Search
In this message we shall consider more symbols of the believers found in the New Testament.
John 10 speaks of the believers as sheep. Both the Jewish and the Gentile believers are sheep with Christ as their Shepherd.
First, the sheep are the Jewish believers who came out of the sheepfold of Judaism through Christ as the door (vv. 2-4, 7-9). The sheepfold in John 10 signifies the law and also Judaism, the religion of the law. Before Christ came, God put His chosen people under the custody of the law. The law was the fold where God’s people as the sheep were kept and protected temporarily until the pasture, the permanent place for the sheep, was ready. Christ is the pasture, the permanent place for God’s people to stay. Before Christ came, God prepared the law as the sheepfold to keep and confine His chosen people temporarily. However, the Jewish religion utilized the law to form Judaism, which then became the sheepfold.
John 10 reveals that Christ is the door through which God’s people leave the fold and come to the pasture. God no longer intends to keep His chosen people in the fold of the law. Rather, He wants them to come out of the law into Christ. Now, during the New Testament age, God intends to bring His people out of the law through Christ as the door. Christ has come, and the pasture is ready. There is no need for the sheep to be confined any longer in the custody of the Judaic law. They must be released from the fold of the law to enjoy the riches of the pasture. Christ is the door through which His believers may come out of any kind of fold and come into Him as the pasture.
Second, the sheep in John 10 are the Gentile believers, who were brought in by Christ to be one flock (the church) with the Jewish believers. Verse 16 says, “I have other sheep which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one flock, one shepherd.” Here the Lord Jesus reveals that besides the Jewish believers as His sheep kept under the ward of the law He has other sheep which are not of the Jewish fold, which are God’s chosen people among the Gentiles and which He must bring in. When this word was spoken by the Lord Jesus, it was a prophecy. This prophecy was fulfilled in Acts when Peter went to preach the gospel to the household of Cornelius, who were Gentiles (Acts 10), and when Paul went to preach the gospel to the Gentile world (Acts 13). Through the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles, many were saved unto the Lord out of different tongues, and they all became the Lord’s sheep.
The Lord Jesus first called and brought His Jewish believers out of the fold of the Jewish religion, and after Pentecost He saved and brought many Gentile believers out of the Gentile world to make them all, both the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers, one flock under Himself as the one Shepherd. This one flock is the one, universal church, the one Body of Christ (Eph. 2:14-16; 3:6), brought forth by life, which the Lord imparted into us through His death and resurrection. The one flock no longer belongs to the Jewish fold or to the Gentile world, but stands by itself as the church of God set apart from the Jews and the Gentiles (1 Cor. 10:32). The one flock is very different in nature from a fold. As our Shepherd, Christ has brought us into the flock, where we are in the pasture enjoying Him as our life and life supply.
The sheep in the one flock have Christ as their Shepherd, who laid down His soul life for them that they may have the divine life (vv. 11, 14-15, 16b, 10). In verse 10 the Lord Jesus says, “I came that they may have life and may have it abundantly.” And in verse 11 He says, “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” In these two verses two different Greek words are used for life. In verse 10 the Greek word is zoe, which is the word used in the New Testament for the eternal, divine life. In verse 11 the Greek word is psuche, the same word for soul, which means the soulish life, that is, the human life. These verses indicate that the Lord Jesus has two kinds of lives. As a man the Lord has the psuche life, the human life, and as God He has the zoe life, the divine life. He laid down His soul, His psuche life, His human life, to accomplish redemption for His sheep (vv. 15, 17-18) that they may share His zoe life, His divine life (v. 10), the eternal life (v. 28), by which they may be formed into one flock under Himself as the one Shepherd. As the good Shepherd He feeds His sheep with the divine life in this way and for this purpose.
The Lord’s divine life could not be slain. What was slain in His crucifixion was His human life. In order to be our Savior, He, as a man, laid down His human life to accomplish redemption for us so that we may receive His zoe life. He laid down His human life in order that we, after being redeemed, might have His divine life, the eternal life.
The Shepherd, the divine life, and the human life are all for the flock. Those in the flock are fallen ones in need of redemption. As a man the Shepherd had the human life. He sacrificed His human life in order to accomplish redemption for His flock. In this way His flock was redeemed. Then His flock received His divine life, and by this divine life the sheep lived together as the flock. Thus, the flock is formed into one unit, into one entity. This is accomplished not by the human life but by the divine life.
In the human life we are condemned and divided; in the divine life we are accepted and united. In the divine life we all are one entity, meaning that we are one flock under one Shepherd in one life. However, if we live by our human life, we are no longer sheep. A sheep is a regenerated person with the divine life. We all must live by the divine life and thus become genuine, real, and pure sheep. Then we shall be in the flock. If we do not live by the divine life, there can be no flock, for the flock is produced, formed, and maintained by the divine life. In the divine life we are truly one. This is not possible in our human, psuche life; it is possible only in the divine, zoe life. Now, as redeemed and regenerated ones, we are in the divine life under one Shepherd to be one flock.
