Final Discourse

Final Discourse
John 15:3-5

3 Now [ede] ye [humeis] are [este] clean [katharos] through [dia] the word [logos] which [hos] I have spoken [laleo] unto you [humin] .
4 Abide [meno] in [en] me [emoi] , and I [kago] in [en] you [humin] . As [kathos] the branch [klema] cannot [ou] [dunamai] bear [phero] fruit [karpos] of [apo] itself [heautou] , except [ean me] it abide [meno] in [en] the vine [ampelos] ; no more [oude] [houto] can ye [humeis] , except [ean me] ye abide [meno] in [en] me [emoi] .
5 I [ego] am [eimi] the vine [ampelos] , ye [humeis] are the branches [klema] : He that abideth [meno] in [en] me [emoi] , and I [kago] in [en] him [autos] , the same [houtos] bringeth forth [phero] much [polus] fruit [karpos] : for [hoti] without [choris] me [emou] ye can [dunamai] do [poieo] nothing [ou] [oudeis] . KJV-Interlinear

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, so 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, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. NASB

A simple illustration, but yet it allows us to get a more clear picture of our responsibilities and especially of the mechanism of our relationship with God, through Jesus Christ.

Remember that Jesus Christ is the vine, the main root of the true plant in the garden. God the Father is the Gardener who cares for the vine and its branches. We, believers in Christ, are the branches grafted onto the main root, and there we live forever in heaven with Christ.

We enter into the garden and onto the vine by being cleaned. Here clean means to be saved, or cleansed from all of the filth which would otherwise have prevented us from being saved. Christ paid the price for sin from the Cross, and now sin has no hold over us.

There is a second meaning of clean and that has to do with our daily life after we have been saved. Obviously after believing in Christ, and becoming saved, we are still here on this earth. We still live and breath and we sin on occasion. That sin has to be addressed, but not from the view of the Cross, but from the view of forgiveness.

Christ paid the price for all sins of all mankind with His work on the Cross. That price is paid in full. But we continue to sin. So the issue is now, our recognition of our current sins and our acknowledgment of them to God the Father. We do that through confession (of or sins directly to the Father). We call that our fellowship prayer. That prayer is a very simple one wherein we simply list our sins to God and then we forget them. God forgives them, restores us back into fellowship, and those sins are wiped off of our spiritual record. Anyway that is the simple explanation of fellowship.

The apostles were already cleaned because of what Jesus had already told them. Past tense. They knew of the salvation requirement, believe in Christ. They understood the confession requirement for fellowship. Now they need to comply with verse 4. 'Abide in me.' Abide means to remain, to stay there, to set up residence permanently, never to be moved again.

Remain means to stay in and live in fellowship. When we are in fellowship we are in Christ. Now we are to do more than just confess our sins. Just to confess might get you into fellowship, but we need to grow up spiritually. So the next item of requirement, 'I in you.' Christ has to be in each one of us. This is our learning process of Bible doctrine.

Christ in us, has two meanings. When we believe in Christ all three members of the Godhead enter and indwell inside of each one of us permanently, but that is not the topic of discussion here. Our topic is production. Don't forget that we are in the Garden of God at the moment.

To be productive we need to learn how to be productive. So we study out Bibles, we learn, we use what we learn in our daily lives, we come to an understanding, and we do it all over again and again daily for the rest of our lives. This circle of wisdom running throughout our souls is 'Christ in us' or Gods word in us if you will.

We can only be productive in our spiritual lives by being on the correct vine, Jesus Christ. We can only be productive when we comply with the rules of the vine, spiritual growth. There are no other alternatives in life which might replace Christ, or His Word. We cannot invent another path to God. We cannot invent another truth to replace Gods Word.

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