APART FROM THE VINE
‘Without Me ye can do nothing.’
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 1 John 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’ (Psalms 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” (Luke 13:24; John 6:27; Mark 1:15).’