November 22, 2025 • 17 mins
We trace the vine from the prophets to the upper room and show why Jesus calls himself the true vine and how abiding is believing. Fear fades when we see that withered branches picture unbelief, while pruning affirms those loved by God.
• the problem of church rhetoric versus grace clarity
• abiding defined as believing, not performance
• addressing “taken away” and “fire” without legalism
• Israel as the vine in the Tanakh and the remnant
• Matthew’s Hosea quote and the second exodus
• Romans 11 on broken-off and grafted-in branches
• covenant promise before law, fulfilled in Christ
• clean because of the word, Judas as contrast
• pruning as care and fruit as evidence of life
• encouragement to value salvation and trust grace
Blog Post: https://wakinguptograce.com/066-thrown-into-the-fire-and-burned-john-15-1-6/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Wait, stop.
There is a world of articles,books, and information out there
when it comes to Christianity,but we are mostly stuck with
rhetoric and double talk when itcomes to our relationship with
the Lord, our new identity asbelievers, and the security and
finality of the work of Christ.
Are you getting everything youneed spiritually from your
church?
Or do you find yourself feelinghungry for more?
(00:21):
Join Lenny as he unpacks whatScripture really taught about
our Lord Jesus Christ in contextand why this matters to you.
Wake up, wake up, wake up tograce.
SPEAKER_00 (00:32):
Welcome back, everyone.
I'll be continuing ourdiscussion on John 15 today,
looking again at verses 1through 6.
In my last message, we came tothe conclusion that abiding in
Christ is believing in Christ.
This concept raises a lot ofdispute with many of today's
church leaders, so my goal is toaddress these arguments, and in
(00:53):
doing so show you the math andhow we can prove the truth in
this passage.
As we discussed in my lastmessage, Yeshua spoke to
believers here.
That does not mean thateverything said was about
believers.
I say this often because manymiss this simple principle and
go way off the beaten path intheir theology.
I don't want this for you.
(01:14):
I want for you what John wantedfor his audience in his first
epistle, for you to abide inwhat you heard from the
beginning.
What I mean is I want you tounderstand this in light of the
gospel of grace, the gospel thatbrings peace with Yahweh to
those who believe.
In our John 15 text, we see atheme of fruit bearing.
But along with some veryencouraging words, we see some
(01:37):
words that sound a littlefrightening if we're being
honest.
We have Yeshua saying he is thevine, and then we have branches
in him getting taken away.
Even worse, we have branchesgetting thrown into the fire and
burned.
By far the most troubling partis that all these branches seem
to be in Christ.
Every time a person is referredto as in Christ in our New
(02:00):
Testament, they're a savedbeliever.
So the question we must ask thenis how can a believer in Christ
be taken away or thrown into thefire and burned?
What purpose might Yeshua havehad in making such a harsh
analogy?
In regards to being thrown intothe fire and burned, many see
this as punishing discipline.
Some even cite Hebrews 12 as areference to God punishing
(02:22):
Christians for their sin.
This Hebrews passage iscertainly a go-to for this type
of teaching, but it's not aboutChristians who are sinning.
Hebrews 12 4 is about Christiansgetting persecuted for truth,
which is the sin of theiraccusers.
They're literally gettingflogged for bearing fruit, not
the other way around.
(02:42):
I go over this in message number19 if you'd like to put that bad
doctrine in the fire to beburned.
The only time we see thisreference to God chastising
Christians is when they arefacing a similar fate as their
sinless Messiah, who wasliterally chastised, which also
means scourged for beingrighteous.
We really have to be carefulthat legalism doesn't blind us
(03:05):
from truth as we read.
Using this analogy againstsinful Christians is a major
interpretive error and acompromise of grace.
I've also heard it said that thefire here is a refining fire,
like we see in other places inScripture.
I don't know about you, but Ihave a hard time understanding
an analogy like this beingapplied to a withered branch.
(03:26):
Show me a withered branch that'sbeen refined by fire.
I know in my garden branchesdon't come back from that.
I don't think our Lord would usesuch words about one of his own,
do you?
That doesn't sound like the sameMessiah that said, And this is
the will of him who sent me,that I should lose nothing of
all that he has given me, butraise it up on the last day.
(03:48):
Taking it even further, amultitude of so-called Christian
leaders will tell you that thebranches thrown into the fire
are believers who lose theirsalvation.
