5 Fruitbearing is not only possible but certain if the branch remains in union with the vine. Uniformity of quantity and quality are not promised. But if the life of Christ permeates a disciple, fruit will be inevitable.
Tenney, M. C. (1981). John. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: John and Acts (Vol. 9, p. 151). Zondervan Publishing House.
5 Thus far in the allegory it has been assumed that the branches are to be understood as the disciples. Here this identity is confirmed: “I am the vine; you are the branches.” Jesus does not say that he is the stem and we are the branches. As vine he is both stem and branches. We are included in him (cf. the analogous figure of Christ as the whole body [1 Co 12:12] while at the same time its head [Eph 4:15]). The life of the branch is the life of the vine. The branch has no life of its own. For this reason it must remain in the vine.
Jesus promises that if we as branches remain in him (and he in us), we will “bear much fruit.” The life of the believer who abides in Christ cannot help but be productive. Fruit is the necessary result of maintaining a vital relationship with the vine. “Apart from me,” says Jesus, “you can do nothing.” Cut off from the source of life, the branch will wither and die. Cut off from Christ by an unwillingness to abide, the professing Christian will be unable to produce fruit or, for that matter, do anything of spiritual consequence.
Mounce, R. H. (2007). John. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Luke–Acts (Revised Edition) (Vol. 10, p. 575). Zondervan.
5 For “I am the vine” see on verse 1. “I” and “you” are set over against each other by the use of the emphatic pronouns. The roles of Christ and of his followers are not to be confused. But there is a mutual indwelling, and this is the condition of fruitfulness. Those who so abide in Christ and have Christ abiding in them keep on bearing fruit in quantity. The verse concludes with an emphatic declaration of human helplessness apart from Christ. In isolation from him no spiritual achievement is possible. For the complementary truth compare “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Phil. 4:13).
Morris, L. (1995). The Gospel according to John (pp. 595–596). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Ver. 5.—Christ returns to the main theme of the previous verse, but here discriminates more forcibly the vine from the branches, and yet holds and binds them into a unity. I am the vine, ye are the branches; which shows that he treated the disciples themselves as the organs of his earthly fruit-bearing; and then draws a larger circle and makes a complete and comprehensive statement on which the very existence of the “true vine,” the “body of Christ, including the Head,” depends, viz. He that abideth in me, and I in him—i.e. whenever the conditions of which I have spoken to you are fulfilled; wherever there are human souls deriving from their connection with me the full advantage of the life ever streaming forth from me—the same beareth much fruit; the entire end of their new life is secured. He beareth “much fruit.” In other words, many of those blessed fruits of the supernatural life appear, which the great Husbandman desires to receive. And this strengthens the position of the previous verse, which threatened excision from the vine to such as bear no fruit. Such, though in one sense “in the Vine,” do not abide in him. Because apart from—severed from—me ye can do nothing. The ὅτι suggests the question—Can the negative result justify the positive assertion? It does in this way. There are two premises: the first is, “I am the Vine, and ye are the branches,” and the second is, “Severed from me a branch can effect nothing,” having no independent fruitfulness or stability. All its powers are derived from this supernatural source, and depend on Christ’s faithfulness to his own nature and functions; therefore, “He that abideth in me, and I in him, bringeth forth much fruit.” The language here does not repress the endeavour of the human will after righteousness, nor pronounce a judgment on the great controversy between Augustinians and Pelagians. These words are not addressed to unconverted men, but to disciples, who have to learn their constant need of spiritual contact with their invisible Lord. Let a believer, let an apostle, sever himself from Christ, and live on his own past reputation or his supposed strength, on the clearness of his intellect, the vigour of his body, the eminence of his position, he can and will do nothing.
Spence-Jones, H. D. M., ed. (1909). St. John (Vol. 2, p. 269). Funk & Wagnalls Company.
- Until this point, Jesus had only implied that his disciples were branches in the true vine; now he states this quite explicitly: I am the vine; you are the branches. He then reiterates the teaching of 15:4: If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. If the disciples remain in fellowship with Jesus by observing his teaching, and he remains in fellowship with them through the coming of the Spirit, the disciples will produce much fruit in their lives—fruit that will please the Father. However, if they do not remain in fellowship with Jesus, there will be no fruit, as Jesus said, apart from me you can do nothing.
