James Nisbet Commentary - John 15:5 - 15:5

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James Nisbet Commentary - John 15:5 - 15:5


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THE UNION OF CHRIST AND THE BELIEVER

‘I am the vine, ye are the branches.’

Joh_15:5

The vine was a national emblem, like our rose, thistle, or shamrock, or like the lily of France. One of Isaiah’s most striking parables was the Parable of the Vineyard. He compared Israel to a vineyard planted by the Lord, protected and cultivated, but which brought forth only wild grapes, and was condemned and destroyed. Now Jesus takes up the old parable to make it a parable of the new covenant with heaven.

I. The union of Christ and the believer.—The great thought here is perhaps the deepest thought of all the Christian religion: the most essential truth of the reality of the union of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, with His believers, called Christians. He is the vine—and the vine is no good without the branches—and we are the branches. The anxious disciples may say, ‘We cannot live without Thee’; and He answers, ‘But ye shall not live without Me. As the branches of that climbing tree live by the life that springs from its root, so shall you live by My life in you. Ye cannot see the sap that flows from the stem into the branches, neither shall ye see Me with your eyes, but yet shall feel the power of My life. Your union shall be closer than ever; a vital union. But oh, beware! lest you be separated from Me in spirit like that dead branch. Let not the world tear you from Me, for then you would be as that branch that dies.’

II. The branches bear fruit.—The full beauty of this paragraph appears when we realise that the branches are as necessary to the stem as the stem is to the branches. The branches bear fruit, so that from Christ grew the Church. Your faith and life spring from His life, your Divine power to do good comes from Him, and God proves His confidence in us by entrusting to us, wholly and entirely, without any reservation, the fulfilment of His purpose on earth. He bids us do the work that Jesus did in the world, aye! and greater work, because Jesus could only do them one at a time in one country. We can do them always, everywhere. Each of us is then the appointed minister of Christ. We have His eyes to look with love on the poor, His hand to help the sick, His tongue to speak the word of truth, His feet to carry far and wide the message of eternal life. Christ depends upon us; He cannot work without us. He is the vine, we are the branches; and since He wants us to be fruitful, He watches us with constant care. As the gardener prunes away those luxuriating branches which would spend the life of the vine in fruitless growth, God cleanses His vine with the discipline of religion to rid us of those tendencies to self-love and self-indulgence which mar our Christian service.

Thus the parable is complete, for its shows us God planting Christ in the world, and bringing forth from Christ His Church and giving to His Church the Divine life of His Son, and training the Church to do His work; and it shows us ourselves having the Divine life abiding in Christ, enabled to work out God’s purposes and to attain, at last, His ends. There cannot be any fruit unless He sends it.

—
Prebendary the Hon. J. S. Northcote.

Illustration

‘A story is told of a Welsh preacher having engaged to preach on some special occasion. The hour of service had arrived, but the preacher did not appear. A servant was sent to call him, and she said he had a Companion, for she had overheard the remark, “I shall not go unless Thou goest with Me.” They understood, then, that he was praying, and when he went into the pulpit he was not alone, for Christ went with him, and the power of the Gospel prevailed over the hearts and consciences of men.’



APART FROM THE VINE

‘Without Me ye can do nothing.’

Joh_15:5

These are the words of our Lord Himself about Himself. They might be more accurately translated thus—‘Apart from Me ye can do nothing’—the idea being not merely that the help of Jesus is required in order that we may have spiritual life and bear ‘fruit’ to the praise and glory of God, but that we cannot even possess spiritual life at all unless we are united to Him as the branch is united to the tree.

I. No fruit without life.—In the natural world we see this at once. You have a dead tree in your garden; and you know perfectly well that no amount of careful pruning, no application of water or of manure to its roots, will enable it to bear fruit. What it wants is life, and that the Creator alone can give. So with the human being. The Scripture compares him to a plant, and as a plant he must be alive before you can expect to get anything from him that God will be pleased with, and will consent to accept. What can come from a soul ‘dead in trespasses and sin’?

II. There can be no life apart from Christ.—Perhaps this statement requires a little explanation. We are not speaking here about the life of the body, or of the mind and feelings—life, which all persons, good and bad, possess; but of a special thing—a thing by which we become acquainted with God, and know, and love, and serve Him. This particular kind of life is a Divine gift, and it is the beginning or germ of ‘life eternal’; and in order to be possessed of it we must be possessed of Christ Himself. See 1Jn_5:12—He that hath the Son.’ Hath Christ as an inward treasure—as an inmate dwelling in the secret recesses of the soul. Hath Christ as His prophet to teach him. His Priest to atone for and to bless him. His King to rule and direct him. Hath Christ as his ‘portion’ (Psa_119:57). He and he alone hath the life which is ‘life indeed.’ Such a one is united with Christ, and by virtue of this union obtains the blessing we speak of.

III. No union with Christ without faith.—This fact is abundantly testified to in Holy Scripture, especially in the Gospel of John. There everything is represented as hanging upon faith. Without faith the human soul stands aloof from Christ.

Prebendary Gordon Calthrop.

Illustration

‘The marginal reading gives our Lord’s meaning more completely: “Severed from Me, separate from Me, you have no strength, and can do nothing. You are as lifeless as a branch cut off from the parent stem.” We must always take care that we do not misapply and misinterpret this text. Nothing is more common than to hear some ignorant Christians quoting it partially as an excuse for indolence and neglect of means of grace. “You know we can do nothing,” is the cry of such people. This is dragging out of the text a lesson it was never meant to teach. He that spoke these words to His eleven chosen Apostles is the same Lord Who said to all men who would be saved: “Strive to enter in”;—“Labour for the meat which endureth to everlasting life”;—“Repent and believe” (Luk_13:24; Joh_6:27; Mar_1:15).’