Invitation to Abide: In the ‘True Vine’

Won’t you spend the night with us?
We don’t get to enjoy times like this very often.

Afraid we can’t stay very long this time.
I thought we had more time, but we’ll have to take a pass.

Aww!  Mom. Dad!  Can’t we stay longer?
Do we have to go home now?

Many of us remember as children the emptiness we felt when we had to say good-bye to distant cousins and friends.  Since our childhood, most of us have had to endure even more heart-wrenching trials-- unexpected illness or death of a loved one, conflict in relationships, personal struggles and addictions, and social and political turmoil.  As we face the ongoing repercussions of the pandemic, war in Ukraine, and the policies that have affected employment, economy, travel, education, recreation, and religious activities, perhaps we can identify with the following prayer of Ryan Frederick:

Lord, there are times when mental battles rage and finding lasting peace seems like a pipe dream.  This world is marred by sin, chaotic and tumultuous, prone to disorder.  In my sin nature, I often let that chaos and tumult invade my thoughts.  I forget how trustworthy You are, how caring You are, and how much You have already done to prove Your faithfulness in my life. Lord, in those times when I'm anxious (and even now), help my unbelief (Mark 9:24). Call out and calm the storms in my mind, flooding my heart with inexplicable calm.  Amen.             
 - Ryan Frederick, Day 29 (Forty Prayers for My Wife, Day 29); www.FierceMarriage.com

Beyond the comfort of Ryan Frederick’s prayer, we can find comfort in Psalm 91 written over 3,000 years ago. 

God Calls Us to Abide with Him
God calls us to come and dwell in the shelter of His presence, and abide in His shadow.  Our brief visits with loved ones must end, but God invites us to a never-ending walk with Him.  Ever since He came calling for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, God has been inviting us to abide.  In this article, “Invitation to Abide:  In the ‘True Vine’” we discuss how God calls us into an abiding relationship with Him.  [For earlier articles, click HERE.]  

Dwelling with God in Old Testament times was hindered by God’s insistence that a physical separation be maintained between His holy presence and sinful mankind—e.g. Mt. Sinai, “the mount of God;” and later, the Holy of Holies within the Hebrew tabernacle or temple.  God made it clear with forceful and sometimes fearful displays of His glory that He alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light…for no one can see Me and live.  (1 Timothy 6: 16 and Exodus 33: 20)!

Thankfully, God’s prophets like Isaiah pointed to the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ, Emmanuel (“God with us”), who would come as God to dwell with mankind in human flesh (John 1: 14).  The Apostle Peter wrote (emphasis added), For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just (and perfect sacrificial Lamb) for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit… (1 Peter 3: 18).  Jesus died to provide an abiding relationship with those who spiritually identify with Him in His death and His resurrection into new life and intimate relationship with Him. 

Before His death on the cross, Jesus comforted His disciples with these words:  I am going to prepare a place for you… I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also (John 14: 2-3).  The New Covenant in Jesus’s blood guarantees for those who name Him as their Savior that they are welcomed to abide with Him now through His indwelling Spirit, the Comforter and Helper, and then forever in Heaven (John 15: 26).  Indeed, our sadness in being separated from loved ones here on Earth is an expression of our longing for lasting relationships; and most of all, our longing for a relationship with God through Christ who promises to abide with us forever.

Abiding Is Illustrated through Botany
Both the Bible and botany provide insights concerning God’s invitation to abide.  Jesus invites all who would be His disciples,

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 (John 15: 4). 

Jesus may have used this botanical analogy when He and His disciples were passing by a vineyard.  In grapes and most flowering plants, leaves and branches are intimately connected to the vine or main stem of the plant.  Botanically speaking, branches and tendrils are outgrowths or extensions of the vine.  The origin of this intimate connection can be seen when we look closely into the growing tips of plants.  By carefully slicing vertically from the growing tip downward along the stem (or “stem axis”) of a flowering plant, one can prepare thin slices.  My students and I have prepared thin sections and then used colorful stains to bring out the contrasting structures.  Magnifying the slices with a compound microscope reveals what is shown in the figure below of a prepared slice of a Coleus stem. 