This view is so off the path, Iwouldn't have time to
investigate it in this message.
As we just read in John 6.39 andsee everywhere in Scripture, a
Christian can't lose theirsalvation.
(04:09):
Although we never lose oursalvation, I can say the less we
value our salvation, the less webenefit from it in this life.
It's tragic to take what we'vebeen given for granted.
But now that we've heard someother views on the passage, what
do you say we think forourselves, and pray that the
Lord guides us to what we canlearn from this text in our
(04:29):
scripture?
In John 15, one through six weread, I am the true vine, and my
father is the vine dresser.
Every branch in me that does notbear fruit he takes away, and
every branch that does bearfruit he prunes that it may bear
more fruit.
Already you are clean because ofthe word that I have spoken to
you.
Abide in me and I in you, as thebranch cannot bear fruit by
(04:53):
itself, unless it abides in thevine, neither can you, unless
you abide in me.
I am the vine, you are thebranches.
Whoever abides in me and I inhim, he it is that bears much
fruit, for apart from me you cando nothing.
If anyone does not abide in me,he is thrown away like a branch
and withers, and the branchesare gathered, thrown into the
(05:16):
fire, and burned.
In reading the words of ChristYeshua here, do you think this
idea of him being the true vinewas something he came up with
randomly?
In our Western theology, itwould be easy to assume that he
uses this word simply for thesake of making a good analogy.
Some might even see it asparabolic.
But it's not random orparabolic, and it's very
(05:39):
significant that we understandwhy he calls himself the true
vine.
We see the same analogy used ofIsrael throughout the Tanakh,
which is known as our OldTestament.
Let's see a little of what theTanakh has to say about Israel
being a vine.
Be warned, O Jerusalem, lest Iturn from you in disgust, lest I
make you a desolation, anuninhabited land.
(06:03):
Thus says the Lord of hosts,they shall glean thoroughly as a
vine, the remnant of Israel.
Like a grape gatherer, pass yourhand again over its branches.
That's Jeremiah six, eight.
Here we see the remnant, whichrefers to the faithful in Israel
being gleaned from the vine.
The poor were often allowed toglean in the fields after the
(06:25):
harvest to gather the goodscraps that were left behind
from the harvesting.
Then we read, For there shall bea sowing of peace, the vine
shall give its fruit, and theground shall give its produce,
and the heavens shall give theirdue, and I will cause the
remnant of this people topossess all things.
And that's Zechariah 8 12.
(06:47):
Again we see this analogy, andin this case it appears to
represent the exact meaning thatwe find in Christ Yeshua's
words.
The remnant of the faithful willbe those who possess all things.
What about the others?
If the faithful possess allthings, then what's promised to
the unfaithful?
And then in Isaiah we read, Forthe vineyard of the Lord of
(07:10):
hosts is the house of Israel,and the men of Judah are his
pleasant planting.
And he looked for justice, butbehold bloodshed, for
righteousness, but behold anoutcry.
That's Isaiah 5 7.
Here we see Judah being favoredamong the tribes of Israel.
What tribe did Yeshua come from?
You guessed it, he came fromJudah.
(07:32):
But prior to Christ Judah wasnot pleased in the Lord, were
they?
And then in Jeremiah it iswritten, Yet I planted you a
choice vine, holy, of pure seed.
How then have you turneddegenerate and become a wild
vine?
That's Jeremiah 221.
Now we read that a choice vinehad become a wild vine.
(07:54):
This could prove to be veryimportant to our vine and
branches analogy.
Who would be the wild vine, thefaithful or the unfaithful?
Would the wild vine still havebeen in the original choice
vine?
If we see things from a covenantview, Israel was partaking in
the new covenant.
The Messiah came to them.
(08:15):
Yeshua was their Messiah fortheir salvation.
Can you see how the Jews whorejected their Messiah find
themselves in this analogy?
Okay, now let's read a passagethat blows the minds of scholars
and causes so many to believethat Matthew actually pulls the
prophet Hosea out of context inhis gospel.
(08:36):
Matthew 213 reads Now when theyhad departed, behold, an angel
of the Lord appeared to Josephin a dream, and said, Rise, take
the child and his mother, andflee to Egypt, and remain there
until I tell you, for Herod isabout to search for the child,
and to destroy him.
And he rose and took the childand his mother by night and
(08:58):
departed to Egypt, and remainedthere until the death of Herod.
