Union with Christ

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 11, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 10.

Union with Christ

Editorial

Union with Christ.—A most instructive lesson was given on this vitally important subject by our Lord to his disciples, as recorded in John 15:1-8. It was enforced by a symbolism so well understood and so applicable that the lesson must have made a strong impression upon the hearts of his disciples. The illustration was before them; they saw it on that night of the betrayal under the full light of the paschal moon, as they wended their sad way from the upper chamber to Gethsemane. This lesson is as important now as then. It is written for “our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”

The Vine with Its Branches is an object familiar to all Jews, common to Palestine, and is used in the Holy Scriptures as a symbol of the union and relation between God and his people. Our Lord uses it for the same purpose—to impress the lesson of the necessity of constant vital union with him—for all time to come. Here is the lesson:—

“I am the True Vine, and my Father is the Husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch can not bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the Vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” John 15:1-8.

I Am the True Vine.—There are false vines; vines that bear poisonous, noxious fruit, vines that bear wild grapes, which set on edge the teeth of the eater. But Christ is the True Vine, the only Vine from which comes the true life. His Father, God, is the Husbandman, who by his providence and merciful agencies cares for the Vine. For while a vine is fruitful and useful, it is also helpless. So Jesus Christ in his voluntary humiliation for man, was dependent upon God. “The Son can do nothing of himself,” he himself tells us; and again: “I can of mine own self do nothing.” And yet through that Vine, seemingly helpless, the life of God comes to the branches.

“Ye Are the Branches.”—The branches, our Lord tells us, are his disciples; not alone those to whom he spoke, but his disciples in all ages. They were not always branches of the True Vine. At one time they did not know him. In the eleventh chapter of Romans, men, before they are united to Christ, are likened, in their natural state, to wild olive branches, partaking of that nature, and bearing bitter olives. Through faith they are grafted, contrary to their own nature, into the good olive tree, Christ Jesus, the Root and Stock of the true Israel, and bear the fruit of the tame olive. To use the symbol of our lesson, they are branches of the wild grape-vine, cut off from the parent stem by the pruning shears of God’s truth. They hear his Word. His Word separates them from their source of perverted life, and unites them with the True Vine. Jesus expresses this in the words, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” That word separated them from the sinful, unfruitful life of the past. It connected them with true life, with the unperverted current, fresh from the throne of God. It cleansed the old nature, it gave a new nature.

Abiding in Christ is as necessary to Christian fruit-bearing as abiding in the vine is necessary to the branch that it may bear fruit. We may tie ever so securely the branch to the vine; but the branch will wither and die; it lacks the essential—life. Many professed Christians are tied-on branches. They have their names on the church books, their names are read once a quarter or once a year, but there is no life, they bear no fruit to God’s glory. We may graft to the vine a scion, or branch, and when the life-blood of the vine begins to flow through the branch, the bark begins to swell, life begins to appear, and we pluck it away. It withers, the vine bleeds in vain. After a little, we graft it in again, but the life is received more slowly, the withered, sick branch is less receptive than at first. A few experiences of this kind, and the branch is dead. This well represents those Christians who are constantly backsliding and repenting, backsliding and repenting, but bringing forth no fruit. God will not cast off. Ever will the loving life stream from the pierced side be opened to give life to the returning child; but he who too long presumes on such wonderful mercy will at last find that he has departed

one too many times. The moral fibers of his being are dead. No more will its life channels expand to receive life from the Living One. O, it is not safe to turn from God, to tear ourselves from his rifted side. The only safe way is to abide, abide in Him, grow, blossom, bear fruit to his glory. He who abides, who receives the life, the Spirit of God, will bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,” blessed fruits for hungry, starving souls on every side.

Pruning.—The faithful, wise husbandman often finds it necessary to prune, or “purge” as in our Common Version. “Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth [cleanseth, pruneth] it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” Sometimes destroying parasites are preying upon bark or leaf, and it takes strong remedies to cleanse. Sometimes smaller branches will not let the life of the vine flow in and quicken to new life, and the husbandman cuts it off. So it is with some Christians. The world with its trappings, its habits, its principles, its policies, are carried into the Christian life, and but little fruit is borne. Some wish to cling to old associates, others to pleasure, yet others desire to shine in society, and love vain display; but all hinder the fruit-bearing. The husbandman, always merciful, always seeking the good of the vine, lops off an unnecessary branch here, a dead twig there. How cruel it seems! So in Christian life. It seems to the poor worldly heart that the life is taken, but if submissive, the pruning brings God’s life into the soul, and makes the abiding more secure. Fellow-Christian, yield all to him, submit to the pruning whatever it may be, and God will give you more than he will take away, and so shall you bear much fruit.

Withered Branches, sad as it may be, are cut off, and burned. So it will be at last with him who does not bear fruit for God. Such a soul is no profit to himself, no profit to others. The end is death. But before that comes, the Husbandman exhausts all his love and power to save. He gives all to win man. He suffers all to save man; but with man rests the decision whether he will be saved.

The Motive of True Fruit-bearing in the Christian life is to glorify God. The vine does not think of itself; it bears for others; it rewards the husbandman’s toil. So the Christian will forget self in his desire to labor for God. “Much fruit” for God’s glory will be his desire. This will demand much prayer. His asking will not be for selfish things. His will is God’s will. The Lord’s good pleasure is his pleasure. To such it is said, “Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” But the asking will be for God—asking, receiving, abiding, fruit-bearing.

But the Condition Is Abiding in Christ.—This we do by constantly yielding to his will, and letting his words abide in us. Read them, ponder them, choose them, eat them, and they will indeed be, as to Jeremiah of old, the joy and rejoicing of the heart that loves God.

The Bond of Union between such believers is Christ Jesus. What bond could be stronger? It is stronger than those united, even as the vine is stronger than the branches. It embraces each and all and unites them with God’s life. It makes them all partakers of that one life; not occasionally, but continually. The great throbbing heart-beats of Infinite Love send the same life-current pulsing through every one in Christ. If we are in him, we need not worry about our brethren; for we will be one with every one who is also in him, partakers of the divine nature, knowing the power of the endless life; but apart from him no effort of ours will bear fruit, no patched-up union will last or be effectual. In him all is life and joy and peace and love. Who would not be an abiding branch of the True Vine?