The table talk after the meal was now finished. They begin to walk together, making their way to the Mount of Olives. As they went, passing vineyard after vineyard, they likely saw the prunings of the vine-dressers strewn over the ground. It is here that Jesus comes with the last of His I AM statements.

"I AM the true vine." In effect He was saying: There can be no life in you unless you abide in Me. Seeking to live apart from Me is as useless as taking these dead prunings and expecting fruit from them.

When we hear Christ say, "I am the true vine," we need to remember once more that "truth" in the Bible, even particularly in John's gospel, is not only the opposite of the lie, it also means fulfillment.

Throughout the Old Testament the covenant people Israel are referred to as the vine. Psalm 80 is a good example. The imagery is picked up again and again in the prophets. In Isaiah 5 we have the song of the vineyard. In this lament, the Lord compares His people to a vineyard to which He has devoted Himself; a vineyard from which He expected fruit, but found none. He looked for justice and righteousness but found only oppression and weeping. God had laboured with His vine, tended to it, but it is burned and cut down.

In fact, in all the Old Testament references to the vine, what's emphasized in every case, is Israel's failure to produce good fruit along with the corresponding threat of judgment.

I AM the true vine. Your fruitlessness, rebellion and wild fruit have all cried out for something better. The fruitfulness you lack can only be produced in Me. Apart from Me you can do nothing.

Abide in Me.

Again the language of covenant intimacy. You are My friends, He says.

Perhaps our first inclination is to react to such language of our Saviour as inappropriate. His friends? We've been taught to be careful about speaking superficial­ly about God as our buddy. He is the one whose glory fills heaven and earth. But that's precisely what makes this language of Jesus so rich. Father Abraham was called God's friend (James 2:23). We sing from Psalm 25, "they that fear and love the Lord, shall Jehovah's friendship know."

And Jesus says, "You are my friends"!! I AM, He says. See in Me, have from Me, the fulfillment of all of the covenantal intimacy promised in the Old Testament!

The blessing implies responsibility. Abide in My love, Jesus continues.

Rest assured the heavenly Father sees to it that you do abide by means of His pruning knife.

Every branch that bears fruit He prunes.

As a vinedresser cuts in with his knife trimming back wild growth or sick shoots, so the heavenly Father cuts into our lives with His loving discipline. Perhaps He humbles us with an affliction or trial to keep us close to Him. Surely by His Word the Lord cuts, hacking away at the remaining dead wood, the sinful outgrowths that can go unchecked in our lives, the sinful pride, those besetting sins. By His Word and His providential dealings with you the Lord is cleansing you, pruning you back, that you might bear more fruit. For whom the Lord loves, He chastens. This is the friendship of the Lord. And all of this to ensure that we are deriving our life, sucking it up, from Christ. Apart from Him there is nothing.

Those who are unwilling and too proud to draw spiritual strength from Jesus in the way that a branch sucks its nutrients from the roots through the vine, those who aren't interested in submitting to the discipline and cleansing of the Lord, inevitably show themselves to be dead wood. There can be no permanent place for such people in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Every branch that does not bear fruit He takes away. Of course Judas provides the hideously clear picture of this sad reality. Though he lived in close intimacy with Jesus, he is ultimately cut off and cast away. Though in one sense we must surely say that he was "in the vine," the life of the vine never pulsated through him.

The warning for all of us in the covenant community is obvious. As those who are "in the vine" in terms of all of the privileges of God's covenant, let us never be such as must one day be cut off because of a stubborn refusal to draw our life from Christ.

On the other hand, the blessing and promise is that as we abide in Christ, deriving our life from Him, being pruned and cleansed by His Word and providential dealings, living in obedience to His commands, His life flows through us. Jesus assures us: He who abides in Me, and I in Him bears much fruit. Not a little fruit. Much fruit. A bumper crop. With the command comes also a promise. You have what you need in Him.

Abiding in Christ through prayer in His Name and for His Father's glory we shall be His fruitful disciples.

It will show in our obedience to His commands (verse 10), in the experience of His joy (verse 11), in our love for one another (verse 12) and in our being sent into the world to bear witness of such knowledge and blessing (verses 15, 16).

The Christian life is often one of fits and starts. Apart from Christ we can do nothing, but as we abide in Christ we may rest assured that there will be fruit.

Press on! Go forward in faith and obedience. Even when God the vinedresser "cuts in" through tri­als and afflictions, perhaps even through letting you fall, He is cleansing you, helping you to understand that apart from Christ you can do nothing! Abide in Christ and you will bear much fruit.