Names of Jesus: The True Vine

I love that we get to learn more about our Savior through the many ways He describes Himself and His role over creation as well as in our individual lives. This week’s name of Jesus is the True Vine, which is a beautiful name and a beautiful image that can help us all to better understand not only His role in our lives, but our role as His disciples.

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 
² Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He ^[a]takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 
³ You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 
⁴ Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
⁵ “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. 
⁶ If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 
⁷ If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you^[b] will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 
⁸ By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

John 15:1-8 NKJV

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The Vinedresser, the Vine, and the Branches

Jesus teaches us that He is the Vine, God is the Vinedresser, and we are the branches. We are either branches who are attached to the Vine, or we are branches who get withered and thrown into the fire. As the Vinedresser, God is the Keeper of the Vineyard. He prepares the soil by loosening and breaking it up before planting, plants the seed, and fosters the growth, health, and fruit of every branch over its life. He is the overseer and cultivator of the harvest.

Jesus is the Vine which every branch grows from. The Vine is the backbone, strength, and source of all that the branches need to grow strong and bear good fruit. The Vine determines the placement and direction of every branch. The Vine’s roots run deep and it distributes the needed resources to every branch in order for each branch to grow and produce fruit. The Vine strengthens every branch to be able to bear the weight of the fruits that it produces with the Vine’s help, and supports the growth, development, and refinement of every branch throughout it’s life.

We are the branches. Branches either grow in conjunction with the Vine, or they fail to produce fruit and are cut off. Branches that grow within the Vine, taking from its nutrients, relying on the Vine’s strength, growing in the direction the Vine is growing will eventually bear the fruit of that Vine. Branches are pruned when there are unhealthy parts that could infect and wither the whole branch and spread to other branches. Pruning needs to happen to remove unhealthy parts, stimulate healthy growth, and encourage the branch to produce good fruit.

What does it mean to abide in the Vine?

This image of vines and branches is a beautiful one. When we stick to Christ and rely on His strength, growing in the directions He is guiding, and learn to bear His fruits we are abiding in the Vine. To abide in the True Vine is to live our lives for and through Christ, focusing on God’s will for our lives, and learning to live holy lives that bring God glory.

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Pruning and producing fruit

An important aspect of abiding in the True Vine is that we will need pruning throughout our lives. We are all touched by the curse of sin, which is why we need a Savior. When we choose to have faith in Jesus Christ, we are grafted into the True Vine and commit to a life attached to and relying on Him. In order for us to truly abide in Christ, though, God needs to prune the sinful and unholy parts of our lives out in order to sanctify us and make us holy.

²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 3:23 NKJV

Pruning is the process of removing things, people, behaviors, seasons, and circumstances from our lives that God knows are not the best things for us. He, as our Creator, knows what is the best for us and needs to prune out what doesn’t help us along in the mission of holy living, being made perfect, and preparing us for our future in Heaven with Him. This can be a painful process and a lot of the time we will struggle to understand, but faith is trusting in God’s plans and purposes even when we don’t understand.

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¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 
²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 
²¹ envy,^[a] drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do^[b] such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5:19-21 ESV

As He prunes and cuts out the things in us and in our lives that are hindering us from producing good fruit, at the right time we will begin to produce fruits that line up with the character of God Himself. We are instructed throughout the New Testament to live as Christ, to imitate Him, to become more like Him. As the Vinedresser prunes us we become more like Jesus, the Vine we are abiding in. When we become more like Jesus we naturally start to display His character as evidence of our faith and that we are abiding in Him.

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 
²³ gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23 ESV

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Living obediently by scripture and prayer

In order to truly become more like the True Vine we must learn more about Him. We get to do this by reading and studying the Bible and through a personal prayer relationship with Him. Our faith in Jesus brings us into a personal relationship with God the Father through the blood of Jesus. Within this personal relationship, we get to talk to God and tell Him our struggles, hurts, questions, joys, and thanks. We get to confide in God because we are abiding in the Vine.

⁷ If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you^[a] will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

John 15:7 NKJV

²⁶ Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

Romans 8:26 ESV

⁶ do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Philippians 4:6 ESV

As we allow the True Vine to shape and form us, He will reveal His truth to us throughout His Word and help us to apply it to our lives. When we live by the Word of God we allow Christ to abide in us, and therefore we also abide in Him. By abiding in His Word we abide in the True Vine. Obedience to Him and His Word is an act and display of love and commitment. If we are truly committed to abiding in Christ, we will obey His commands, live by His Word, and grow in our personal relationship with Him through prayer.

⁹ “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 
¹⁰ If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

John 15:9-10 NKJV

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¹⁵ “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 
¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper,^[a] to be with you forever, 
¹⁷ even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be^[b] in you.

John 14:15-17 ESV

³ Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 
⁴ He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 
⁵ But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God ^[a]is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 
⁶ He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

1 John 2:3-6 NKJV

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Glorifying God through following Jesus

He does not leave us to figure out how to follow and obey Him all on our own. In fact, we could never figure it out on our own and He knows it. When Jesus ascended back up to Heaven He made a promise that those who would abide in Him would be given a Helper, the Holy Spirit, to teach us. The Spirit of Truth is God’s own Spirit and abides inside those who have decided to follow Jesus and abide in the Vine.

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Abiding in Christ also means we let the Spirit of Truth, God’s very own Spirit that He gives as a helper to those with faith in Jesus, lead our lives. We glorify God by being obedient to His will and instruction, learning to listen to the promptings of His Spirit, and constantly living with a Kingdom mindset. We are called to do all we do for the glory of God, always letting Him lead our choices. If we are going to live for God’s glory we must live the way He instructs us to live that will bring Him glory. We must live prayerfully by His Word so that we are careful to abide in Him, and do the work He has prepared us to do to bring Him glory.

³¹ Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10:31 NKJV

¹³ “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy^[a] that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 
¹⁴ For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Matthew 7:13-14 ESV

Followers of Jesus have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside us, therefore we are no longer our own. We are not making choices that only impact ourselves, but also affect the dwelling-place of God’s Spirit, and have a Kingdom impact. As branches within the Vine, we get to have an impact on the Kingdom, serve and glorify God in Spirit and Truth, and bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit. By our fruits, whether of the Spirit or of the world, we will be known. If we are known by the fruits of God’s Spirit we can share the Truth of the True Vine with the world.

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¹⁹ Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 
²⁰ For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body ^[a]and in your spirit, which are God’s.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NKJV

All who have faith in Jesus are commanded to abide in the True Vine, to live a life worthy of Jesus Christ and the calling we have received in Him. We are all called to worship Him in how we live our lives, serve Him with our whole selves, grow in our relationships with Him, and display Him more and more throughout our lives.

As we grow and bear His good fruit we will see God’s handprints all over our lives, and we will also be blessed with the opportunity to draw others to the love of God and likewise be joined into the True Vine as well. Let’s grow the Kingdom of God together! How do you grow in your relationship with Jesus and strive to keep close and abide in the True Vine every day?

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