Kruse, C. G. (2017). John: An Introduction and Commentary (E. J. Schnabel, Ed.; Second edition, Vol. 4, p. 369). Inter-Varsity Press.
Ver. 5. I am the Vine, ye are the branches.—
The true branches of the True Vine:—No wise teacher is ever afraid of repeating himself. The average mind requires the reiteration of truth before it can make that truth its own. One coat of paint is not enough, it soon rubs off.
I. THE FRUITFULNESS OF UNION. 1. “I am the Vine” was a general truth, with no clear personal application. “Ye are the branches” brought each individual listener into connection with it. How many people there are that listen in a fitful sort of languid way, interestedly, to the most glorious and solemn truths and never dream that they have any bearing upon themselves! The one thing most needed is that truth should be sharpened to a point and the conviction driven into you, that you have got something to do with this great message. “Ye are the branches” is the one side of that sharpening and making definite of the truth in its personal application, and the other side is “Thou art the man.” All religious teaching is toothless generalities, utterly useless, unless we can force it through the wall of indifference and vague assent. 2. Note next the great promise, “He that abideth in Me, and I in Him,” &c. Abiding in Christ, and Christ’s abiding in us means a temper and tone of mind very far remote from the noisy, bustling distractions too common in our present Christianity. We want quiet, patient, waiting within the veil. The best way to secure Christian conduct is to cultivate communion with Christ. Get more of the sap into the branch, and there will be more fruit. We may grow graces artificially and they will be of little worth. First of all be, and then do; receive, and then give forth. That is the Christian way of mending men, not tinkering at this, that, and the other individual excellence, but grasping the secret of total excellence in communion with Him. Our Lord is here not merely laying down a law, but giving a promise, and putting His veracity into pawn for the fulfilment of it. 3. Notice that little word which now appears for the first time: “much.” We are not to be content with a poor shrivelled bunch of grapes that are more like marbles than grapes, here and there, upon the half-nourished stem. God forbid that I should say that there is no possibility of union with Christ and a little fruit. A little union will have a little fruit; but the only two alternatives here are, “no fruit,” and “much fruit.” And I would ask why it is that the average Christian man of this generation bears only a berry or two here and there, like such as are left upon the vines after the vintage, when the promise is that if he will abide in Christ, he will bear much fruit. 4. This verse, setting forth the fruitfulness of union with Jesus, ends with the brief solemn statement of the converse—the barrenness of separation. There is the condemnation of all the busy life of men which is not lived in union with Jesus Christ; it is a long row of figures which, like some other long rows of figures added up, amount just to Zero. “Without Me, nothing.”
II. THE WITHERING AND DESTRUCTION OF SEPARATION FROM HIM (ver. 6). 1. Separation is withering. Did you ever see a hawthorn bough that children bring home from the woods, and stick in the grate; how in a day or two the fresh green leaves all shrivel up and the white blossoms become brown and smell foul, and the only thing to be done with it is to fling it into the fire and get rid of it? Separate from Christ, the individual shrivels, and the possibilities of fair buds wither and set into no fruit. And no man is the man he might have been unless he holds by Jesus Christ and lets His life come into Him. And as for individuals, so for communities. The Church or the body of professing Christians that is separate from Jesus Christ dies to all noble life, to all high activity, to all Christlike conduct, and, being dead, rots. 2. Withering means destruction. Look at the mysteriousness of the language. “They gather them.” “They cast them into the fire.” Who have that tragic task? The solemn fact that the withering of manhood by separation from Jesus Christ requires, and ends in, the consuming of the withered, is all that we have here. We have to speak of it pityingly, with reticence, with terror, with tenderness, with awe lest it be our fate. Be on your guard against that tendency of this generation, to paste a bit of blank paper over all the threatenings of the Bible. One of two things must befall the branch, either it is in the Vine or it gets into the fire. And if we would avoid the fire let us see to it that we are in the Vine.
