The beginning of this chapter, and that which relates to the vine, belongs
to the earthly portion-to that which Jesus was on earth-to His relationship
with His disciples as on the earth, and does not go beyond that position.
"I am the true vine." Jehovah had planted a vine brought out of Egypt
(Psalm 80: 8). This is Israel after the flesh; but it was not the true
Vine. The true Vine was His Son, whom He brought up out of Egypt-Jesus.
[see note #55]
He presents Himself thus to His disciples. Here it is not that which He
will be after His departure; He was this upon earth, and distinctively upon
earth. We do not speak of planting vines in heaven, nor of pruning branches
there.
The disciples would have considered Him as the most excellent branch of the
Vine; but thus He would have been only a member of Israel, whereas He was
Himself the vessel, the source of blessing, according to the promises of
God. The true Vine, therefore, is not Israel; quite the contrary, it is
Christ in contrast with Israel, but Christ planted on earth, taking
Israel's place, as the true Vine. The Father cultivates this plant,
evidently on the earth. There is no need of a husbandman in heaven. Those
who are attached to Christ, as the remnant of Israel, the disciples, need
this culture. It is on the earth that fruit-bearing is looked for. The Lord
therefore says to them, "Ye are clean already, through the word which I
have spoken unto you"; "Ye are the branches." Judas, perhaps it may be
said, was taken away, so the disciples who walked no more with Him. The
others should be proved and cleansed, that they might bear more fruit.
I do not doubt that this relationship, in principle and in a general
analogy, still subsists. Those who make a profession, who attach themselves
to Christ in order to follow Him, will, if there is life, be cleansed; if
not, that which they have will be taken away. Observe therefore here, that
the Lord speaks only of His word-that of the true prophet-and of judgment,
whether in discipline or in cutting off. Consequently He speaks not of the
power of God, but of the responsibility of man-a responsibility which man
will certainly not be able to meet without grace; but which has
nevertheless that character of personal responsibility here.
Jesus was the source of all their strength. They were to abide in Him;
thus-for this is the order-He would abide in them. We have seen this in
chapter 14. He does not speak here of the sovereign exercise of love in
salvation, but of the government of children by their Father; so that
blessing depends on walk (v. 21, 23). Here the husbandman seeks for fruit;
but the instruction given presents entire dependence on the Vine as the
means of producing it. And He shews the disciples that, walking on earth,
they should be pruned by the Father, and a man (for in verse 6 He carefully
changes the expression, for He knew the disciples and had pronounced them
already clean)-a man, any one who bore no fruit, would be cut off. For the
subject here is not that relationship with Christ in heaven by the Holy
Ghost, which cannot be broken, but of that link which even then was formed
here below, which might be vital and eternal, or which might not. Fruit
should be the proof.
In the former vine this was not necessary; they were Jews by birth, they
were circumcised, they kept the ordinances, and abode in the vine as good
branches, without bearing any fruit at all. They were only cut off from
Israel for wilful violation of the law. Here it is not a relationship with
Jehovah founded on the circumstance of being born of a certain family. That
which is looked for is the glorifying the Father by fruit-bearing. It is
this which will shew that they are the disciples of Him who has borne so
much.
Christ, then, was the true Vine; the Father, the Husbandman; the eleven
were the branches. They were to abide in Him, which is realised by not
thinking to produce any fruit except as in Him, looking to Him first.
Christ precedes fruit. It is dependence, practical habitual nearness of
heart to Him, and trust in Him, being attached to Him through dependence on
Him. In this way Christ in them would be a constant source of strength and
of fruit. He would be in them. Out of Him they could do nothing. If, by
abiding in Him, they had the strength of His presence, they should bear
much fruit. Moreover, "if a man" (He does not say "they"; He knew them as
true branches and clean) did not abide in Him, he should be cast forth to
be burnt. Again, if they abode in Him (that is, if there was the constant
dependence that draws from the source), and if the words of Christ abode in
them, directing their hearts and thoughts, they should command the
resources of divine power; they should ask what they would, and it should
be done. But, further, the Father had loved the Son divinely while He dwelt
on earth. Jesus did the same with regard to them. They were to abide in His
love. In the former verses it was in Him, here it is in His love.
[see note #56]
By keeping His Father's commandments, He had abode in His love; by keeping
the commandments of Jesus, they should abide in His. Dependence (which
implies confidence, and reference to Him on whom we depend for strength, as
unable to do anything without Him, and so clinging close to Him) and
obedience, are the two great principles of practical life here below. Thus
Jesus walked as man: He knew by experience the true path for His disciples.
