“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) – Jesus, the night before He was betrayed…
Grafted in the Vine. – Elizabeth Jordaan
In John 15, Jesus introduced Himself to His disciples as the True Vine and them as the branches. John 15:5 I
The image that Jesus used here is that the disciples can do nothing if they do not have the sap (life) of the Vine in them. Vine shoots cannot suck the sap of the Vine. The Vine must push its sap into the shoot. The whole process begins with the grafting of a shoot onto the Vine. Both the shoot and the vine are cut so that the raw inside of the shoot can be attached to the raw inside of the Vine.
Jesus is the Vine, we are the branches. God the Father is the Farmer. He does the cutting. He “cut” Jesus on the cross. Through His wounds there is healing for us. God engrafts us into Jesus on the cross. There we become one with Him. There we become one with His death. We also become one with Him in His resurrection if we accept His death for and on our behalf. Then we can receive His life (sap) in us. This is demonstrated in our lives through our conversion, regeneration, and baptism.
Many Christians have been grafted into Jesus, but alas, they do not know how to drink the life (sap) of the Vine. Then they become dry branches that do not bear fruit and are in danger of being cut off by the Farmer.
Pray together: Father, You grafted me into Jesus, Your Vine. I want to be a living fruitful branch. I want to continuously receive the sap (life) of the Vine every day. Teach me how to drink of it. (please read the whole of John 15 now).
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