III. THE UNION WITH CHRIST AS THE CONDITION OF SATISFIED DESIRES (ver. 7). Our Lord instead of saying, “I in you,” says “My words in you.” He is speaking about prayers, consequently the variation is natural. The abiding of His words in us is largely the means of His abiding in us. 1. What do we mean by this? Something a great deal more than the mere intellectual acceptance. Something very different from reading a verse in a morning, and forgetting all about it all the day long; something very different from coming in contact with Christian truth on a Sunday, when somebody else preaches what he has found in the Bible to us, and we take in a little of it. It means the whole of the conscious nature of a man. His desires, understanding, affections, will, all being steeped in those great truths which the Master spoke. Put a little bit of colouring matter into the fountain at its head and you will have the stream dyed down its course for ever so far. See that Christ’s words be lodged in your inmost selves, and all the life will be glorified and flash into richness of colouring and beauty by their presence. 2. The main effect of such abiding of the Lord’s words with us is, that in such a case, my desire will be granted. If Christ’s words are the substratum of your wishes, then your wishes will harmonize with His will, and so “Ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you.”
IV. THIS UNION AND FRUITFULNESS LEAD TO THE NOBLE ENDS OF GLORIFYING GOD AND INCREASING DISCIPLESHIP (ver. 8). 1. Christ’s life was all for the glorifying of God. The lives, which are the life of Christ in us, will have the same end and the same issue. We come there to a very sharp test. How many of us are there on whom men, looking, think more loftily of God. And yet we should all be mirrors of the Divine radiance, on which some eyes, that are too dim and sore to bear the light as it streams from the sun, may look, and, beholding the reflection, may learn to love. 2. And if thus we abide in Him and bear fruit we shall “become His disciples.” The end of our discipleship is never reached on earth; we never so much are, as we are in the process of becoming, His true followers and servants. If we bear fruit because we are knit to Him, the fruit itself will help us to get nearer Him, and so be more His disciples and more fruitful. Character produces conduct, but conduct reacts on character and strengthens the impulses from which it springs. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
Growth from within:—This growing is to be the growth of a branch: not by accretion, by adding to the surface, but by strength and development from within. You may make a molehill into a mountain by bringing a sufficiency of material to it, to swell the rising pile; but trees and branches expand from within: their growth is the putting forth of a vital but unseen force. The life-power in the stock, being also in the bough, compels an outward exhibition of results in progressive keeping with the vigour and strength of the supplies. So the believer “grows up” into Christ into ever-increasing holiness, influence and grace through the Divine afflatus which is at work within his soul, for it is thus that “God worketh in you” more and more “to will and to do of His good pleasure.” By this inner power the branches of a tree have a wonderful power of assimilation. They take hold upon all surrounding forces and turn them to advantage. The dew that falls, the gases of the atmosphere, the descending rain, the chemistry of the sunlight, all are drawn into it; all are made a part of itself, are made to serve its purpose and to nurse its health. The very storms that blow, the alternations of weather that test and try it and ofttimes seem to work it damage, are all made to consolidate its fibres, to quicken the action of its sap, and send new energy through every vein, a stronger life-thrill into every leaf. So grows the righteous soul into higher, stronger, more mature religious life. “All things are yours,” says the apostle Paul. That is to say, all events, all experiences, all the providences of God, all the circumstances of life, as well as all the riches of promised grace, are made by the goodness and wisdom of God to serve the Christian’s interests and help his soul to grow. The dew of the Spirit, the sunshine of God, the aids of the sanctuary, the society of the good, the exercise of Christian toil, the business of life, the storms and tempests of sorrow and toil—all things, by reason of the subtle power of the inner life, are made to help the Christian, to deepen his piety, to strengthen his soul, to beautify his character, to mature and ripen his graces, and to give him a stronger grip upon his God. “All things work together for good to them that love God.” Neither is there any limit to the attainments possible to the godly soul. Under the influence of the Divine life it is placed amid an exhaustless store of nourishment, it is grafted into the Vine whose Root is the Godhead and whose resources are infinite and eternal. (J. J. Wray.)
