Apart From Me, You Can Do Nothing

"Abide in me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  I am the vine, and you are the branches.  Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing...By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples."
John 15:5, 8  

The 'vine' metaphor is used throughout Scripture over and over again.  Arguably the most chief text (other than the present one) is found in Isaiah 5, in which God chastises and condemns Israel, which "yielded wild grapes" when God had been looking for it to yield grapes (5:2).  He says, "What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?" (5:4) and promises "I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard...I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned and hoed...I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it" (5:5-6), concluding "for the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting, and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!" (5:7).  In this prophetic text, God hates what Israel has become, because Israel, though chosen to be a holy nation unto God, has turned from Him towards their earthly idols.  They've defamed the name to which they've been called and made a mockery of God's kindness.

This is why Jesus tells His disciples of their need to "abide in me".  Some translations render meno as 'abide' while others use 'remain', and either one works within the context of the rest of the Gospel of John.  But Jesus' point is that whereas an entire nation has proven to be a poor and incapable vine, He Himself is the new Vine.  Whereas before, people considered themselves justified before God simply because of the fact that they were born into a particular nation of chosen people, Jesus is now saying that the only way to be justified before God is to be in Him.  This is why He had just said "I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you" (14:20) and then "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him" (14:23). Those who remain in Him and abide in Him are those who are justified before God because they find their life in Him.

Works have never justified a person before God--faith has always been more important.  This is because one can do good things, but not have faith, whereas faith always brings forth good works if it's real faith.  It was the same with Abraham as it has been throughout Scripture (see Hebrews 11).  Works certainly prove whether a person's faith is genuine or not (see James 2:26)--especially to God who sees the heart (Gen. 6:5. 8:21, 1 Sam. 16:7, Jerem. 11:20) and would know the motive behind a person's good works.  This is why He's so angry with Israel in Isaiah 5--He looks at Israel for righteousness and goodness (especially in light of how good He's been to them), and instead He finds "wild grapes...bloodshed...outcry".

Jesus says a person can't bear fruit unless he abides in Him--in essence, "if you seek to carry out good works and bear good fruit on your own, through your own understanding, by your own goodness, do you think you'll be any different than Israel was?"  You'll continue to be idolatrous (just like them), you'll continue to not trust in God to provide what you need(just like them), you'll continue to presume on His kindness and test Him (just like them), and you'll never have a circumcised heart, just like them.  Your salvation may be outward, but it will never be inward, where salvation really is if it's there at all.  You may "honor (him) with your lips", but your heart will be far from him.

"Apart from me you can do nothing."  There's no possibility of bearing fruit for those who don't seek Jesus to find their strength to bear fruit.  Truly, unless they're actually in Jesus, they'll never want to bear fruit in the first place...they'll still think their work is to justify themselves before God, instead of letting Jesus justify them, and their message to the world will be "come, justify yourself before God...come build with us a Tower to the heavens, to make a name for ourselves".

The fruit that the Father is springing forth from the branches on His Son the Vine is the fruit that itself find its life in Christ who is the Vine.   The whole point of the the Vine metaphor is that just like the branches are absolutely and completely dependent upon the vine to supply them their life, so their fruit doesn't spring forth unless the life from the vine brings forth the fruit.  This means that for Christians who truly abide in Christ, if there is fruit that springs forth from their ministering in this world, Jesus will get all the glory, because Jesus is the one who brought the fruit in the first place.  We're reminded of Jesus' words with Zacchaeus, "Today salvation has come to this house" (Luke 19:9)--(salvation came there because Jesus came there.  He brings salvation; it's never taken.)

So what is man's job?  Obedience, and faith.  Notice Jesus says in v.8, "By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples."  Jesus doesn't say "By this you become my disciples, by bearing fruit."  Instead He says, "By this you prove you already are my disciples--by bearing fruit."  We must be those who a) keep Jesus' commands (14:15), and b) bear fruit.  But truly the only way we can bear fruit is if we're keeping Jesus' commands, walking in Him, trusting in Him, and letting our very nature as branches on Him the Vine bring forth fruit.

May we not be those that seek to justify ourselves by our works;  instead, may we be those who seek to be justified by Christ the Vine giving us life as branches, so that He can give us good fruit for His own glory.  "Truly truly I say to you, unless one is born again (or from above) he cannot see the Kingdom of God" (Jn. 3:3); "Whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God" (3:21). 
If we would be Christians, we must understand two things as our foundation: 
1.  It's only new life if God's the one who gave it (hence, BRANCHES on a VINE), and
2.  They're only good works if they're carried out in God (hence, FRUIT, supplied by the VINE).

By complete dependence on "Christ who is our life" (Colossians 3:3-4), we bear fruit.  Otherwise, we'll spring forth "wild grapes", and Christ has called us to so much more than that.