This was to fulfill what theLord had spoken by the prophet,
out of Egypt I called my son.
Now listen carefully here.
Hosea is whom Matthew quotes.
And Hosea writes When Israel wasa child, I loved him, and out of
(09:19):
Egypt I called my son.
When we read through Hosea, wesee clearly that he's describing
Israel and their exodus out ofEgypt.
Israel's exodus out of Egypt isthe most powerful story of
redemption that we have in theTanakh.
Why in the world does Matthewmake Christ Yeshua's birth a
comparison to Israel andredemption?
(09:40):
Well, it's not hard to see whenwe see the context of divine
passages, is it?
Is this making sense so far?
The first exodus out of Egyptbrought Israel out of Egypt and
into redemption.
The second Exodus would bringtrue Israel to redemption.
The second Exodus would beginthrough Christ Yeshua and his
finished work on the cross.
(10:02):
It's also interesting how thispertains to what's being said in
our John 15 passage.
Just at the moment Yeshua wouldsoon declare at the cross it is
finished.
The final Passover lamb wouldalso be slaughtered by the
Jewish high priest who wouldalso declare, It is finished,
upon completion.
And nobody would realize in thatmoment that these things took
(10:25):
place side by side.
But the main point I want you tonotice for this message is that
Matthew is essentially revealingwhat Paul calls a mystery in
Romans 11.
The mystery we're unraveling inour vine passages from the
Tanakh.
Christ Yeshua is the true vine.
In other words, he is trueIsrael.
(10:46):
Yes, when we say Christ isIsrael, people get all upset and
react saying things like Jesusisn't a nation.
No one said Jesus is a nation.
Remember, this is a spiritualanalogy.
We aren't really vines andbranches either, are we?
No, we're human beings.
These kind of wild statementsonly reveal that someone's never
(11:09):
studied the topic, and they'rejust not ready for a paradigm
shift.
Let's see what Paul wrote in hisletter to the Romans on this
topic.
Then you will say branches werebroken off so that I might be
grafted in.
That is true.
They were broken off because oftheir unbelief, but you stand
fast through faith.
So do not become proud but fear.
(11:30):
That's Romans 11 19.
I detail this passage in anolder message, number six, and
we'll certainly be giving itmore attention as we go into our
Romans study.
But we can see here thatbranches are getting broken off
for unbelief.
In this passage, the tree seemsto represent the covenant made
with Abraham.
This covenant represents Christ.
(11:52):
We have to remember that thepromise to Abraham, which was
redemption, came before the law.
The new covenant wasn't reallythe second covenant in this way,
it was the original covenant.
And the covenant of the law wasonly a shadow of the reality to
come, according to Hebrews 10.
In Paul's analogy, however, wesee another set of branches.
(12:13):
Gentile branches are graftedinto the covenant tree with the
natural branches as we lookfurther into his words.
And what keeps them from beingbroken off?
Faith.
Belief.
Unbelieving branches are brokenoff, whether Jew or Gentile, is
what we learn in Paul's analogy.
So how do we apply all this toour vine and branches passage in
(12:36):
John's Gospel?
I am the true vine, and myfather is the vine dresser.
Every branch in me that does notbear fruit, he takes away, and
every branch that does bearfruit he prunes, that it may
bear more fruit.
We see some branches and thevine getting taken away, and
others pruned.
Interestingly, the Greek wordtranslated as taken away can
(12:58):
also mean lifted up, and liftingup a branch into the sun would
help it to bear fruit again.
This is something we can ponderas we meditate on scripture, but
I think Yeshua refers to thesame branches that are thrown
into the fire and burned in thefollowing verses.
We see important phrasesrepeated in this way throughout
our Bibles, and there seems tobe no exception here in my
(13:20):
opinion.
These would be the wild branchesthat we read of in Jeremiah
2.21.
So just as in Paul's analogy, wehave branches getting broken off
or taken away.
We also see branches bearingfruit and getting pruned.
We'll get to the application ofthis in coming messages.
What we see here is belief andunbelief in this vine.
(13:42):
The vine here is Christ, but isrepresenting the covenant of the
promise.
The promise made to Abrahambefore the Mosaic Law even came
to be.
They weren't ready yet to hearabout branches being grafted in.
Paul was chosen to bring thatmystery into the picture through
his analogy.
But the reason unbelievingbranches can be in the true vine
(14:02):
is because he's using the vineanalogy.