The believers are also symbolized by many grains of wheat. John 12:24 says, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” The expression “much fruit” refers to many grains of wheat as the multiplication of the one grain.
In 12:24 the Lord Jesus clearly refers to Himself, God incarnate, as the unique grain of wheat that falls into the ground and dies. The believers as many grains of wheat are produced out of Christ as the one grain.
The many grains of wheat are produced through the death and resurrection of Christ. In His work on the cross the Lord Jesus died as a grain of wheat falling into death for the release of the divine life. The divine life was in Jesus, just as life is confined in a grain of wheat. Because the life is concealed in the grain, the shell must be broken so that the inward life may be released. Christ’s all-inclusive death released the divine life that was within Him. As a grain of wheat He died to release the divine life and to enliven God’s redeemed ones in order to produce many grains.
The Lord Jesus fell into the ground and died so that His divine element, His divine life, would be released from within the shell of His humanity to produce many believers in resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3), just as a grain of wheat has its life element released by falling into the ground and growing up out of the ground to produce much fruit, that is, to bring forth many grains. The Lord Jesus, as a grain of wheat falling into the ground, lost His soulish life through death so that He might release His divine life to the many grains. This is the life-releasing aspect of the death of Christ.
Christ’s death released the divine life from within Him. He was a grain of wheat, and there was no other way for that grain to increase except to fall into the ground and die. This is the way to have the multiplication of life. Therefore, in His death Christ was sown into the earth as a grain of wheat to produce a multiplication through the release of the divine life.
As a grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died, the Lord Jesus has brought forth much fruit in resurrection. This is a matter of germination through resurrection. Concerning this, Peter says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3). When Christ was resurrected we, His believers, were all included in Him. Hence, we were resurrected with Him (Eph. 2:6). In His resurrection He imparted the divine life into us and made us the same as He is in life and nature.
Through His death and resurrection the Lord Jesus has been multiplied and propagated. The many grains are the multiplication of the one grain, and this multiplication is the propagation of that grain of wheat. Therefore, the Lord’s resurrection was His propagation to produce the church as His reproduction.
The many grains of wheat produced through Christ’s death and resurrection are for the formation of one bread — the Body of Christ. After the many grains have been produced, they need to be crushed, ground into flour, and blended together in a loaf to be offered to God. This loaf is the church, the Body of Christ. “We who are many are one bread, one Body; for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Cor. 10:17). The Christ out of whom we have been produced and of whom we partake constitutes us into His one Body.
In addition to being many grains of wheat, the believers are also the many branches of the vine. This means that the believers are members of the Christ of God to form the organism of the Triune God in the divine dispensing. In John 15:1 the Lord Jesus declares, “I am the true vine,” and in verse 5 He says, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” This vine, which is Christ, with its branches, which are the believers in Christ, is the organism of the Triune God in God’s economy to grow with His riches and to express His divine life.
Christ and the believers, the vine with the branches, form the organism of the Triune God in the divine dispensing. The vine in John 15, therefore, is a universal vine comprising Christ and His believers as the branches. In this vine, this organism, the Triune God lives, expresses Himself, and dispenses Himself to the uttermost.
In John 15 we see the focus of what God is doing in the universe. Here the Father is a husbandman, a farmer, cultivating the true vine, Christ, with its branches, the believers in Christ. In His economy God is growing Christ, and all of us are branches in Christ as the true vine.
Christ, the infinite God, is the vine, and we are His branches. We are actually branches of the infinite God, organically one with Him. This means that we have been organically joined to the Triune God. Now we are part of God, even as the members of our bodies are parts of us. If we are in the light, we shall see that we are members of Christ, that we are part of Him.
We have become branches of the vine, members of the Christ of God, by the branching out of the vine, for the branches are the spreading of the vine. By our natural life we are not branches of the vine. On the contrary, by our fallen nature we are branches of Adam and even branches of the Devil. Just as a branch is the branching out of a tree, so when we were born we were just the branching out of Adam. As branches of Adam, we were also branches of Satan. The wonderful thing is that when we believed in the Lord Jesus, He branched out into us. This branching out has made us branches of this wonderful Christ. Therefore, Christ’s branching out has made us branches of Christ as the vine. Now as branches we are filled with Christ as life, for to be a branch in the vine means that Christ has become our life.
No plant other than the vine can illustrate adequately the living relationship between the believers and Christ. A vine differs from a tree in that it has virtually no trunk. If you cut off the branches of a vine, there is practically nothing left, only the root. It is very significant, therefore, that the Lord Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” The vine is everything to the branches. Whatever is in the vine is also in the branches. This indicates that as the vine Christ is a great enjoyment for us, the branches. From the vine and through the vine we receive everything we need to live as branches.
