from us - it will be from Him.
But
I do want specially to underline that point, that it is
not our coming unto Him that has this result; it is what
arises from His life within. It is the rising out from,
and not the coming unto, that makes all the difference.
We can adhere, we can sponsor, we can attach, we can take
up a position; we can "come just as we are" and
go on just as we are. We can still be in a kind of
relatedness to the Lord which does not bring with it any
rising out from the Lord, and it makes all the difference
to what kind of life ours is going to be in the matter of
God's glory. That is what the Lord is saying here, in
more words. He is pointing out that there can be a kind
of relatedness to Himself which does nor bear this fruit
to the Father's satisfaction and glory; something
somewhere is lacking. Whatever the function of the
branches - and that function is to bear the fruit of the
vine - they can do nothing in that matter apart from this
identity of life. This is a deep inward oneness with the
Lord, which is not two things, but is only one thing; and
that one thing is the Lord Jesus as the life.
The
whole teaching of the New Testament is that union with
Christ implies the end of any separateness of existence
as apart from or other than Christ Himself. It is
existence now as from a birth, not from an attachment;
from a life imparted which has never before been
possessed. It is something quite new, quite fresh, quite
other than there was hitherto. That is the uniqueness and
exclusiveness of Christ. So the branches become a part of
something unique, something different from all that we
know of mankind and creation, something that has not been
before.
The Purpose of the Vine's
Existence
We
come now to this matter of fruit, and we note that, so
far as the glory of God is concerned, it is a governing
matter. It is impressive that the Lord should have chosen
the vine as the symbol of this means of reaching His end.
You know so well that a vine has no other use in all the
world but to bear fruit. It has no by-products. There are
some things from which, if the main object is realized or
even has failed, you can get other things, byproducts;
there are secondary uses. But you cannot even make a
walking-stick out of a vine. If it does not bear fruit,
it is good for nothing. There is no other purpose to
which you can turn a vine except to make a bonfire of it.
The
whole object of the existence of Christ and His members
is this matter of fruit. The Lord expresses Himself here
in strong terms. If fruit is not forthcoming, He says,
such branches are cast out, gathered, thrown on the fire,
burned. Men do not say, Oh, well, it is not bearing any
fruit, but we can turn it to this use and to that, we can
make it serve some purpose. There is no alternative for a
vine. And there is no alternative for your life and mine,
in relation to Christ, but the glory of God. God has no
secondary purposes for us, saying, Oh, well, they are not
bearing any fruit - we will make some other use of them.
No: the glory of God in satisfaction, in the realization
of His purpose - His purpose -
is the only justification for our existence in relation
to Christ.
That
is precisely the reason why Israel was cast off and
burned. An old doctrinal or theological question arises
here; but I am not going to follow that out. Is Israel in
the fire? Have men cast Israel into the fire, since God
cast Israel off? Well, we know the answer to that. But,
leaving that aside for the moment, you see the point: it
is that, with God, this vine is only justified in having
an existence in the satisfaction of His nature and in the
fulfillment of His purposes. "Herein is my Father
glorified, that ye bear much fruit."
Fruit the Evidence of Life
And
it is the fruit which is the evidence of the life. That
is what the Lord comes down upon. He does not say that
branches and leaves justify the existence or prove
anything. It is the fruit which proves everything and it
is the fruit which proves the life. He fastens upon that:
the fruit proves the life. And Christ's life is
essentially fruitful. An unfruitful Christian is a
contradiction of Christ, a contradiction of the life of
Christ. Christ did not have to make efforts to be
fruitful; there was no effort in His fruitfulness. It was
spontaneous. The life itself is spontaneously, inevitably
fruitful.
Was
it not just there that Mr. Hudson Taylor came to his life
crisis, when, after years, he was brought to a complete
standstill on this question of fruitfulness? The whole
crisis turned upon his struggling, his agonizing, his
taking the strain and burden of this matter of
fruitfulness, until he fretted himself into despair. And
then he came upon this chapter of John's Gospel, and the
Lord, so to speak, stood by him and opened it up to him,
and showed him that He was the
life of the vine, and the branches had to do nothing by
way of struggle to bear fruit. All they had to do was to
let the life have its way unhindered. It came as a
revelation to him; you have it in that great chapter in
his autobiography, "The Exchanged Life." If the
life of the Lord is not frustrated, is not hindered, or,
to use the Lord's word here and its reiteration, if we
abide in Him, that is, keep on Christ's ground and do not
take our own or any other ground, the life proves itself
spontaneously in fruitfulness without any effort.
The Bearing of Fruit Is
Service
And
inasmuch as this fruit-bearing is the service which is
rendered to God and includes all that is meant by
Christian service, the service of the Lord; inasmuch as
the fruitbearing is the service of the believer and the
Church: then it is quite clear here that service and
union with Christ the right kind of union with Christ,
the kind that we have mentioned are the same thing. It is
a union that means identity of life through losing our
own and having His yielding up our apartness, our
independent life, and taking His. That union is
spontaneously service.