This is not the same as being inChrist.
All people are now in a covenantwith Yahweh.
The Mosaic law no longer appliesto any person.
It's the law of Christ thatrules the kingdom.
You either believe it or youdon't.
Yeshua said, Already you areclean because of the word that I
(14:25):
have spoken to you.
In John 15, verse 3.
Judas had just left the room atthis time.
The disciples probably wouldhave made this connection.
They were clean, and Judaswasn't.
Just as Yeshua had said earlierin John 13, 10.
Jesus said to him, The one whois bathed does not need to wash,
(14:46):
except for his feet, but iscompletely clean.
And you are clean, but not everyone of you.
For he knew who was to betrayhim.
That was why he said, Not all ofyou are clean.
It's important to note here whythey were clean.
They were clean because of theword Yeshua spoke to them.
This was Christ teachingsalvation by faith alone, a
(15:10):
concept that had largely beenlost in their day, in favor of a
law-based righteousness.
And then Yeshua speaks again ofthe branches to stress
importance.
Abide in me and I in you, as thebranch cannot bear fruit by
itself, unless it abides in thevine.
Neither can you, unless youabide in me.
I am the vine, you are thebranches.
(15:32):
Whoever abides in me and I inhim, he it is that bears much
fruit, for apart from me you cando nothing.
If anyone does not abide in me,he's thrown away like a branch
and withers, and the branchesare gathered, thrown into the
fire and burned.
Yeshua here lays out how weabide.
We believe.
(15:52):
He clearly displays the outcomeof not abiding, its destruction.
A dead branch representsspiritual death.
In the end it will burn.
Dead branches burn until they'regone.
Separation from Yahweh is theend result.
Yeshua also lays out for us whathappens when we believe, so we
can be confident in what ishappening, as we're pruned and
(16:14):
bearing more fruit.
Others will also be encouragedby this as it proves our faith
to them.
Abiding is believing, and thisabiding is alive and active in
the Christian.
We're called to participate inthis, not by initiating
anything, but by responding tothis call to bear fruit.
As we go through life, believingcan be most challenging due to
(16:36):
the world around us and our ownweak flesh.
If believing was automatic, thenwhy would so many Christians
struggle in their walk withChrist?
Stay tuned for our next study aswe shift into the application of
all that we've learned so far.
The content of this message canbe found on my blog post at
wakingup to grace.com.
My writings include linkedreferences and visual aids,
(16:59):
which will give even morevaluable insight, and it's
always free of charge.
The comment section below eachmessage is a place where we can
share mutual encouragement andinsight with one another outside
of the social media.
Wait, stop.
There is a world of articles,books, and information out there
when it comes to Christianity,but we are mostly stuck with
rhetoric and double talk when itcomes to our relationship with
the Lord, our new identity asbelievers, and the security and
finality of the work of Christ.
Are you getting everything youneed spiritually from your
church?
Or do you find yourself feelinghungry for more?
(00:21):
Join Lenny as he unpacks whatScripture really taught about
our Lord Jesus Christ in contextand why this matters to you.
Wake up, wake up, wake up tograce.
SPEAKER_00 (00:32):
Welcome back, everyone.
I'll be continuing ourdiscussion on John 15 today,
looking again at verses 1through 6.
In my last message, we came tothe conclusion that abiding in
Christ is believing in Christ.
This concept raises a lot ofdispute with many of today's
church leaders, so my goal is toaddress these arguments, and in
(00:53):
doing so show you the math andhow we can prove the truth in
this passage.
As we discussed in my lastmessage, Yeshua spoke to
believers here.
That does not mean thateverything said was about
believers.
I say this often because manymiss this simple principle and
go way off the beaten path intheir theology.
I don't want this for you.
(01:14):
I want for you what John wantedfor his audience in his first
epistle, for you to abide inwhat you heard from the
beginning.
What I mean is I want you tounderstand this in light of the
gospel of grace, the gospel thatbrings peace with Yahweh to
those who believe.
In our John 15 text, we see atheme of fruit bearing.
But along with some veryencouraging words, we see some
(01:37):
words that sound a littlefrightening if we're being
honest.
We have Yeshua saying he is thevine, and then we have branches
in him getting taken away.
Even worse, we have branchesgetting thrown into the fire and
burned.
By far the most troubling partis that all these branches seem
to be in Christ.