The commandments of His Father were the expression of what the Father was;
by keeping them in the spirit of obedience, Jesus had ever walked in the
communion of His love; had maintained communion with Himself. The
commandments of Jesus when on earth were the expression of what He was,
divinely perfect in the path of man. By walking in them, His disciples
should be in the communion of His love. The Lord spoke these things to His
disciples, in order that His joy
[see note #57] should abide in them, and that
their joy should be full.
We see that it is not the salvation of a sinner that is the subject treated
of here, but the path of a disciple, in order that he may fully enjoy the
love of Christ, and that his heart may be unclouded in the place where joy
is found.
Neither is the question entered on here, whether a real believer can be
separated from God, because the Lord makes obedience the means of abiding
in His love. Assuredly He could not lose the favour of His Father, or cease
to be the object of His love. That was out of the question; and yet He
says, "I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." But
this was the divine path in which He enjoyed it. It is the walk and the
strength of a disciple that is spoken of, and not the means of salvation.
At verse 12 another part of the subject begins. He wills (this is His
commandment) that they should love one another, as He had loved them.
Before, He had spoken of the Father's love for Him, which flowed from
heaven into His heart here below.
[see note #58]
He had loved them in this same way; but He had also been a companion, a
servant, in this love. Thus the disciples were to love one another with a
love that rose above all the weaknesses of others, and which was at the
same time brotherly, and caused the one who felt it to be the servant of
his brother. It went so far as to lay down life itself for one's friends.
Now, to Jesus, he who obeyed Him was His friend. Observe,He does not say
that He would be their friend. He was our friend when He gave His life for
sinners: we are His friends when we enjoy His confidence, as He here
expresses it-"I have told you all things that I have heard of my Father."
Men speak of their affairs, according to the necessity of doing so which
may arise, to those who are concerned in them. I impart all my own thoughts
to one who is my friend. "Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I will
do?" and Abraham was called the "friend of God." Now it was not things
concerning Abraham himself that God then told Abraham (He had done so as
God), but things concerning the world-Sodom. God does the same with respect
to the assembly, practically with respect to the obedient disciple: such a
one should be the depositary of His thoughts. Moreover, He had chosen them
for this. It was not they who had chosen Him by the exercise of their own
will. He had chosen them and ordained them to go and bring forth fruit, and
fruit that should remain; so that, being thus chosen of Christ for the
work, they should receive from the Father, who could not fail them in this
case, whatsoever they should ask. Here the Lord comes to the source and
certainty of grace, in order that the practical responsibility, under which
He puts them, should not cloud the divine grace which acted towards them
and placed them there.
They were therefore to love one another.
[see note #59]
That the world should hate them was but the natural consequence of its
hatred to Christ; it sealed their association with Him. The world loves
that which is of the world: this is quite natural. The disciples were not
of it; and, besides, the Jesus whom it had rejected had chosen them and
separated them from the world: therefore it would hate them because so
chosen in grace. There was, besides, the moral reason, namely, that they
were not of it; but this demonstrated their relationship to Christ, and His
sovereign rights, by which He had taken them to Himself out of a rebellious
world. They should have the same portion as their Master: it should be for
His name's sake, because the world-and He speaks especially of the Jews,
among whom He had laboured-knew not the Father who had sent Him in love. To
make their boast of Jehovah, as their God, suited them very well. They
would have received the Messiah on that footing. To know the Father,
revealed in His true character by the Son, was quite a different thing.
Nevertheless the Son had revealed Him, and, both by His words and His
works, had manifested the Father and His perfections.
If Christ had not come and spoken unto them, God would not have had to
reproach them with sin. They might still drag on, even if in an unpurged
state, without any proof (though there was plenty of sin and transgression
as men and as a people under the law) that they would not have God-would
not even by mercy return. The fruit of a fallen nature was there, no doubt,
but not the proof that that nature preferred sin to God, when God was there
in mercy, not imputing it. Grace was dealing with them, not imputing sin to
them. Mercy had been treating them as fallen, not as wilful creatures. God
was not taking the ground of law, which imputes, or of judgment, but of
grace in the revelation of the Father by the Son. The words and works of
the Son revealing the Father in grace, rejected, left them without hope
(compare chap. 16: 9). Their real condition would otherwise not have been
thoroughly tested, God would have had still a means to use; He loved Israel
too much to condemn them while there was one left untried.