Religion in diverse places:—I saw a vine growing on the fertile plain of Damascus with “boughs like the goodly cedars” (Psa. 80:10). One “bough” of that vine had appropriated a large forest tree; it had climbed the giant trunk, it had wound itself round the great gnarled arms, it had, in fact, covered every branch of the tree with garlands of its foliage, and bent down every twig with the weight of its fruit. And I saw another branch of the same vine spread out along the ground, and cover bushes and brambles with foliage as luxuriant and fruit as plentiful as those on the lordly forest tree. So is it in the Church. Some branches of that heaven-planted vine climb to the very pinnacles of human society. They appropriate and sanctify the sceptre of the monarch, the dignity of the peer, the power of the statesman, the genius of the philosopher, and they shed a lustre upon each and all greater and more enduring than can ever be conferred by gemmed coronet or laurel crown. While other branches of the same vine find a congenial sphere in humbler walks, they penetrate city lanes, they creep up wild mountain glens, they climb the gloomy stair to the garret where the daughter of toil lies on her death-bed, and they diffuse wherever they go a peace and a joy and a halo of spiritual glory, such as rank and riches cannot bestow, and such too as poverty and suffering cannot take away. Peer and peasant, philosopher and working man, king and beggar, have equal rights and rewards in the Church. They are united to the same Saviour on earth, and they shall recline on the same bosom in heaven. (J. L. Porter, LL.D.)
Variety of Christian growth:—There may be a hundred branches in a vine; their place in reference to each other may be far apart; they may seem to have but a very distant connection with each other; but having each a living union with the central stem, they are all members of the same Vine, and every one of them therefore is a member one of the other. Some of the branches are barely above the ground; some peer higher than all the rest; some are weighted with fruit, much fruit rich and fine; some bear but little fruit and that only small and inferior; some occupy important and central positions; some are seemingly insignificant, and look as though they might readily be dispensed with; as though, indeed, the tree would be healthier and more graceful without them; some are old and well grown, thoroughly strong and established; others are young, delicate, and need development. But whatever variety there may be among the branches in size, circumstance, or state, they all form a part of one complete, harmonious and like-natured whole. The vine-stem is the common centre, and in it all partake of a common life. (J. J. Wray.)
The Christian individuality:—The discoveries of vegetable physiology have shown that every branch is, in fact, a tree perfectly distinct and complete in itself: a tree which, by means of roots struck into the parent tree, derives its life, and sends out its leafage. The common idea is, that every tree in the ground has in itself the same kind of individual existence that a man has, and that, just as in the body limbs and various organs are component parts of a man, so the bole, the boughs, and the leaves are component parts of a tree. But the common idea is wrong; a tree is, in truth, a colony of trees, one growing on another—an aggregate of individuals—a body corporate, losing nothing, however, and merging nothing of its own individuality. It is charming to study a scientifically written biography of a tree, giving an account of its cells and pores and hairs, telling the tale of its evolution and its education; its infinite relations with all the elements, and how it is affected by the chemistries of nature; tracing it from its first faint filament to its full wealth of foliage and its final sweep of extension; thereby revealing through this miracle of the forest the glory of God. But, for the reasons suggested by some of the thoughts just confessed, interesting as is the story of a tree, a Christian will find the life-story of a mere branch scarcely less interesting, for it teaches him how to connect the ideas of total dependence and perfect individuality. I am a branch, yet I am a true tree—a tree growing on another tree—even on the Tree of Life. I see it all now, and also see the harmony between this particular Scripture and other Scriptures, better than formerly. It is scientifically true that I am a branch in the Vine, yet that I am a tree, answering to the description, “Rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.” (C. Stanford, D.D.)
The buds:—A Sunday-school teacher was trying to make his class understand this lesson. “Jesus is the Vine,” said he, “we are the branches; we get all our life and happiness from Him.” “Yes,” said a little fellow in the class, “Jesus is the Vine, grown up people are the branches, and we young ones are the buds.” In the natural vine the buds do not bear any fruit. But in Jesus, the Spiritual Vine, even the buds can be fruitful; the youngest can make themselves useful. (J. L. Nye.)