Every time a person is referredto as in Christ in our New
(02:00):
Testament, they're a savedbeliever.
So the question we must ask thenis how can a believer in Christ
be taken away or thrown into thefire and burned?
What purpose might Yeshua havehad in making such a harsh
analogy?
In regards to being thrown intothe fire and burned, many see
this as punishing discipline.
Some even cite Hebrews 12 as areference to God punishing
(02:22):
Christians for their sin.
This Hebrews passage iscertainly a go-to for this type
of teaching, but it's not aboutChristians who are sinning.
Hebrews 12 4 is about Christiansgetting persecuted for truth,
which is the sin of theiraccusers.
They're literally gettingflogged for bearing fruit, not
the other way around.
(02:42):
I go over this in message number19 if you'd like to put that bad
doctrine in the fire to beburned.
The only time we see thisreference to God chastising
Christians is when they arefacing a similar fate as their
sinless Messiah, who wasliterally chastised, which also
means scourged for beingrighteous.
We really have to be carefulthat legalism doesn't blind us
(03:05):
from truth as we read.
Using this analogy againstsinful Christians is a major
interpretive error and acompromise of grace.
I've also heard it said that thefire here is a refining fire,
like we see in other places inScripture.
I don't know about you, but Ihave a hard time understanding
an analogy like this beingapplied to a withered branch.
(03:26):
Show me a withered branch that'sbeen refined by fire.
I know in my garden branchesdon't come back from that.
I don't think our Lord would usesuch words about one of his own,
do you?
That doesn't sound like the sameMessiah that said, And this is
the will of him who sent me,that I should lose nothing of
all that he has given me, butraise it up on the last day.
(03:48):
Taking it even further, amultitude of so-called Christian
leaders will tell you that thebranches thrown into the fire
are believers who lose theirsalvation.
This view is so off the path, Iwouldn't have time to
investigate it in this message.
As we just read in John 6.39 andsee everywhere in Scripture, a
Christian can't lose theirsalvation.
(04:09):
Although we never lose oursalvation, I can say the less we
value our salvation, the less webenefit from it in this life.
It's tragic to take what we'vebeen given for granted.
But now that we've heard someother views on the passage, what
do you say we think forourselves, and pray that the
Lord guides us to what we canlearn from this text in our
(04:29):
scripture?
In John 15, one through six weread, I am the true vine, and my
father is the vine dresser.
Every branch in me that does notbear fruit he takes away, and
every branch that does bearfruit he prunes that it may bear
more fruit.
Already you are clean because ofthe word that I have spoken to
you.
Abide in me and I in you, as thebranch cannot bear fruit by
(04:53):
itself, unless it abides in thevine, neither can you, unless
you abide in me.
I am the vine, you are thebranches.
Whoever abides in me and I inhim, he it is that bears much
fruit, for apart from me you cando nothing.
If anyone does not abide in me,he is thrown away like a branch
and withers, and the branchesare gathered, thrown into the
(05:16):
fire, and burned.
In reading the words of ChristYeshua here, do you think this
idea of him being the true vinewas something he came up with
randomly?
In our Western theology, itwould be easy to assume that he
uses this word simply for thesake of making a good analogy.
Some might even see it asparabolic.
But it's not random orparabolic, and it's very
(05:39):
significant that we understandwhy he calls himself the true
vine.
We see the same analogy used ofIsrael throughout the Tanakh,
which is known as our OldTestament.
Let's see a little of what theTanakh has to say about Israel
being a vine.
Be warned, O Jerusalem, lest Iturn from you in disgust, lest I
make you a desolation, anuninhabited land.
(06:03):
Thus says the Lord of hosts,they shall glean thoroughly as a
vine, the remnant of Israel.
Like a grape gatherer, pass yourhand again over its branches.
That's Jeremiah six, eight.
Here we see the remnant, whichrefers to the faithful in Israel
being gleaned from the vine.
The poor were often allowed toglean in the fields after the
(06:25):
harvest to gather the goodscraps that were left behind
from the harvesting.
Then we read, For there shall bea sowing of peace, the vine
shall give its fruit, and theground shall give its produce,
and the heavens shall give theirdue, and I will cause the
remnant of this people topossess all things.
And that's Zechariah 8 12.
(06:47):
Again we see this analogy, andin this case it appears to
represent the exact meaning thatwe find in Christ Yeshua's
words.
The remnant of the faithful willbe those who possess all things.
