Jesus: The True Vine

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vine-grower. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He cleans it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit from itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
John 15:1-5 LSB

Jesus often teaches us using imagery that we can relate to and understand. Matthew Henry points out in his commentary that when Jesus calls Himself the true vine, we are reminded that just as a vine is planted in the earth, Jesus is the Word made flesh (John 1:14). Just as vines are often unsightly to look at, Jesus came to us in humility, with “no appearance that we should desire Him” (Isaiah 53:2). Just as a vine is a spreading plant, Christ is salvation to the ends of the earth (Acts 13:47). Just as vines produce fruit that is sweet and brings good cheer to mankind, Jesus is the Savior born to us to bring us peace (Isaiah 9) and “good news of great joy which will be for all people” (Luke 2:10). He is the life to all His people, just as the vine is the life to all of its branches.

However, no branch that is cut off from the vine can survive, let alone produce any of this desirable good fruit. By good fruit, Jesus is referring to the “fruits of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22-23). No one can bear the fruits of the Spirit without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which comes when we genuinely believe in Jesus Christ and are “born again” (John 3:3). When Jesus asserts that “apart from Me you can do nothing,” this is the conclusion and application of the entire parable. So long as we are separated from Jesus, our true vine, we can bear no fruit that is good and acceptable to God. Apart from faith in Jesus, we have no life or relationship with God. We are, by default, dead branches. Jesus is the One who grafts us onto Himself, the vine, and gives us eternal life.

The beauty of this entire passage is that Jesus declares that we have everything we need to remain in Him as He remains in us. For those who have His word planted within themselves, we are already made clean and pruned to produce every good work that is pleasing to God. Not that our works save us from our sin or grant us any special favor with God, but rather God our Father–who is also the gardener in this parable–has saved us by His grace and made us “His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we might walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8-10). In this way, dead branches are made into a luscious vineyard.