Written by Dawn Rutan
I’ve written before both about abiding in Christ and the Fruit of the Spirit, but I had kind of an “Aha” moment recently as I started reading True Community by Jerry Bridges. Sometimes just a simple rephrasing makes an old truth more clear. He quotes Robert Haldane’s Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans:
“It is impossible that the streams can be dried up when the fountain continues to flow, and it is equally impossible for the members not to share in the same holiness which dwells so abundantly in the Head. As the branch, when united to the living vine, necessarily partakes of its life and fatness, so the sinner, when united to Christ, must receive an abundant supply of sanctifying grace out of His immeasurable fullness.”
Or as John recorded Jesus saying, “I am the Vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (15:5 ESV).
I don’t think I’d considered before the fact that the branches must bear fruit if they are attached to the Vine. It is now part of our new nature, the life blood flowing in us, to bear the fruit that the Vine creates. (However, it is possible for people to only look like they are attached to the Vine and not really be saved and thus not bear fruit.) Those who are attached will be compelled to bear fruit. That may not be their own priority to begin with, but the Vinedresser will keep pruning away all lesser desires.
I really have no choice in whether I will bear fruit or what that fruit will look like. All of that is determined by my Father. I also can’t make it happen any faster or through some easier process. (I’m not sure I can even slow it down if God has His way.) It will grow when and how He desires. It is rather a relief to know He’s got it all in hand. I am confident that I am indeed connected to the life of the Vine because of what He has already done in and through me in recent months and years. And that knowledge leads to further confidence that He will complete His fruit-bearing work in me and gives me greater faith and hope.
Maybe it’s just me, but I think I’ve always tried to make abiding too complicated, too much my own work. The fact is, I am in the Vine and nothing can now change that. Fruit is both the proof of what God has done to graft me in and the ongoing evidence of what He is doing. It has nothing to do with how good I am at being a branch. If it depended on me, I’d be lopping myself off the Vine every day. To quote Dr. Bob Mayer’s message in our office chapel service today, “Think how liberating that can be—God’s work does not depend on you… Nothing happens apart from the sovereign care of God.”
I hope and pray that this lesson won’t soon be forgotten in the busyness of perfectionism!
“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide…” –John 15:16
