THE GOSPELS
In this section:
JOHN 15:1-6
JOHN 15:9-10
JOHN 15:1-6
The context of John 15:1, is that Jesus is speaking to His students just hours before His betrayal, arrest, beating, and crucifixion. He says,
"1 I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 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. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned." (John 15:1-6)
According to the typical NEST interpretation of this teaching of Christ, Jesus is saying, if someone who is saved as per the New Covenant that Christ is about to establish (contextually) in a matter of a few hours through the cross and His subsequent resurrection three days later, does not bear fruit, (which are works of piety, such as acts and deeds that accompany salvation), then that person loses salvation; meaning that God "takes away" the person from salvation and puts them in the state of lostness. Further, the works of piety are also described by the NEST as meritorious sanctification, which means that the person must not sin. To sin later on after salvation, is considered to not walk in the sanctification that was given them at the new birth. Additionally, if the person who is called "saved" here (according to the philosophy of a false NEST definition of salvation), does not "abide" in the Messiah in this supposed salvation, but walks away from the abiding, thus purposely forfeiting the NEST defined previous salvation, then it is said that God will throw the person in the fire and they are burned, meaning that they will go to hell in eternal damnation. The NEST is wrong, so let us examine why the NEST is wrong.
As a first consideration, we know that Messiah, (here in His pre-cross Old Covenant ministry as the life giving vine of His Old Covenant people Israel), is not talking about those of us today who are actually saved as per His New Covenant, and the reason we know this is because Messiah says that every branch, (which contextually is every Old Covenant Israelite branch that is alive when He said this) that is in Him (meaning "that is in Him" as the covenant connecting vine between Jehovah and His Israelite people there) that does not bear fruit, He takes away. According to the fullness of New Testament revelation, we know that all truly saved people do bear fruit of their New Covenant salvation, (we will get to more of that in a moment). Right now, we must focus our attention upon the great positional-identification doctrine that has to do with who we are in the New Covenant with respect to being in Messiah (or being in Christ). It is the positional-identification truth that the church has existed in throughout history, and more specifically for our concern, it is the same fact today. Being in Christ, in the New Covenant, is different than being in the Messiah-vine of the Israelite promise from God, in the Old Covenant. According to this covenant relationship, if we are saved, (which means we are saved in the New Covenant), then we are in Christ in respect to being in the body of Christ (the church, cf. Colossians 1:18 & 1:24) as both a judicial action accomplished through the cross and resurrection, and further, we are in Christ as a spiritual action accomplished through the Holy Spirit given as the Helper according to the New Covenant. This aspect of the sphere of Messiah, is something that had not yet happened while Jesus was speaking this teaching in John. His Old Covenant Israelite students there had not yet experienced Galatians 2:20, where positionally, all who are truly saved declare as Paul the apostle,
"20 I have been crucified with Messiah; and it is no longer I who live, but Messiah lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." (Galatians 2:20)
When Jesus was teaching to Israelites at that Old Covenant time, His followers were not yet spiritually-positionally seated with Him in the heavenlies as we read is the positional covenant state that all Christians entered into later in the New Covenant in Ephesians,
"19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Messiah, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, ... "2:5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, [God] made us alive together with Messiah (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Messiah Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Messiah Jesus." (Ephesians 1:19-20, 2:5-7)
This positional place, where all Christians under the New Covenant are seated "with" the crucified and resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords in the heavenlies is: A) the great necessity, and, B) the great privilege of salvation. But we must keep on being mindful that in the Gospel of John's context, when Jesus was teaching at that time, His students were not yet recreated. They were not yet new creatures in the crucified and resurrected Messiah according to the miracle action of His Holy Spirit, as we read in 2 Corinthians. His students were not yet there concerning those who are in Him through the regenerating miracle of the Holy Spirit that God accomplishes in creating His New Covenant people,
