Apart from Jesus

In the last section, we touched upon the wonder and mystery of the vine/branch relationship we have with Jesus. He was very clear in communicating our role: we are the branch, totally dependent on Him, the vine. This vine/branch picture is also calling us into an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus.

In the same scripture, Jesus makes the statement that we can do nothing apart from Him.

John 15:5 "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.

Our tendency is to forgo the vine/branch relationship and try following Him on our own, apart from Him. To side step or ignore the dependent relationship is to miss the heart of the Christian walk. In fact, all of the New Testament can be read through the prism of this vine/branch relationship. When we leave the vine/branch relationship out of our walk, and out of the application of the Word for our lives, we are trying to live the Christian life apart from Him.

Approaching this from another direction, we can say that if we are walking in this vine/branch type of relationship with Jesus, we are going to be doing His will. He will reveal His word and will for our lives through the relationship. When we are walking in the vine/branch relation, He will be living His life through us.

If we circumvent the relationship, we are going to miss His will for our daily lives. Jesus is calling us into a total dependency on Him the same way a branch is dependent on the vine. Why would we place so many other Christian things higher on the priority list and forget the relationship? We can miss this truth because we do not understand the importance that Jesus places on the nature of our relationship with Him.

For instance, look at one of the most quoted scriptures in the New Testament:
Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

Matthew 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

Matthew 28:20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

This has been called the “Great Commandment”. In all sincerity and enthusiasm to please the Lord, we often read this scripture and feel immediate pressure to obey the great command. How many times have you heard someone say, “God will honor our efforts to evangelize through this program or that mission trip because we are obeying this command”? Are our efforts to obey this scripture a result of a close, intimate relationship with the vine? Has the Lord been speaking to us through this dependent relationship? Or, are we trying to obey this scripture apart from Him? If it is not happening through the relationship it is apart from Him, no matter how well intentioned.

When we are walking in the vine/branch relationship, He will be using us to live out this scripture. This scripture will be fulfilled through the relationship we have with Jesus. It may not be fulfilled in the way we would devise, but He will produce the fruit of leading people to Him through our vine/branch type of relationship. When we try accomplishing this scripture apart from the relationship, we can produce fruit but it is imitation fruit, plastic fruit.

As we read through the book of Acts, we will see the hand of the Spirit leading the apostles on their evangelistic trips. Jesus taught them first hand about their relationship to the vine. Many converts were led to the Lord through the apostle’s dependent relationship with Jesus. To miss out on this aspect of evangelism is to attempt evangelizing apart from Him. Our dependency on Jesus is the basis for all of our actions and works. To engage in spiritual activity outside of the relationship is to act apart from Him. When our focus is on the vine, letting the vine pour forth His life through us, leading us, empowering us, He will accomplish His works, fulfilling His word and His will.

Paul understood the vine/branch relationship:
Philippians 3:7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

Philippians 3:8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,

Philippians 3:9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from {the} Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which {comes} from God on the basis of faith,

Philippians 3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;

He counted all things as loss for the surpassing value of knowing Jesus. All things he accomplished, apart from Him, were counted as rubbish. Apart from Him, he could do nothing, abiding in Him, he could do all things.

Jesus did nothing on His own initiative. He is our role model. He lived a vine/branch dependent relationship with the Father.
We are an initiative taking people, it is part of our DNA. An aspect of our total dependence on the vine is to let the vine (Jesus) take the initiative in everything the same way He let His Father take the initiative. When we take the initiative, no matter how well intentioned or scripturally based, if He is not the initiator, then we are acting apart from Him. When we take the initiative in starting some type of program or ministry to fulfill the Great Command or any other scripture, on our own initiative, we are trying to accomplish the task or work on our own power, apart from Him.

To rely on Jesus or the vine to take the initiative puts great emphasis on the relationship. It is through this intimacy and dependency that we understand His leading, His will for our daily lives. It says in Romans that the children of God are led by His Spirit. He leads, we follow. This puts us in a very dependent mode which goes against our pride, our desire to get things done. To allow Him to lead, to take the initiative is a very humble way of life and is probably one of the most difficult lessons we continually learn.