John 15:1 NIV
[1] “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.”

What graphic imagery! Jesus loved to teach in picture language. The imagery of the vine was not new to His disciples. In the Old Covenant, God and the vine were often used to illustrate God’s relationship to His people.

Psalms 80:8-9 NIV
[8] “You transplanted a vine from Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. [9] You cleared the ground for it, and it took root and filled the land.”

The prophets told the sad story of Israel’s failure to live up to God’s desire. He did everything He could for them but they turned away and became a rebellious vine bearing corrupted fruit.

Isaiah 5:1-2 NIV
[1] “I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. [2] He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.”

Jeremiah 2:21 NIV
[21] “I had planted you like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock. How then did you turn against me into a corrupt, wild vine?”

Hosea 10:1 NIV
[1] Israel was a spreading vine; he brought forth fruit for himself. As his fruit increased, he built more altars; as his land prospered, he adorned his sacred stones.”

Imagine, then, how the disciples would have reacted to Jesus’ announcement, “I am the vine.” He, Himself, He declared, was taking over the role God intended Israel to play in their relationship to the Father. He was taking responsibility for the nation who had failed dismally to produce the fruit of that relationship.

In the following verses, Jesus went even further. He amplified the connection between vine and branches, a union so close and intimate that everything the vine is in its entirety, the branches become through their union with the vine.

This thought must have shocked His disciples. How could it be that they, mere humans, and Jesus, whom they were convinced was the Son of God, would be so closely bound together that His life and theirs would become one?

This was a truth that would only become real to them when the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus said was His “other self”, would come to live in them on the Day of Pentecost. At that moment, the Spirit was “with them”, but He would be “in them” to replace the person of Jesus as His personal representative.

John 15:4-5, 7-8 NIV
[4] “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. [5] “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing…
[7] If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. [8] This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

These words are the simplest explanation of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in the entire Bible. He did not come to set up a new religion or even to clean up the old one. He came to clear away the obstacle of sin and to establish a union with Himself so close that the “sap” of His divine life would flow into His followers as freely as the life-giving sap of the vine flows through the entire plant, producing the fruit of that union. The vine and the branches are indistinguishable from one another. They are inextricably connected as one.

This union was established in them through the power of the Holy Spirit in response to faith. Jesus would focus on the role of the Spirit in the lives of His disciples in His final moments with them before the cross. They must understand what He had come to do. They must know and cultivate the awareness of presence of the Spirit in them to maintain and strengthen that union without which they would be pruned from the vine.

A vine can only bear the fruit which identifies its nature as a vine if the branches remain vitally connected to the vine. So, Jesus insists, the only way to live out this life He came to bring, is to cultivate the awareness of this union in the everyday course of life. The best way to explain was to say, in three simple words, “Remain in me.”

The Greek word, “meno”, conveys the meaning of “to stay in a given place, state, or relation”. It is the Holy Spirit who has cemented us in this union with Jesus but it is up to us to maintain the union by our own effort, to stay in that state which the Holy Spirit established. This is a dynamic partnership between Jesus and us. He has done His part. We must do our part. He holds us, but we must hold on to Him by faith and obedience to His teachings.

John 15:5-7 NIV
[5] “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. [6] If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. [7] If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

If we neglect actively to maintain the awareness of our union with Jesus, we will lose that connection and forfeit all its benefits. However, if we faithfully make our choices and decisions in everything we do, in our awareness that we are in union with Jesus, we will be fruitful both in character and in the outcomes of that union. Answered prayer will be the result of our continual working together with Jesus.

So, Jesus said, to be His true follower is not to follow a set if rules or even to do the things that His disciples are supposed to do…”read the Bible, go to church, pay your tithe, and tell others about Jesus”! This is such a terrible corruption of the truth!

When we let go of all this peripheral stuff and do the one thing Jesus told His disciples to do…”Remain in me”, all the blessings and benefits of our salvation will flow like a life-giving fountain, to and through us.

Any other understanding of what it means to be a Christian falls short of what Jesus conveyed in the image of the vine and the branches. Is it any wonder, then that He said that the gate is small and the way is narrow to real life, and few find it.