"7 Therefore if anyone is in Messiah, [be thinking "in Messiah" in the New Covenant. Paul goes on,] he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Messiah and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Messiah reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Messiah, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Messiah, be reconciled to God. 21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we would [NET] become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Corinthians 5:7-21)
With these things in mind, it is important to remember the vital fact that all of God's true remnant people do bear fruit. We also need to be mindful of the fact that Jesus says to His Israelite students in verses 1 and 2,
"1 I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean [pruned] because of the word which I have spoken to you. (John 15:1-3)
Notice that Jesus does not start out quantifying the amount, or size, of the fruit of his elect students at this first point in what He says. When it comes to the branch in Him that does bear fruit, He prunes it so it produces more, but in the meantime, it does not matter whether the initial fruit is tiny fruit, or humongous fruit; it is still fruit. It does not matter if the initial fruit is only one fruit, or if it is bushels full of fruit; it is still fruit. The point is that God's truly elect people will bear the God-produced fruit of abiding in God's true Messiah. They produce that fruit starting with Messiah's students, (which at the fundamental level will be the fruit of saving faith that was given to them as a gift) and then later on, all of God's elect, who are in the New Covenant, will also bear fruit. In time, they will bear more fruit, because of God's pruning. In other words, the fruit is not of the person's own self. It is God-produced through the vine of the God-man, Messiah, which is exactly what Jesus says further in His illustrative point when He declares,
"... the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides [remains, continues] in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide [remain, continue] in Me." (John 15:4)
It is irresponsible to ignore this clear aspect of Messiah's teaching. For any Old Covenant Israelite student of Messiah to bear fruit, they must be truly elect, and the way that they demonstrate that they are truly elect is that they abide in Jesus as their Messiah who is their promised life giving vine. Judas Iscariot demonstrated that he did not abide in Israel's promised Messiah. Judas Iscariot did not produce the fruit of the saving faith, the love of Messiah, and the endurance that demonstrates the reality of being a true follower of Jesus. The point is that New Covenant saints do not bear fruit to be saved. New covenant saints, (whether Jew of Gentile) bear fruit out of being saved. Jesus goes on and He puts it this way to His Old Covenant students concerning the fruit quantity that occurs because of being pruned by the Father,
"... he who abides [remains, continues] in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, ..." (John 15:5)
[The reason for bearing much fruit is because of the pruning of the Father! Continuing,]
"... for apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5)
The unsaved, fake students, who are fake apostles, are "apart from" Messiah, (who is the true vine) therefor they can do nothing, and they did do nothing of eternal spiritual blessing. They are not being pruned by the Father to bear more fruit. They are not producing fruit out of being true followers of Israel's Messiah to begin with. They can do nothing but deceive, be deceived, and be lost. On the other hand, we find a clear rule concerning all Christians bearing the fruit that God produces from the New Covenant branches connecting to the crucified and resurrected vine, and additionally from the pruning we get from our Father God. We find the clear rule manifested in the New Covenant scriptures concerning all who are born again. Paul says clearly,
"10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10)
God prepared the good works, that all who are re-created in Christ Jesus, would necessarily walk in them. This is all part of salvation, and so in salvation, we must, can, and will produce these fruits. The important principle here that applies to both Old Covenant Israel, and New Covenant Christians, is that Jesus does not describe the fruit He is talking about in terms of inferior or superior. He just calls it fruit and it is good. Messiah's true people, produce good fruit. They do not produce bad fruit. Bad fruit is the fruit of the lost. It is the only kind of fruit the lost can produce! We must not miss this vital point; bad fruit is the only fruit that comes from the lost, and it only comes from the lost. Bad fruit is to hate and reject Messiah. Further, bad fruit is to hate and reject the followers of Messiah. Jesus says in Luke 6:43,
"For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit." (Luke 6:43)
The sovereign principle that God is at work in us who are truly saved in the New Covenant, in producing His good fruit, is stated clearly in Philippians,
"13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13)
We, who are truly spiritually saved in Christ, must, can, and will have God working in us to will and to work for His good pleasure. The reason is because we are in Christ, and Christ is in us as crucified and resurrected trophies of God's grace. God is Who is at work in us in our New Covenant salvation.
