Monday, January 8, 2018


6. My Father is the Vine-grower—
John 15:1 (NRSV) — 1b … My Father is the vine-grower.

Christ ever lived in the spirit of what He once said …
John 5:19 (NRSV) — 19 Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.

Just as a vine is totally dependent upon a vine-grower for the place where it is to grow, for its fencing in, watering, pruning and harvesting so Christ felt Himself entirely dependent on the Father every day for the Wisdom and Strength to do the Father's Will. As Jesus said in the previous chapter
John 14:10 "The words that I say unto you, I speak not from Myself; but the Father abiding in Me does his works."

This absolute dependence had as its blessed counterpart the most blessed confidence that He had nothing to fear—the Father could not disappoint Him. With such a Vine-grower as His Father, He could enter Death and the Grave—confident that God would raise Him up. All that Christ is and has, He has, not in Himself, but from the Father.

As we deepen our understanding of our emerging Christ-likeness we can see that all we are and have is not of ourselves but of Him.

Acts 17:28 (NRSV) — 28 For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; … …

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