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In John 15 we see that Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God is the true vine. In John 15:1 the Lord Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman.” Christ the Son as the true vine with the believers as its branches is the organism of the Triune God in God’s economy, the divine dispensing, to grow with His riches and express the divine life. As the organism of the Triune God, this vine is corporate and universal.
John 15 reveals not only Christ the Son as the vine but also the Father as the husbandman, the Body of Christ as the branches of the vine, and God the Spirit as the Spirit of reality. As the vine, Christ the Son is the center. The whole universe is pictured as a vineyard, and centered in this vineyard is the vine, who is the Son. God the Son is the center. Everything is centralized in Him. He, as the vine, is the center of the vineyard. God the Father is the source and founder, and Christ the Son is the center. Everything that God the Father is and has is for the center, is embodied in the center, and is expressed through the center. God the Father is expressed, manifested, and glorified through the vine. Therefore, God the Father is the source and God the Son is the center.
In the last two verses of this chapter the Spirit is revealed. Here God the Spirit is called the Spirit of reality. This means that the Spirit is the reality. Whatever God the Father is in the Son and whatever He has centralized in Christ the Son will be realized by the Spirit. All that God the Father is in the Son is a reality in God the Spirit. Everything centralized in the Son is revealed, testified, witnessed, and realized by the Spirit of reality. Therefore, God the Father is the source, the founder; Christ the Son is the center, the embodiment, and the manifestation; and God the Spirit is the realization, the reality. This is exceedingly profound and deep.
Moreover, in this revelation there is not only the Triune God but also the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is the church. In this revelation the church is likened to the branches of a vine. The branches of a vine are simply the body of the vine. If the branches are taken away from the vine, the vine will have no body. Without the branches, the vine has nothing remaining except the root and the stem. Hence, the branches are the body of the vine.
As the many branches of the vine, the believers of Christ are members of the Christ of God to form the organism of the Triune God in the divine dispensing. In John 15:5 the Lord Jesus declared, “I am the vine; you are the branches.” Such a statement implies that Christ and His believers are one tree. 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.
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. 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. We should not say that we do not feel that we are filled with Christ. When the Lord says, “I am the vine; you are the branches,” we have to say a strong amen. Just keep saying, “Hallelujah, I am a branch!” We as branches of the vine will be filled with Christ.
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 says, “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 Christ 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 said, “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” (vv. 4-5). Only when the branches abide in the vine can the vine be everything to them. This is the reason the Lord said 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 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 Christ as 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. With us, however, 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 said, “Abide in Me and I in you.” 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.
How good, how miraculous, how wonderful, and how excellent it is that we all are a part of this organism! Christ is this organism, and we are included in this organism. He is the tree, and we are the branches. As far as we, the branches, are concerned, Christ, the tree, lives to be our support, our supply, and our everything. Christ as the tree also does everything through His believers as the branches. Just as the tree needs the branches and cannot do anything apart from the branches, so today Christ as the very embodiment of the Triune God can do nothing without us. In the carrying out of God’s economy — that is, growing a vine tree — without us Christ is unable to act, work, or to have any kind of activity. Without Him we can do nothing, and without us He can do nothing. We surely need Him for the purpose of our enjoying the wonderful, excellent, and marvelous divine life, and He surely needs us for the purpose of fruit-bearing, the multiplication and the enlargement of this divine tree.
Christ as the true vine, with His believers as the branches, is the organism of the Triune God. As the branches of the true vine, we are the multiplication of Christ, the duplication of Christ, the spreading of Christ, and the enlargement of Christ. This multiplication, duplication, spreading, and enlargement — the true vine with its branches — is the organism of the Triune God.
Christ as the true vine is an organism full of life, like the tree of life (Gen. 2:9). The true vine is not an organization without life, like the tower of Babel (Gen. 11:4, 9). The tree of life is an organism, and the tower of Babel is an organization. In contrast to an organization that has no life or organs, the vine tree is an organism that has life with many organs, organic systems, and organic elements growing in it.
Just as our human body, as an organism, functions to contain us, express us, and take action for us, Christ as the organism of the Triune God functions to contain the Triune God and express the Triune God. Furthermore, this organism is the means by which and through which the Triune God can act and move. In particular, Christ as the vine tree is the organism of the Triune God with the divine life for the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. Christ as the true vine dispenses the very Triune God into all the fruit.
In John 15 God the Father is revealed as the husbandman who is related to a husbandry, a plantation. This is indicated by the Lord’s words in verse 1: “My Father is the husbandman.” A husbandman is the source, the originator, the founder, and the planter of a husbandry. As such, he engages in an enterprise. The universe is the enterprise of the Father. The Father has a divine plan, an eternal purpose, and He wants to fulfill the intention behind His purpose. This is what is meant by the Father’s being the husbandman. He is the husbandman of the vineyard who plans to carry out a certain purpose. He is the source, the founder, and the first one to accomplish certain things according to His mind and purpose.
It is the Father’s pleasure that all that He is and has become the riches of Christ as the vine. All that the Father is, all that the Father has, all the riches of the Father’s divine life, and all the fullness of the Godhead are in the vine, which is the embodiment of them all. The Father as the husbandman is the source, the author, the planner, the planter, the life, the substance, the soil, the water, the air, the sunshine, and everything to the vine. Therefore, Christ the Son as the vine is the center of God’s economy and the embodiment of all the riches of the Father. The Father, by cultivating the Son, works Himself with all of His riches into this vine, and eventually the vine expresses the Father through its branches in a corporate way. This is the Father’s economy in the universe.