What we have seen concerning this passage is that Messiah has said nothing about New Covenant people losing the eternal spiritual salvation that they actually have, maintaining security in eternal spiritual salvation by personal humanistic effort, or attaining salvation by personal humanistic effort.
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
JOHN 15:9-10
The final passage out of the Gospels that we will examine is John 15:9-10. The context is that Jesus is speaking to His students in the hours before His betrayal, arrest, beating, and execution. He says,
"9 Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love." (John 15:9-10)
According to the typical NEST interpretation, Christ is specifically teaching His students to do the ten commandments (decalogue), or some other list of commandments that is compiled from scripture. One's eternal spiritual salvation is said to be contingent upon doing these NEST defined commandments.
The NEST wrong. Continuing on in another couple of verses will clear up the wrong interpretation. But before we look at those verses, a few items need to be mentioned.
The first item that we need to notice about this passage is that there are two sets of commandments referenced by Messiah. There are Christ's Father's commandments, which Christ kept. The other set of commandments are Christ's commandments. Christ commandments are the ones the students are supposed to keep.
The second thing we need to notice requires going back a few chapters near the beginning of this teaching session that Messiah is proclaiming to His students the night of His betrayal. It is there in chapter 13 that we read Jesus saying this,
"34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." (John 13:34)
Continuing on in the same teaching, Jesus says this,
"15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." (John 14:15)
A little later Jesus says,
"21 He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him." (John 14:21)
A couple of verses later, Jesus says,
"24 He who does not love Me, does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me." (John 14:24)
After saying these things, Jesus goes directly into the parable of the vine that is covered in the previous section. The parable is immediately in the next chapter, starting with verse 1. Then Jesus goes on to the passage of our immediate concern, which has to do with Christ's students keeping Christ's commandments and abiding in His love, just as Christ kept His Father's commandments. Jesus continues talking about His commandments,
"9 Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. 11 These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do what I command you." (John 15:9-14)
Then in verse 17,
"17 This I command you, that you love one another." (John 15:17)
This explains the true meaning of what Jesus is talking about concerning keeping His commandments. Notice that Jesus speaks of His commandments in the plural sense. From the beginning of this teaching, (back in chapter 13), Jesus has been consistently talking about one commandment of His students loving one another. We recognize the second fundamental commandment mentioned earlier in this gospel account. John mentions it in chapter 6 as the work of God, which is belief,
"28 Therefore they said to Him, 'What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?' 29 Jesus answered and said to them, 'This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.'" (John 6:28-29)
Keeping this in mind, we discover that the same John puts both commandments together in another scripture that he wrote. Both commandments are stated as statutes in one commandment. The explanation is in 1 John, where we read,
"This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us." (1 John 3:23)
Keeping "His commandment," (which is two commandments, plural, in one) describes those who are truly saved. Truly saved people believe in the name of God's Son Jesus Christ, and truly saved people love one another. Unsaved people do not believe in the Son Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and unsaved people hate those who are saved.
Since the commandment of Christ is the commandment of the New Covenant, we find Paul the apostle explaining that instead of being under the Old Covenant Mosaic Law, he is "under the law of Christ," and so he acts that way when he ministers, as we read,
"20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; 21 to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, ..." (1 Corinthians 9:20-22)
The point is that under the New Covenant, all who are truly saved are under a law, but the law that saved people are under is the law of Christ, and so keeping His commandments is really very simple:
"This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us." (1 John 3:23)
Therefore, based upon all that has been covered, (in addition to all the groundwork covered in the rest of this book, and in conjunction with the fullness of God's revelation from His word), there is no passage in any of the four Gospels that remotely suggests that anyone who is truly saved in Christ's New Covenant can lose salvation, gain it, or keep it secure through self generated effort.