Notice first the tiny dome-like stem apex (A).  Here is where cells divide and differentiate to form leaves and branches.  New embryonic leaves originate from this apical region as ear-like projections (B).  Then, embryonic branches (C) originate at the base of the embryonic leaves-- i.e. in the leaf axils.  The embryonic branches grow outward from the main stem but remain connected through conductive tissues known as phloem and xylem (D).  The phloem and xylem include tiny tube-like cells that function as a circulatory system.  The resulting interconnections among leaves, branches, and main stem or vine is the basis for Jesus’s teaching on what it means to abide in Him.

Jesus, the True Vine (John 15: 1), explained that those who want to be His true followers must remain connected or abide in Him (John 15: 4-5).  Botanically, we have seen that no branch can exist without the vine or stem from which each branch originates.  Even before we can see the embryonic branch (C) forming, the vine is bringing it into being.  Likewise, the Bible reveals that … the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ [who existed from eternity past] …chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him (Ephesians 1: 3-4).  David wrote in Psalm 139: 15 that God who had existed from eternity past had seen him even before he became visible as an embryo within his mother’s womb: 

My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret…
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.

Praise God, the True Vine is our Creator.  He welcomes us to abide in His very presence.

Abiding Is Invited by Jesus
As our Creator, the True Vine is justified in His desire for us to abide in Him as branches of the vine.  But there is an even more present and practical reason we should want to abide.  When we abide in the true vine, He supplies essential spiritual life support.  Without Him we are lifeless.

Botanically, the mature vine or stem transports water and minerals via the xylem from the soil to the developing branch.  Meanwhile, organic compounds are transported from mature leaves into the young branch via the phloem tissues.  In order to obtain these building blocks for growth, the tiny developing branch must send out hormonal signals to the mature vine as if to say, “I am here!  My life and growth depend on sustenance from the vine.”  As the young growing branch actively “calls” for and draws growth and life-sustaining constituents from the vine, it receives what is needed to grow into a mature branch that is able to produce fruit. 

A good example in which the stems of trees and vines supply organic compounds and minerals for growth of branches and leaves is seen in the sap flow from roots to the branches at the beginning of the spring in the temperate zone.  Those who tap sugar maple trees in March for the sugary sap to make maple syrup are well aware of how sap flows into young growing branches.  But there is another “responsibility” of the growing branch besides “calling” for growth building blocks from the stem.

The growing branch must actively participate in its maturation.  It must utilize the water and minerals from the vine to grow toward the sunlight in opposition of gravity and a tendency to become flaccid and wilted.  To do this, each newly formed plant cell from the stem apex will expand by using the minerals and organic compounds to draw in water by osmosis.  As water enters, it generates turgor pressure.  This pressure makes cells turgid which causes new cells to enlarge like tiny balloons being inflated with air.  Organic compounds imported from the main stem or vine are used as building blocks for new cell structures—cell walls, membranes, etc.  

Turgor pressure also acts within mature cells to support the branch and its leaves in an erect position so they can absorb sunlight.  Light energy drives the photosynthesis of sugars and other organic compounds needed to complete the growth and maturation of leaves and branches.  When plants are wilting in dry soil, photosynthesis and growth are both hindered.

In summary, branches and leaves must “abide in the vine” in order to grow.  This “abiding” comes with the responsibility of the branches and leaves to absorb growth constituents and utilize them to grow and mature.  Once mature, the branches and leaves can begin to make their own growth constituents and eventually produce fruit.  In short, the botanical “abiding” of branches in the vine provides an excellent picture of what Jesus wanted to teach His disciples, committed followers, about abiding in Him (John 15: 4). 

