Thinx 98: Cooperating with God

"I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me - and I in him - bears much fruit, because apart from me you can accomplish nothing.

— John 15:5

If one remains in the vine one cannot help but bear fruit. The apples of an apple tree naturally occur because they are the fruit of the apple tree. Certain things will become true of you because you have been grafted into the vine. You will bear fruit that glorifies God. That you have become a Christian glorifies God. God is at work within you."

for the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort--for the sake of his good pleasure--is God.

— Philippians 2:13

He has begun a work in you and will bring it to completion.

“For I am sure of this very thing, that the one who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

— Philippians 1:6

What fruit you display is because he makes you able to display it. You are now in the vine, so you will produce fruit. God will make sure of that.

Were you still a wild branch you would not be able to understand what God wants and why, for

The unbeliever does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

— 1 Corinthians 2:14

and many of us still remember what it was like when we ...

... lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest ...

— Ephesians 2:3

Only when the Father draws one to himself is one able to respond, to bear fruit, to give sacrifices of praise. The Fall made us all God haters. We cannot understand and we cannot love and we cannot serve and we cannot bear fruit unless the Father draws, the Son saves and the Spirit fills.

Nothing – no thing – great or small can be achieved such that God is glorified except it have its genesis and its revelation in Christ and from our abiding him. Others do great things and are applauded by the world but they already have their reward – people think well of them. But the only way to have God’s applause is for the action to stem from faith in him,

... and whatever is not from faith is sin.

— Romans 14:23

So cooperate with him! Do not resist being purged, pruned and tended. Abide! Remain! And do so actively! Actively submit to the presence, power and purposes of God in Christ through his Spirit.

As we abide in the vine as branches, so we receive what we need for spiritual growth from the vine. But we are not alone on the vine. We are each one of many branches and we each help the other branches to grow through prayer, service and encouragement.

© Copyright Bruce M. Axtens, 2018

Thinx 97: Abiding

You are clean already because of the word that I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.

— John 15:3-4

Remember that God made the first move in your salvation. He sought you out. He pursued you. He drew you to himself out of totally undeserved grace. There was nothing in you that attracted you to him. Now respond to his seeking by seeking him. You now have his Spirit working in your to will and to do, so will and do.

The fruit you seek comes from the abiding. It does not come primarily from knowing, being or doing but from knowing being and doing in response to and as a result of God’s saving work. The knowing, being and doing don't come first. What comes first is God saving you; taking you, a wild branch, and grafting you in. As Paul says,

“Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among them and participated in the richness of the olive root, do not boast over the branches. But if you boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.”

— Romans 11:17-18

© Copyright Bruce M. Axtens, 2018

Thinx 96: What fruit is expected from the vine?

"I [Jesus] am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit in me. He prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit."

— John 15:1-2

It is God who cares for the vine. He is the one taking away and pruning. His reputation as a gardener is at stake. He will work at making sure that the vine bears and that the yield is great.

God purges so as to form bigger, better, more flavoursome, more nutritious fruit. In the process you may lose something precious to you, but it may be in God’s plan that that loss is so as to improve your fruit and make you resemble God more in your character and behaviour.

And what is the yield in view? What fruit must come from the Christian? Christianity! Christian-ness! Christ-likeness! In fact some commentators suggest that so far as John is concerned, the sheer fact that you have been grafted into the vine is fruit, because it’s not something you can do yourself – only God can make you, a wild branch, part of the vine.

© Copyright Bruce M. Axtens, 2018