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The True Vine, Part 4

Branches that bear no fruit

John 15v2a

18th October 2014

Jesus said:

John 15v1-2a
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit

The third question we asked ourselves at the start of this series is: "Do I really believe that any branch of the True Vine - any member of the Church - any Christian - that bears no fruit will be cut off - removed from the True Vine?"

First, we must deal with a question that was expressed by John Calvin in his commentary in this way, "Can any one who is engrafted into Christ be without fruit?" Calvin's answer to his own question is this: "many are supposed to be in the vine, according to the opinion of men, who actually have no root in the vine."

In Calvin's view, and in mine, Jesus is referring to those people who appear to be Christians, who might well think they are Christians, who join a church, and attend the meetings, but are never joined to Christ, never born again. As John Gill says in his commentary, "These branches are unfruitful ones; what fruit they seem to have withers away, and proves not to be genuine fruit; what fruit they bring forth is to themselves, and not to the glory of God, being none of the fruits of his Spirit and grace".

So Jesus is describing those who profess to be Christians, and appear to be Christians, but have never actually become Christians. Many churches include some of these people. Indeed, going to church before you're born again is a good way to search for God. Tragically, though, there are "churches" which largely consist of such people.

We know that Jesus is not referring to Christians here because He later says, "If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit" (as opposed to no fruit) and because we know that Jesus will not lose any of those who are joined to Him - the doctrine known as "the perseverance of the saints" or more simply as "Once saved, always saved".

We can find it difficult to know which of our church members are truly saved, and which only appear to be saved - which have truly been grafted into the True Vine, Jesus Christ, and which simply associate themselves with God's people. As we saw last week, a true Christian can know genuine assurance that he is saved, but we can't be certain of who else is truly our brother in Christ, and the absence of these proofs do not always convince church "members" who are not joined to Christ that they're still lost.

There are very many people who think they're Christians but are not. They think they're Christians because they believe in God, they try to live good lives, they admire Jesus, and they may even go regularly to church. But they've never accepted that the blood of Jesus pays for their sin, they've never submitted to Him and their Lord and committed their futures into His hands. They've never been joined to the True Vine.

Those who - wittingly or unwittingly - associate with God's church without ever been joined to Christ will, sooner or later, be rejected by Christ, unless they find true repentance and saving faith. In Jesus's words, God cuts off every branch in Him that bears no fruit.

Matthew 7v21-23
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,; will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

This doesn't mean that every person that stops attending church has been rejected by God. Many of us have been so hurt by the church that we can no longer bear to be a part of it. This is a great tragedy. May God grant these abused Christians sufficient emotional healing that they are able to come back to church. And may God grant the church to which they return the grace to love and welcome them, and not to hurt them further.

Jesus says that God cuts off every branch... that bears no fruit so that we can understand that every Christian will bear fruit. If we see very little fruit in our lives, then something is seriously wrong. He doesn't specify here what He means by fruit butit surely must include the fruit of the Spirit:

Galatians 5v22-23a
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

If we're not more loving, more peaceful, more joyful, more patient, kinder, better, more faithful, gentler and more self-controlled than we used to be, we need urgently to come to God in prayer and ask, "Are we truly born again? Are we in Christ? Why is this fruit not developing as it should?"