In the Old Testament the children of Israel were a vine in the sight of God (Psa. 80:8; cf. Isa. 5:2; Jer. 2:21; Ezek. 19:10; 15:2). But Israel failed God as the vine because they did not give Him the opportunity to express Himself through them. Although God tried to express Himself through them, they failed Him. Eventually, the Lord Jesus came as the true vine that can fully express God. This true vine is the embodiment of God and the full manifestation of God. What God is and what God has are embodied in this true vine and are fully expressed through this true vine.
In the universe the Father is a husbandman, a farmer. Farming is God’s economy! Just as a farmer’s economy is farming, growing things, so God’s economy is growing a vine tree, a vine with many branches. Christ is this vine; Christ is God’s economy. This vine, including the branches, is God’s economy. This means that His economy includes us, for we are branches of this vine. The Father is the husbandman, the farmer who cultivates the soil so that the vine may spread.
In John 15:2-8 we see that the branches in the vine are for the bearing of fruit to express the riches of the Father’s life in the divine dispensing. The believers in Christ are His many branches grafted into Him, the true vine in the universe, to bear much fruit for His enlargement in His spreading, that they might express the Triune God as His organism. 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 said, “In this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit” (v. 8).
In John 15:8 the word glorify means to have the intent, content, the inner life, and the inner riches released from within 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 tree 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 the substance of the vine tree. Apart from the fruit, the essence, substance, and life of the vine tree are concealed, hidden, and 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. 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 is glorified.
Fruit-bearing is also the overflow of the riches of the inner life. Bearing fruit is a matter of the overflow of our inner life. We need continuously to enjoy Christ as everything to us. Then we shall have an abundance of inner life. Out of this abundance of inner life there will be a flow that will reach others, penetrating into their lives. This flow will bear much fruit. This kind of fruit-bearing is the manifestation of the inner life. The inner life of the vine is the riches of all that the Father is and has. This is to be manifested by the fruit-bearing of the vine. Hence, the vine’s fruit-bearing is to express the Father in the Son.
According to John 15:26, the Spirit of reality whom the Son sent from and with the Father testifies concerning the Son as the vine; hence, the Spirit testifies to the branches and through the branches to the world. In 15:26-27 the Lord Jesus said, “But when the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of reality, who proceeds from the Father, He will testify concerning Me; and you testify also, because from the beginning you have been with Me.” This indicates that the Holy Spirit is the reality of all things, and we are to be witnesses of the Spirit of reality.
In these verses the Lord said that He would send to the disciples the Spirit of reality. But in 14:26 the Lord said that the Father would send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, in the Son’s name. The Lord has two different ways of speaking about the same thing. First, in 14:26, He says that the Father will send the Spirit; now in 15:26, He says that the Lord Himself will send the Spirit. Then who sent the Spirit — the Father or the Son? We must say that the Spirit was sent by both the Father and the Son. The Father and the Son are one. The Father’s sending is the Son’s sending, and the Son’s sending is the Father’s sending. The two are one. Regardless of who it is who sends the Spirit, the Spirit is always sent with the Father and in the name of the Son. Once again we see the Triune God. When the Spirit comes, He comes with the Father in the Son’s name. So all three of the Godhead are here.
In verse 26 the Lord said that He would send the Comforter from the Father. The Greek preposition translated from in this verse is para. The sense of this preposition in Greek here is “from with.” The Spirit of reality is sent by the Son, not only from the Father but also with the Father. The Comforter comes from the Father and with the Father. The Father is the source. When the Spirit comes from the source, He does not leave the source but comes with the source. This Spirit, sent by the Son coming with the Father, will testify concerning the Son. Therefore, His testimony concerning the Son is a matter of the Triune God.
This Spirit of reality testifies concerning the Son as the vine, testifying in front of the persecuting religion (vv. 18-25). Furthermore, the Spirit testifies to the branches and through the branches to the world. Religion may persecute, but the Spirit of reality testifies that the Son is the vine. Through the believers as the branches this testimony will go forth throughout the whole world.
The Father is the source of the vine, the Son is the vine, and the Spirit is the life-juice of the vine. This great vine is the organism of the Triune God. All that the Father is, is in this organism, embodied in the vine, which is the second of the Trinity. Within the vine is the circulating life flow of the Spirit. It is the Spirit who carries the riches of the Father to sustain the vine and its branches. This vine into which we have been grafted is the organism of the Triune God.
Christ the Son is the vine, and we are the branches to bear fruit for the glorification of the Father, that is, the expression, spreading, and multiplication of the Father as its source and husbandman. All that God the Father is and has is centralized and embodied in Christ the Son, and all of this is realized in the Spirit of reality. Now all of this has been wrought into us and will be expressed and testified through us. John 15 has four very important items: God the Father as the source and founder, God the Son as the center and manifestation, God the Spirit as the reality and realization, and the branches as the Body, the corporate expression. The branches are vital, for they express what God is in Christ as the Spirit. Without the branches there can be no full expression. The full expression depends upon the branches, the Body, for what God is in Christ the Son and as the Spirit will be expressed by the branches, the Body. All that God the Father is and has is in Christ the Son, all that the Son is and has is realized as the Spirit, and all that the Spirit has is in the Body, in the church, in us. In other words, God the Father as the source is embodied in God the Son as the center who is now realized as God the Spirit as the reality. All that the Spirit has is expressed in us, that is, in the branches, the church. The Triune God in Christ is expressed, manifested, and glorified in the church.