We
have thought of the service of God as a matter of
preaching and teaching and doing a multitude of things
for the Lord. They may only be the framework; they may
only be the outer casing, like the bark of a tree. The
Lord may pour His life through such methods and means, or
He may not let us do any preaching or teaching. In the
case of some, He may have the greatest measure of fruit
without ever any preaching being done at all. Fruit is
the spontaneous expression of a deep-rooted oneness with
Christ, and there may be very much satisfaction and glory
to God through people who are never allowed to preach or
teach or do any of those things which we call Christian
work. But to express Christ, to live Christ, to manifest
Christ, to let everything around feel Christ and be
touched by Christ through our presence - that certainly
is to the glory of God and the satisfaction of His heart,
and that is service.
For
what is this fruit? It is the life of Christ manifested,
and God help both the preachers and the teachers and the
workers, and those to whom they preach, if there is not a
manifestation of Christ coming through what they are
saying and doing. The real heart of it is this deep union
of life with the Lord, and it is this kind of service
which satisfies God.
The Pruning Knife
"Every
branch that beareth fruit, he cleanseth it," or
"purgeth it": by which we understand Him to
mean that He is pruning, and there are one or two things
which we must conclude from this procedure of the Lord.
He does not say that if a branch bears no fruit, He
prunes it to bear fruit - no, He cuts that off; but if it
bears some fruit, He "cleanseth it, that it may bear
more fruit." The point here is that, for the
Father's full satisfaction, it is not merely size that
weighs with Him, it is not just bigness, it is not the
expansiveness of the branches. The thing which counts
with the Father ultimately is the quality and amount of
fruit - in other words, the measure of Christ, the
essential qualities of Christ. Other metaphors or figures
the "Body of Christ" pre-eminently - will be
used in the later New Testament to set forth this
principle, but here it is the measure of Christ that the
Father is seeking.
We
can press that even more closely. Even in that which
comes from the Lord - for the fruit comes from the Lord;
it is the expression of His life - even in that very
vine, the Lord takes measures of curtailment in order to
get intrinsic values. Paul and the churches might well
have thought that it would be of far more value to God if
he had been kept at liberty, kept free to travel about
over the world and meet the saints; but God's pruning
knife decided that it would be of greater intrinsic value
if Paul's liberty were curtailed and he were put in
prison. We know the wisdom of God in that now. Thank God
for what came out of that prison in those letters -
intrinsic value indeed! Sometimes the wisdom and the love
of God operate in what looks like limitation, in certain
ways and certain directions, in order to get intrinsic
value. A seed-plot is an intensive thing, not necessarily
an expansive thing; but it may be that presently the
whole world will be sown from that seed-plot: that plant
or that crop will be reproduced everywhere. And the Lord
is saying here, "I am not first of all interested in
how big and expansive you are, in what you are doing,
even though it may be for Me, and even though it may be,
in measure, by the life which I have given you. What I am
primarily concerned about is the richness of the fruit,
the quality of the fruit and the real measure of
intrinsic value." You can have grapes and
grapes, and the Lord is after the first
quality. It means that there is a good deal of saying
"No" when that life is at work. Here are these
branches spreading, and the knife says, "No, not
that, not that, not that." The pruning knife is a
great instrument for God's "No" - but it is
governed by God's "Yes." The "Yes"
lies hidden behind. The "Yes" relates to the
quality and the intrinsic value of the fruit, the measure
of Divine satisfaction, and it is that which governs the
"No," which lops off.
The Object of the Pruning
Finally,
the work of the Husbandman, the Father, with His pruning
knife, has as its object the preserving of true
character. That is true in all pruning, as you know. You
go along the path there in the garden. You will see some
grafted rose bushes which once bore beautiful roses. They
were not pruned. Now they have run wild: the wild stocks
have been allowed to supplant the beautiful grafted
forms, and they are only bearing what we call dog-roses.
They may be pretty, but we know that the plant has run
wild for want of the knife. The result is not the real
thing - it is a wild thing; it is something inferior, it
is not what it might have been. It is so easy for us, if
the Lord spares the knife and leaves us alone, to lose
distinctive character. Just let us get out of the Lord
and run free, take our own way for a bit, and we lose
distinctiveness of character. There is a wildness, a
foreign element that comes in, and the real pleasure of
the Lord is lost. It is not until that knife comes back
and does some pretty hard work, saying, "No, no, not
that way, not that way," that the Lord recovers the
thing which He first intended as His own satisfaction.
But what is the result? "These things have I spoken
unto you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy
may be made full." We have to admit, after all, that
it was not in that independent way that we really found
our joy; our joy is being in the way of the Lord's first
appointment and choice, and our joy is restored very
often by the knife. "That my joy may be in
you."
If
you go to Hebrews 12, you will see the fuller
interpretation and explanation. It is the Father's hand
that is upon us to get that which, firstly, justifies our
existence - the satisfaction of His nature, the
fulfillment of His purpose - and in so doing brings His
joy into our hearts. It is not our joy in the first
place, but His. Then our joy is His joy - and our joy is
fulfilled.