Abiding in Christ by Abiding in His Word
Our lesson in botany helps us understand that abiding in Christ is not a casual association.  Abiding involves specific conditions of obedience to His Word that require an investment of our time and effort:

If you continue in my Word,
then are you are my disciples indeed;
And you shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free. – John 8: 31-32

Abiding in the True Vine is the spiritual responsibility of disciples of Christ.  John Eldridge (Footnote 1) explains that the Greek word for abide in John 15 and in John 8:31 is meno, meaning “’to stick with this.’  It means to remain, to abide; to tarry; not to depart; to continue to be present. Most Westerners have an approach to understanding that goes something like this: we hear an insight explained, we hear a fact, and we acknowledge it as it passes through our minds. Then we move on.  It is an approach that has been shaped profoundly by the evening news: we watch, we move on. That is the opposite of what Jesus is explaining here. The idea of “continuing” in his word is a deep abiding. It implies far more than, "sure, I read that. It was awesome." ‘If you stick with this,’ he says, ‘if you continue, tarry, abide in, linger with’ the truth, then-- and only then– it will set you free." 

When we choose to abide in (“linger, continue, stick with”) God’s Word, our minds are transformed by the Holy Spirit who illuminates and teaches us the truth of God’s Word.  As we “continue” in God’s Word, His Spirit reveals more about who God is; and we see ourselves as if looking into a mirror (James 1: 23).  The author of Hebrews wrote (emphasis added), The Word of God is living, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4: 12).  For the Word of God to do its revealing and cleansing work in our lives, we must “stand still” long enough to meditate on its living, powerful, piercing message and submit to the Spirit’s discerning work within our thoughts and intentions.  Jesus said, when you abide (continue in and submit to) my Word, you will bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples (John 15: 7-8).

The Christ-follower loves God and loves His Word enough to continually abide in it receives the welcome invitation to a “comm-union” with Christ.  The result is knowing more and more the reality of the indwelling Life of Christ, and the freedom He brings—freedom to see and love God, to see and love ourselves, and to see and love our neighbor, thus fulfilling God’s two Great Commandments (Matthew 22: 37-39).  If we do these things, we become fruitful branches.

Albert Barnes, American theologian (1798-1870), in his Notes on the Whole Bible (Click HERE for source in Bible Hub), explains John 15: 2 as if Christ is elaborating on the union of true believer (branch) with the True Vine (Christ):

Jesus said, “Every branch in Me [is] everyone that is a true follower of Me, that is united to me by faith, and that truly derives grace and strength from Me, as the branch does from the vine. The word "branch" includes all the boughs, and the smallest tendrils that shoot out from the parent stalk.  Jesus here says that He sustains the same relation to His disciples that a parent stalk does to the branches; but this does not denote any physical or incomprehensible union.  It is a union formed by believing on Him; resulting from our feeling of dependence on Him and our need of Him; from embracing Him as our Saviour, Redeemer, and Friend.  We become united to Him in all our interests, and have common feelings, common desires, and a common destiny with Him. We seek the same objects, are willing to encounter the same trials, contempt, persecution, and want, and are desirous that His God shall be ours, and His eternal abode ours. It is a union of friendship, of love, and of dependence; a union of weakness with strength; of imperfection with perfection; of a dying nature with a living Saviour; of a lost sinner with an unchanging Friend and Redeemer.  It is the most tender and interesting of all relations, but not more mysterious or more physical than the union of parent and child, of husband and wife (Ephesians 5:23) or friend and friend.”

Abiding in Christ through Prayer
The emptiness and sadness we often feel when we bid our loved ones “Good-bye” affirms that God created us to value lasting relationships both with others and with God Himself.  And just as human relationships require two-way communication, so abiding in Christ requires that we receive God’s communication to us through His Word and communicate back to Him through prayer.  Daniel Henderson’s approach to prayer, known as "Scripture-Fed, Spirit-Led Prayer," is intended to create a Spirit-led convergence in which the living breath of God’s message to us stirs up a prayerful Scripture-fed, Spirit-led response expressed back to God.

In a subsequent article, we will delve more into how prayer is essential for abiding in Christ.  Meanwhile, you may want to read more about "Scripture-Fed, Spirit-Led Prayer" by checking out the following links.  Then, practice praying in this way individually and with others.  Here are two links from Daniel Henderson's Strategic Renewal website:

The Power of Praying From the Bible
PRAYzing!  Fear Not!

¹ Eldridge, John.  2013. The Utter Relief of Holiness. Faith Words, p. 114
² My thanks to Pastor Kirk Fairhurst, former student and brother in Christ for introducing me to Scripture-fed, Spirit-led prayer through a prayer group he started in 2016.