As believers, we are branches of the vine and are good for nothing except to express the vine. All that the vine is and has is expressed through the branches. Individually, the branches are the regenerated ones. Corporately, they are the church, the Body of Christ. The branches, the believers in the Son, are for the expression of the Son with the Father through fruit bearing.
As branches of the vine, we need to abide in the vine, the Christ of God. The Lord Jesus says, “Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of 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 15:4-5). Only when the branches abide in the vine can the vine be everything to them. This is the reason the Lord Jesus says concerning Himself as the vine and us as the branches, “Abide in Me and I in you.” Our life and enjoyment are to abide in the vine. Our destiny as branches is to remain in the vine.
Apart from the vine, we, the branches, can do nothing. A branch of a vine cannot live by itself, for it will wither and die apart from the vine. The relationship between the branches and the vine portrays the relationship between us and the Lord Jesus. We are nothing, we have nothing, and we can do nothing apart from Him. What we are, what we have, and what we do must be in the Lord and by the Lord in us. Therefore, it is crucial for us to abide in the Lord and for the Lord to abide in us. We should not do anything in ourselves; we should do everything by abiding in the vine. Christ as the vine is an all-inclusive portion for our daily enjoyment. Because we are branches to the Lord and the Lord is the vine to us, we must abide in Him and let Him abide in us. Then in our experience Christ will be everything to us for our enjoyment.
Abiding in the Christ of God is a crucial matter. Fruit bearing depends on abiding. Our abiding in Christ depends on a clear vision that we are branches in the vine. If we are to abide in the vine, we must see the fact that we are branches in the vine. If we see that we are already in Christ, we shall be able to abide in Him. Therefore, we need to pray, “Lord Jesus, show me clearly that I am a branch in the vine.”
Once we see the fact that we are branches in the vine, we need to maintain the fellowship between us and the vine. Any insulation will separate us from the rich supply of the vine. A little disobedience, a sin, or even a sinful thought can be the insulation that separates us from the riches of the vine. First, we must see that we are branches. Then we need to maintain the fellowship between us and the Lord. Nothing should be between Him and us. From experience we know that even a small thing can separate us from the rich supply of the vine. Hence, we need to pray, “Lord Jesus, let there be nothing between You and me separating me from Your rich supply.”
As long as we abide in Christ, He will abide in us. His abiding in us depends on our abiding in Him. Our abiding is the condition of His abiding, but His abiding in us is not a condition of our abiding in Him. Nothing is conditional with Him. But with us, because we are so fluctuating, there is the need of a condition. If we do not abide in Christ, there is no way for Him to abide in us. Although He does not change, we have many changes. We may abide in Him today and stay away from Him tomorrow. Therefore, His abiding in us depends on our abiding in Him. Our abiding in Him is the condition of His abiding in us. Thus, the Lord says, “Abide in Me and I in you.” If we abide in Him, He will certainly abide in us. If we do not abide in Him, we fail to meet the condition of His abiding in us. His abiding depends on our abiding. This mutual abiding will bring forth fruit.
The vine and the branches are an organism to glorify the Father. With the vine we have the glorification of the Father through the expression of the riches of the divine life in fruit bearing. In fruit bearing the Father’s life is expressed; hence, in fruit bearing He is glorified. This is the reason the Lord Jesus says, “In this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit” (John 15:8).
In John 15:8 the word “glorify” means to have the intent, the content, the inner life, and the inner riches released and expressed. The vine and the branches are an organism to glorify the Father, to have the intent, the content, the inner life, and the inner riches released and expressed from within. As an organism to glorify the Father, the vine and the branches express the riches of the divine life. When the vine bears clusters of grapes, the riches of the divine life are expressed. This expression is the glorification of the Father because the Father is the divine life.
The Father is the source and substance of the vine. Apart from the fruit, the essence, substance, and life of the vine are concealed, hidden, confined. However, the riches of the inner life of the vine are expressed in the clusters of fruit. To express the inner life in this way is to release the divine substance from within the vine. When the life of the vine is expressed through the branches in its propagation and multiplication, the Father is glorified, because what the Father is in the riches of His life is expressed in the propagation and multiplication of the vine. This is the glorification of the Father.
Our fruit bearing is the glorification, the expression, of the Triune God from within. Today the Triune God is within us as our life and nature, and the expression of the life and nature of the Triune God from within us is glory. Therefore, when the divine life with its nature is expressed through us in fruit bearing, the Father is glorified.
In John 17:22 the Lord Jesus prayed concerning the glory which the Father had given Him and which He had given to His disciples. The glory given by the Father to the Son and by the Son to the disciples is the divine life with the divine nature for God’s expression. The Father has given His life and nature to the Son so that the Son may express the Father’s glory. The Son has given us this divine life with its divine nature so that we also may express God in glory. In John 15 this expression of the divine life, this glorification of the Father, is in fruit bearing. Day by day we need to live a life that bears fruit, and in this way we glorify the Father. The more we express the divine life in fruit bearing, the more the Father will be glorified.