What about the others?
If the faithful possess allthings, then what's promised to
the unfaithful?
And then in Isaiah we read, Forthe vineyard of the Lord of
(07:10):
hosts is the house of Israel,and the men of Judah are his
pleasant planting.
And he looked for justice, butbehold bloodshed, for
righteousness, but behold anoutcry.
That's Isaiah 5 7.
Here we see Judah being favoredamong the tribes of Israel.
What tribe did Yeshua come from?
You guessed it, he came fromJudah.
(07:32):
But prior to Christ Judah wasnot pleased in the Lord, were
they?
And then in Jeremiah it iswritten, Yet I planted you a
choice vine, holy, of pure seed.
How then have you turneddegenerate and become a wild
vine?
That's Jeremiah 221.
Now we read that a choice vinehad become a wild vine.
(07:54):
This could prove to be veryimportant to our vine and
branches analogy.
Who would be the wild vine, thefaithful or the unfaithful?
Would the wild vine still havebeen in the original choice
vine?
If we see things from a covenantview, Israel was partaking in
the new covenant.
The Messiah came to them.
(08:15):
Yeshua was their Messiah fortheir salvation.
Can you see how the Jews whorejected their Messiah find
themselves in this analogy?
Okay, now let's read a passagethat blows the minds of scholars
and causes so many to believethat Matthew actually pulls the
prophet Hosea out of context inhis gospel.
(08:36):
Matthew 213 reads Now when theyhad departed, behold, an angel
of the Lord appeared to Josephin a dream, and said, Rise, take
the child and his mother, andflee to Egypt, and remain there
until I tell you, for Herod isabout to search for the child,
and to destroy him.
And he rose and took the childand his mother by night and
(08:58):
departed to Egypt, and remainedthere until the death of Herod.
This was to fulfill what theLord had spoken by the prophet,
out of Egypt I called my son.
Now listen carefully here.
Hosea is whom Matthew quotes.
And Hosea writes When Israel wasa child, I loved him, and out of
(09:19):
Egypt I called my son.
When we read through Hosea, wesee clearly that he's describing
Israel and their exodus out ofEgypt.
Israel's exodus out of Egypt isthe most powerful story of
redemption that we have in theTanakh.
Why in the world does Matthewmake Christ Yeshua's birth a
comparison to Israel andredemption?
(09:40):
Well, it's not hard to see whenwe see the context of divine
passages, is it?
Is this making sense so far?
The first exodus out of Egyptbrought Israel out of Egypt and
into redemption.
The second Exodus would bringtrue Israel to redemption.
The second Exodus would beginthrough Christ Yeshua and his
finished work on the cross.
(10:02):
It's also interesting how thispertains to what's being said in
our John 15 passage.
Just at the moment Yeshua wouldsoon declare at the cross it is
finished.
The final Passover lamb wouldalso be slaughtered by the
Jewish high priest who wouldalso declare, It is finished,
upon completion.
And nobody would realize in thatmoment that these things took
(10:25):
place side by side.
But the main point I want you tonotice for this message is that
Matthew is essentially revealingwhat Paul calls a mystery in
Romans 11.
The mystery we're unraveling inour vine passages from the
Tanakh.
Christ Yeshua is the true vine.
In other words, he is trueIsrael.
(10:46):
Yes, when we say Christ isIsrael, people get all upset and
react saying things like Jesusisn't a nation.
No one said Jesus is a nation.
Remember, this is a spiritualanalogy.
We aren't really vines andbranches either, are we?
No, we're human beings.
These kind of wild statementsonly reveal that someone's never
(11:09):
studied the topic, and they'rejust not ready for a paradigm
shift.
Let's see what Paul wrote in hisletter to the Romans on this
topic.
Then you will say branches werebroken off so that I might be
grafted in.
That is true.
They were broken off because oftheir unbelief, but you stand
fast through faith.
So do not become proud but fear.
(11:30):
That's Romans 11 19.
I detail this passage in anolder message, number six, and
we'll certainly be giving itmore attention as we go into our
Romans study.
But we can see here thatbranches are getting broken off
for unbelief.
In this passage, the tree seemsto represent the covenant made
with Abraham.
This covenant represents Christ.
(11:52):
We have to remember that thepromise to Abraham, which was
redemption, came before the law.
The new covenant wasn't reallythe second covenant in this way,
it was the original covenant.