The condition of fruitfulness:—I saw a little twig scarcely an inch long, so tender an infant hand could break it; rough and unseemly without comeliness, and when I saw it there was no beauty that I should desire it. It said: “If I were comely and beautiful, like those spring flowers I see, I could attract, and please, and fulfil a mission.” It said: “If I were like yonder oak or cedar, I could afford shelter to God’s weary sheep at noonday, and the fowls of heaven should sing among my branches.” It said: “If I were even strong, I might bear some burden, or serve a purpose as a peg, a bolt, or a pin, in God’s great building that is going up. But so unsightly, so weak, so small!” A voice said to it: “Abide in Me, and I in you, He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” And so it rested. It was not long until a glory of leaves crowned it, and in God’s time I saw the heavy fruit it bore. Without Me ye can do nothing.—
Without Christ—nothing:—No saint, prophet, apostle would ever have said this to a company of faithful men. Among the virtues of a perfect man we must certainly reckon modesty. It is impossible to conceive that Jesus of Nazareth, had he not been more than man, could ever have uttered this sentence. We have here—
I. AN ASPIRATION OF HOPE. From such a root what a vintage must come! Being branches in Him, what fruit we must produce! That word “do” has music in it. Jesus went about doing good, and, being in Him, we shall do good. There is the hope of doing something in the way of glorifying God by bringing forth—1. The fruits of holiness, peace, and love. 2. Fruit in the conversion of others. 3. Fruit of further blessing will ripen for this poor world. Men shall be blessed in us because we are blessed in Christ.
II. A SHUDDER OF FEAR. It is possible that I may be without Christ, and so may be utterly incapacitated for all good. 1. What if you should not be so in Christ as to bring forth fruit? If you are without Christ, what is the use of carrying on that Bible-class; for you can do nothing? 2. What if you should be in Christ, and not so in Him as to abide in Him? It appears from our Lord’s words that some branches in Him are cast forth and are withered. What if you are off and on with Christ! What if you play fast and loose with the Lord! What if you are an outside saint and an inside devil! What will come of such conduct as this?
III. A VISION OF TOTAL FAILURE. 1. A ministry without Christ in its doctrine will do nothing. Preachers aspire to be leaders of thought; will they not command the multitude and charm the intelligent? “Add music and architecture, and what is to hinder success, and what has been done?” The sum total is expressed in the text—“Nothing.” 2. Without acknowledging always the absolute supremacy of Christ we shall do nothing. Jesus is much complimented but He is not submitted to. Certain modern praises of Jesus are written upon the theory that, on the whole, the Saviour has given us a religion that is tolerably suited to the enlightenment of the nineteenth century, and may be allowed to last a little longer. It is fortunate for Jesus that He commends Himself to the “best thought” and ripest culture of the period; for, if He had not done so, these wise gentlemen would have exposed Him as being behind the times. Of course they have every now and then to rectify certain of His dogmas; He is rectified and squared, and His garment without seam is taken off, and He is dressed out in proper style, as by a West-end clothier; then He is introduced to us as a remarkable teacher, and we are advised to accept Him as far as He goes. Now, what will come of this foolish wisdom? Nothing but delusions, mischief, infidelity, anarchy, and all manner of imaginable and unimaginable ills. 3. You may have sound doctrine, and yet do nothing unless you have Christ in your spirit. In former years many orthodox preachers thought it to be their sole duty to comfort and confirm the godly few who by dint of great perseverance found out the holes and corners in which they prophesied. These brethren spoke of sinners as of people whom God might possibly gather in if He thought fit to do so; but they did not care much whether He did so or not. When a Church falls into this condition it is, as to its spirit, “without Christ.” What comes of it? The comfortable corporation exists and grows for a little while, but it comes to nothing. 4. But above all things we must have Christ with us in the power of His actual presence. The power lies with the Master, not with the servant; the might is in the hand, not in the weapon. 5. We have, then, before us a vision of total failure if we attempt in any way to do without Christ. He says, “Without Me ye can do nothing:” it is in the doing that the failure is most conspicuous. You may talk a good deal without Him; you may hold conferences and conventions; but doing is another matter. The most eloquent discourse without Him will be all a bottle of smoke. You shall lay your plans, and arrange your machinery, and start your schemes; but without the Lord you will do nothing.
