Christ the True Grapevine: How not to get cut off.

Believers, it is absolutely impossible for a person to be (abide) in Christ and not bear fruit, much like how it is impossible to jump into a swimming pool filled with water without clothing and not get wet. See our Saviour's words in John 15:1-6-

“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the Gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and He prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you.4 Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in Me."

5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. 6 Anyone who does not remain in Me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers."

In verse 4 above, we see that the way for the branch to not produce fruit is to be severed (cut off) from the vine. Unless we remain in Christ, we cannot be fruitful. As long as we remain in Him, we bear much fruit. But how does one get cut of from Christ the vine? Many of us will be quick to answer "by committing acts of sin" and such but nothing could be further from the truth! Galatians 5:4 is very clear on how to get cut off from Christ:

"For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace."

Keeping the law in order to get right with God is how to get cut off from Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says of God "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." Keeping the law to get right with God is to reject what Christ did to set us right with God for our own "good works" and puny efforts at law -keeping. It is believing that God blesses us because of our various fasts, self-discipline and the good things that we do and not because of what Christ has done as it is written in Romans 8:32 

"He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"

Wonderful as the credentials of our good works and "lawfulnesses" are, if they are done in order to get right with God, all they serve to do is cut one off from Christ the Vine. The credit goes to the law-keeper and not Christ. The one here is "thrown away like a useless branch and withers." In Philippians 3 (MSG,) Paul counted these credentials as "dog dung:"

"The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by Him."

Jesus is not in the business of saving those who think that they only need partial saving because they are not "that bad." To think this way is very ignorant too in light of James 2:10- "For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all." Such here cannot bear any fruit much less much fruit because they reject Christ and look to their own human effort (aka the flesh) to bear fruit. Romans 7:5 tells us the result of this is -

"For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death."

The law arouses sinful passions in those who depend on their ability to keep it for their righteousness and salvation and causes them to sin more. Remember "...the strength of sin is the law." 1 Cor. 15:56. The more one tries to keep the law to get right with God, the stronger the grip of sin will be. This is is why many Christians are locked down in a cycle of sin, guilt and condemnation and are not quite sure if they will "make it" at the Rapture. In fact, the preaching of the Rapture that should comfort us believers (according to Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:17-18) brings fear to the minds of many! Some pastors even use it to threaten young converts when, deep down, they know that they are not perfectly guiltless in their works!

Believers, let's not be found here. Understand that if our salvation from sin here on earth and our being caught up with Christ at the Rapture demands as little as a hair's breadth of our own human effort at being good, no one will make it. The best-behaved and vilest amongst us are saved through the same means: by Grace through faith. By God's grace, let us, like Paul, discard our "dog dung" attempts at getting right with God through the flesh (human effort aka law-keeping). It cuts one off from Christ. Only when we stop trying to re-accomplish Christ's finished work of making us righteous by His obedience and seek His righteousness can we remain in Him and bear much fruit. See Romans 7:4-

"Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God."

Believer, by God's grace, don't be deceived by those who tell you that God is disgusted or angry with you because of your misdeeds. Acts of sin cannot cut a believer off from Christ. He came to free you from those very sins. He loved you at your worst. He came to save us from our sins. How could He use the very sins that He came to save us from as an excuse for not saving us? He will cause you to stop sinning. You can't be free indeed by yourself. He Himself said "For apart from Me you can do nothing."

God hates sin but loves the sinner. He gave His Son to die for our sins because He loved us so. Because Christ took ALL of our unrighteousnesses and gave us His own, we have an everlasting righteousness that is apart from our works. It is a gift. Abide in Him, forsaking your puny efforts at keeping the Law in order to be righteous and depend on His freely-given gift of righteousness. You will bear much fruit. You will not continue to sin.

The Holy Spirit will teach you all things.

Believe Right and you will Live Right.