And the covenant of the law wasonly a shadow of the reality to
come, according to Hebrews 10.
In Paul's analogy, however, wesee another set of branches.
(12:13):
Gentile branches are graftedinto the covenant tree with the
natural branches as we lookfurther into his words.
And what keeps them from beingbroken off?
Faith.
Belief.
Unbelieving branches are brokenoff, whether Jew or Gentile, is
what we learn in Paul's analogy.
So how do we apply all this toour vine and branches passage in
(12:36):
John's Gospel?
I am the true vine, and myfather is the vine dresser.
Every branch in me that does notbear fruit, he takes away, and
every branch that does bearfruit he prunes, that it may
bear more fruit.
We see some branches and thevine getting taken away, and
others pruned.
Interestingly, the Greek wordtranslated as taken away can
(12:58):
also mean lifted up, and liftingup a branch into the sun would
help it to bear fruit again.
This is something we can ponderas we meditate on scripture, but
I think Yeshua refers to thesame branches that are thrown
into the fire and burned in thefollowing verses.
We see important phrasesrepeated in this way throughout
our Bibles, and there seems tobe no exception here in my
(13:20):
opinion.
These would be the wild branchesthat we read of in Jeremiah
2.21.
So just as in Paul's analogy, wehave branches getting broken off
or taken away.
We also see branches bearingfruit and getting pruned.
We'll get to the application ofthis in coming messages.
What we see here is belief andunbelief in this vine.
(13:42):
The vine here is Christ, but isrepresenting the covenant of the
promise.
The promise made to Abrahambefore the Mosaic Law even came
to be.
They weren't ready yet to hearabout branches being grafted in.
Paul was chosen to bring thatmystery into the picture through
his analogy.
But the reason unbelievingbranches can be in the true vine
(14:02):
is because he's using the vineanalogy.
This is not the same as being inChrist.
All people are now in a covenantwith Yahweh.
The Mosaic law no longer appliesto any person.
It's the law of Christ thatrules the kingdom.
You either believe it or youdon't.
Yeshua said, Already you areclean because of the word that I
(14:25):
have spoken to you.
In John 15, verse 3.
Judas had just left the room atthis time.
The disciples probably wouldhave made this connection.
They were clean, and Judaswasn't.
Just as Yeshua had said earlierin John 13, 10.
Jesus said to him, The one whois bathed does not need to wash,
(14:46):
except for his feet, but iscompletely clean.
And you are clean, but not everyone of you.
For he knew who was to betrayhim.
That was why he said, Not all ofyou are clean.
It's important to note here whythey were clean.
They were clean because of theword Yeshua spoke to them.
This was Christ teachingsalvation by faith alone, a
(15:10):
concept that had largely beenlost in their day, in favor of a
law-based righteousness.
And then Yeshua speaks again ofthe branches to stress
importance.
Abide in me and I in you, as thebranch cannot bear fruit by
itself, unless it abides in thevine.
Neither can you, unless youabide in me.
I am the vine, you are thebranches.
(15:32):
Whoever abides in me and I inhim, he it is that bears much
fruit, for apart from me you cando nothing.
If anyone does not abide in me,he's thrown away like a branch
and withers, and the branchesare gathered, thrown into the
fire and burned.
Yeshua here lays out how weabide.
We believe.
(15:52):
He clearly displays the outcomeof not abiding, its destruction.
A dead branch representsspiritual death.
In the end it will burn.
Dead branches burn until they'regone.
Separation from Yahweh is theend result.
Yeshua also lays out for us whathappens when we believe, so we
can be confident in what ishappening, as we're pruned and
(16:14):
bearing more fruit.
Others will also be encouragedby this as it proves our faith
to them.
Abiding is believing, and thisabiding is alive and active in
the Christian.
We're called to participate inthis, not by initiating
anything, but by responding tothis call to bear fruit.
As we go through life, believingcan be most challenging due to
(16:36):
the world around us and our ownweak flesh.
If believing was automatic, thenwhy would so many Christians
struggle in their walk withChrist?
Stay tuned for our next study aswe shift into the application of
all that we've learned so far.
The content of this message canbe found on my blog post at
wakingup to grace.com.
My writings include linkedreferences and visual aids,
(16:59):
which will give even morevaluable insight, and it's
always free of charge.
The comment section below eachmessage is a place where we can
share mutual encouragement andinsight with one another outside
of the social media.
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