IV. A VOICE OF WISDOM, which speaks out of the text, and says to us who are in Christ—1. Let us acknowledge this. 2. Let us pray. If without Christ we can do nothing, let us cry to Him that we may never be without Him. 3. Let us personally cleave to Jesus. 4. Heartily submit yourselves to the Lord’s leadership, and ask to do everything in His style and way. He will not be with you unless you accept Him as your Master. 5. Joyfully believe in Him. Though without Him you can do nothing, yet with Him all things are possible.
V. A SONG OF CONTENT. “Without Me ye can do nothing.” Be it so. Do you wish to have it altered, any of you that love His dear name? I am sure you do not: for suppose we could do something without Christ, then He would not have the glory of it. Who wishes that? If the Church could do something without Christ she would try to live without Him. As I listened to the song I began to laugh. I thought of those who are going to destroy the orthodox doctrine from off the face of the earth. They say our old theology is decaying, and that nobody believes it. It is all a lie. If His friends can do nothing without Him, I am sure His foes can do nothing against Him. I laughed, too, because I recollected a story of a New England service, when suddenly a lunatic started up and declared that he would at once pull down the meeting-house about their ears. Taking hold of one of the pillars of the gallery, this newly-announced Samson repeated his threatening. Everybody rose; the women were ready to faint. There was about to be a great tumult; no one could see the end of it; when suddenly one cool brother produced a calm by a single sentence. “Let him try!” Even so to-day the enemy is about to disprove the gospel and crush out the doctrines of grace. Are you distressed, alarmed, astounded? So far from that, my reply is this only—Let him try! (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Nothing without Christ:—
I. AS TO THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. There is much in the Bible which all must understand and admire; but as to its moral spirit and purpose what can be done without Christ? How slow of heart to believe were the disciples till Christ opened their understandings (Luke 24:48). Of the Old Testament Christ said, “They are they which testify of Me.” The first words of the New are, “The Book of the Generations of Jesus Christ;” and its last, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,” &c. He is the Alpha and Omega, and of the whole Bible John 20:31 may be said.
II. AS TO RECONCILIATION WITH GOD. That man needs this is not to be questioned; but how is it to be effected? God cannot change; His laws cannot be set aside. Sin is eternal separation from God. How, then, can man be reconciled? Only through Christ (Rom. 3:19–25; Col. 1:21; 2 Cor. 5:19; Rom. 5:11).
III. AS TO PROGRESS IN THE DIVINE LIFE. From first to last the Christian is dependent on Christ. His life is derived from, developed by, devoted to Christ.
IV. AS TO SUCCESS IN EVANGELISTIC WORK. (W. Forsyth, M.A.)
None but Christ indispensable:—In this world no man is necessary. There are many men who, if they were taken away, would be missed. But there is no man but what we may say of him, that useful and valuable as he may be, we might come to do without him. It is a truth this which we do not like to admit. We like to fancy that things would not go on exactly the same without us as with us. But this world has never seen more than one Being who could say that it was absolutely impossible to go on when separated from Him. The little child fancied, when its mother died, that without her it could “do nothing;” but the grown-up, busy man, hardly seems ever to remember at all her whom the heart-broken child missed so sorely. And the mother, when her little one is called to go, may fancy that without that little one she “can do nothing;” but time brings its wonderful easing, and, though not forgetting, she gets on much as before. And it is the same way in every earthly relation. The husband comes to do without his dead wife; and the wife to do without the departed husband. The congregation that missed their minister for a while, come at length to gather Sunday after Sunday with little thought of the voice it once was pleasant for them to hear. The state comes to do without its lost political chief, and the country without its departed hero: and we learn in a hundred ways, that no human being is absolutely necessary to any other human being. We may indeed fancy so for a while, but at length we shall find that we were mistaken; we may indeed miss our absent friends sadly and long; but we shall come at last to do without them. (A. K. H. Boyd, D.D.)