If the Lord had not done among them the works which no other man had done,
they might have remained as they were, refused to believe in Him, and not
have been guilty before God. They would have been still the object of
Jehovah's longsuffering; but in fact they had seen and hated both the Son
and the Father. The Father had been fully manifested in the Son-in Jesus;
and if, when God was fully manifested, and in grace, they rejected Him,
what could be done except to leave them in sin, afar from God? If He had
been manifested only in part, they would have had an excuse; they might
have said, "Ah! if He had shewn grace, if we had known Him as He is, we
would not have rejected Him." They could not now say this. They had seen
the Father and the Son in Jesus. Alas! they had seen and hated.
[see note #60]
But this was only the fulfilment of that which was foretold of them in
their law. As to the testimony borne to God by the people, and of a Messiah
received by them, all was over. They had hated Him without a cause.
The Lord now turns to the subject of the Holy Ghost who should come to
maintain His glory, which the people had cast down to the ground. The Jews
had not known the Father manifested in the Son; the Holy Ghost should now
come from the Father to bear witness of the Son. The Son should send Him
from the Father. In chapter 14 the Father sends Him in Jesus' name for the
personal relationship of the disciples with Jesus. Here Jesus, gone on
high, sends Him the witness of His exalted glory, His heavenly place. This
was the new testimony, and was to be rendered unto Jesus, the Son of God,
ascended up to heaven. The disciples also should bear witness of Him,
because they had been with Him from the beginning. They were to testify
with the help of the Holy Ghost, as eyewitnesses of His life on earth, of
the manifestation of the Father in Him. The Holy Ghost, sent by Him, was
the witness to His glory with the Father, whence He Himself had come.
Thus in Christ, the true Vine, we have the disciples, the branches, clean
already, Christ being still present on the earth. After His departure they
were to maintain this practical relationship. They should be in
relationship with Him, as He, here below, had been with the Father. And
they were to be with one another as He had been with them. Their position
was outside the world. Now the Jews had hated both the Son and the Father;
the Holy Ghost should bear witness to the Son as with the Father, and in
the Father; and the disciples should testify also of that which He had been
on earth.
The Holy Ghost, and, in a certain sense, the disciples take the place of
Jesus, as well as of the old vine, on the earth.
The presence and the testimony of the Holy Ghost on earth are now developed.
It is well to notice the connection of the subjects in the passages we are
considering. In chapter 14 we have the Person of the Son revealing the
Father, and the Holy Ghost giving the knowledge of the Son's being in the
Father and the disciples in Jesus on high. This was the personal condition
both of Christ and the disciples, and is all linked together; only first
the Father, the Son being down here, and then the Holy Ghost sent by the
Father. In chapters 15, 16 you get the distinct dispensations-Christ the
true Vine on earth, and then the Comforter come on earth sent down by the
exalted Christ. In chapter 14 Christ prays the Father, who sends the Spirit
in Christ's name. In chapter 15 Christ exalted sends the Spirit from the
Father, a witness of His exaltation, as the disciples, led by the Spirit,
were of His life of humiliation, but as Son on earth.
Nevertheless there is development as well as connection. In chapter 14 the
Lord, although quitting the earth, speaks in connection with that which He
was upon earth. It is (not Christ Himself) the Father who sends the Holy
Ghost at His request. He goes from earth to heaven on their part as
Mediator. He would pray the Father, and the Father would give them another
Comforter, who should continue with them, not leaving them as He was doing.
Their relationship to the Father depending on Him, it would be as believing
in Him that He would be sent to them-not to the world-not upon Jews, as
such. It should be in His name. Moreover the Holy Ghost would Himself teach
them, and He would recall to their mind the commandments of Jesus-all that
He had said unto them. For chapter 14 gives the whole position that
resulted from the manifestation
[see note #61]
of the Son, and that of the Father in Him, and from His departure (that is
to say, its results with regard to the disciples).
Now, in chapter 15 He had exhausted the subject of commandments in
connection with the life manifested in Himself here below; and at the close
of this chapter He considers Himself as ascended, and He adds, "But when
the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father." He
comes, indeed, from the Father; for our relationship is, and ought to be,
immediate to Him. It is there that Christ has placed us. But in this verse
it is not the Father who sends Him at the request of Jesus, and in His
name. Christ has taken His place in glory as Son of man, and according to
the glorious fruits of His work, and He sends Him. Consequently He bears
witness to that which Christ is in heaven. No doubt He makes us perceive
what Jesus was here below, where in infinite grace He manifested the
Father, and perceive it much better than they did, who were with Him during
His sojourn on earth. But this is in chapter 14. Nevertheless the Holy
Ghost is sent by Christ from heaven, and He reveals to us the Son, whom now
we know as having perfectly and divinely (albeit as man and amid sinful
men) manifested the Father. We know, I repeat, the Son, as with the Father,
and in the Father. From thence it is He has sent us the Holy Ghost.