Man’s greatest need:—No man lives a true and useful life who lives without Christ. The good man feels his need of Him, and of all of Him always. 1. His eye to guide him. 2. His hand to uphold him. 3. His arm to shield him. 4. His bosom to lean upon. 5. His blood to cleanse him. 6. His Spirit to make him holy and meet for heaven. Christ is the one only Saviour who can make a sinner a saint, and secure to him eternal life. Usefulness is suspended upon holiness, and we are made holy by Christ’s cleansing blood, and in no other way. (Homiletic Monthly.)
The union between Christ and His people:—Apart from Christ—
I. THERE IS NO MERIT FOR OUR ACCEPTANCE WITH GOD. “There is none righteous, no, not one.” “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight.” But in Christ there is all-sufficient merit. Believing in Him, we are justified and accepted. Not through His merit together with what we ourselves can do. Dr. Chalmers’, when awakened to his condition as a sinner, for a time “repaired to the atonement to eke out his deficiencies, and as the ground of assurance that God would look upon him with a propitious eye.” But the conviction was at length “wrought in him that he had been attempting an impossibility … that it must be either on his own merits wholly, or on Christ’s merits wholly, that he must lean; and that, by introducing his own righteousness into the ground of his meritorious acceptance with God, ‘he had been inserting a flaw, he had been importing a falsehood into the very principle of his justification.’ ”
II. WE CAN DO NOTHING TO OVERCOME THE POWER OF INDWELLING SIN. The evil propensities within us are not the same in each one; it may be the love of money or the lust of power in one, vanity or pride, malice or guile, in another. Does not the Christian have frequent experience that the corruption of his heart is too strong for him? He made good resolutions, and broke them; after repeated failures he is driven almost to despair, and is ready to ask, “Can my corruptions ever be conquered, or must I become more and more their slave?” But if we be brought by Divine grace to cleave in faith to the Saviour, we shall have His Spirit to dwell in us, and in His strength we shall prevail. In ancient fable we read that one of the great labours imposed upon Hercules was to cleanse the foul Augean Stable. This mighty task he accomplished by turning the river Alpheus through it, thus performing with ease what before had appeared impossible. That stable is a true picture of the heart defiled by countless sins. The streams of that fountain opened in the house of David, turned by a living faith to flow into it, alone can cleanse it.
III. WE CAN DO NOTHING TO BUILD UP A CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. In a building there is not only a foundation, but also a superstructure. Apart from Christ we cannot build aright. Christian character may be likened unto a tree growing. “Giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue,” &c. Here is a noble, well-developed growth; But these spiritual graces will not appear if we do not abide in constant communion with Christ.
IV. WE CAN DO NOTHING TO PROMOTE THE TRUE INTERESTS OF OTHERS. What are all the provisions for the alleviating and removing of the wants and sufferings of men—the hospitals, orphanages, almshouses, and other philanthropic institutions—but the results of Christian effort, the products of the Christian spirit! All noble enduring, legislative acts also, such as that for the emancipation of the slaves, have been brought about by men under the influence of the religion of Christ. Who likewise have filled Wales and other countries with the gospel? Is it not men with the love of Christ as a holy fire burning Within them? (J. R. Owen.)
The necessity of supernatural grace in order to a Christian life:—
I. WHAT WE MEAN BY THE SUPERNATURAL GRACE AND ASSISTANCE OF CHRIST. Whatever natural power we have to do anything is from God, but God, considering the lapsed condition of mankind, sent His Son to recover us out of that condition, but we, being without strength, our Saviour hath in His Gospel offered an extraordinary assistance of His Holy Spirit, to supply the defects of our natural strength. And this supernatural grace of Christ is that alone which can enable us to perform what He requires of us. And this, according to the several uses and occasions of it, is called by several names. As it puts good motions into us, it is called preventing grace; because it prevents any motion or desire on our parts; as it assists and strengthens us in the doing of anything that is good, it is called assisting grace; as it keeps us constant in a good course, it is called persevering grace.
II. TO THIS GRACE THE SCRIPTURE DOTH CONSTANTLY ATTRIBUTE OUR REGENERATION, SANCTIFICATION, AND PERSEVERANCE IN HOLINESS.
III. THERE IS GREAT REASON TO ASSERT THE NECESSITY OF THIS GRACE AND ASSISTANCE TO THESE PURPOSES. If we consider—1. The corruption and impotency of human nature. When the Scripture speaks of the redemption of Christ, it represents our condition not only as miserable, but helpless (Rom. 5:6). 2. The strange power of evil habits and customs. The other is a natural, and this is a contracted impotency. The habits of sin being added to our natural impotency, are like so many diseases superinduced upon a constitution naturally weak, which do all help to increase the man’s infirmity. Evil habits in Scripture are compared to fetters, which do as effectually hinder a man from motion, as if he were quite lame, hand and foot. By passing from one degree of sin to another, men became hardened in their wickedness, and insensibly bring themselves into that state, out of which they are utterly unable to recover themselves. 3. The inconstancy and fickleness of human resolution. 4. The malice and activity of the devil.
IV. THIS SUPERNATURAL GRACE AND ASSISTANCE DOES NOT EXCLUDE, BUT SUPPOSES THE CONCURRENCE OF OUR ENDEAVOURS. The grace of God strengthens and assists us. Our Saviour implies that by the assistance of grace we may perform all the duties of the Christian life; we may bear fruit, and bring forth much fruit. When the Apostle says, “I can do all things through Christ strengthening me,” he does not think it a disparagement to the grace of Christ to say, he could do all things by the assistance of it (Phil. 2:12, 13).
V. THIS GRACE IS DERIVED TO US FROM OUR UNION WITH CHRIST. Inferences: 1. If the grace of God be so necessary to all the ends of holiness, obedience, and perseverance, then there is great reason why we should continually depend upon God, and every day earnestly pray to Him for the aids of His grace. 2. We should thankfully acknowledge and ascribe all the good that is in us, and all that we do, to the grace of God. 3. Let us take heed that we resist not the Spirit of God, and receive not the grace of God in vain. 4. The consideration of our own impotency is no excuse to our sloth and negligence, if so be the grace of God be ready to assist us. 5. The consideration of our own impotency is no just ground of discouragement to our endeavours, considering the promise of Divine grace and assistance. (Archbishop Tillotson.)
Exell, J. S. (n.d.). The Biblical Illustrator: St. John (Vol. 2, pp. 619–625). James Nisbet & Co.
- I am the vine, you are the branches. First 15:1 is repeated: Jesus is the vine. Next, the thought already clearly implied in 15:2–4, is expressly stated, namely, “You are the branches.” A word is used for branch which literally means vine-branch or vine-twig (κλῆμα).
He who abides in me, with me abiding in him (literally, “He who abides in me, and I in him,” but this is hardly good English), he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Note: more fruit (verse 2), much fruit (verses 5 and 8). The vitality of the vine, Jesus Christ, is stressed. This vine enables those who remain in him to produce fruit not only but much fruit. For the character of this fruit see on 15:1, 2.
On the other hand, those who are out of relation to Christ can do literally nothing, nothing whatever (οὐ … οὐδέν). That holds not only for the drunkard, the thief, the murderer, the immoral person, but also for the poet, the scientist, and the philosopher who has not embraced Christ with a living faith. He can render no work that is acceptable before God. Then why is it that some—even among those who like to pass as Christians and who seek the place of leadership in the church—are ever engaged in ascribing the highest possible honors to such “outsiders,” as if one could better afford to do without Paul than without Plato?
The passage certainly teaches the inability of man to do that which is good in the sight of God. It is entirely in line with Rom. 14:23, just as the preceding clause (“He who abides in me.… he it is that bears much fruit”) is entirely in line with Phil. 4:13.—Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism of every description stands condemned here!
Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953–2001). Exposition of the Gospel According to John (Vol. 2, p. 300). Baker Book House.
Truth2Freedom's Blog 