The Lord, interpreting the Father, enforces on His disciples here the lesson that in entering into relation with Himself, as the “True Vine,” they come within the sphere of the Father’s activities as Husbandmen, for better or worse, as they abide, or fail to abide in Him. “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in Me.” The point is made forcefully and graphically The unfruitful branch at last proves itself unworthy of a place in the source of fruitfulness; “Cut it off,” it may be said, “Why cumbereth it the Vine?” The fruitful branch attracts the husbandman, it justifies its place, it is worth pruning; and the husbandman’s skill is called forth to increase its fruitfulness. That cutting knife is painful to the flesh, but the purging is good for the soul.
Before pointing out the cause of unfruitfulness and the secret of fruitbearing, the Lord utters the words of verse 3, “Now ye are clean, through the Word that I have spoken unto you.” The exact force of this may not at first sight be quite clear. The connection with verse 2 hangs on the similarity of the words translated “purge,” and here “clean.” They are the same root, katherein and katharoi. The purging is a cleansing of the branch from every excrescence, or extraneous shoot. But this continual process must not be confused with the “cleansing” which, as His true disciples, they had already and once for all received. Indeed, the word “now” is more properly “already” and refers back, it seems clear, to chapter 13:10, “He that is washed (or bathed–louein) needeth not save to wash (niptein) his feet, but is clean every whit. And ye are clean, but not all.” The saving clause is added because of Judas, who had never known that head-to-foot cleansing in the bath of regeneration, the blessed portion of all His own.
In chapter 15, Judas is present no longer, so the Lord can say, “Ye are clean,” unreservedly. The Lord wished them not to confuse the cleansing, which they must as fruitful branches receive, with that other cleansing already theirs. This new experience would be without prejudice to their standing before God as believers. The secret of fruitfulness is abiding in Christ, but to “abide” you must first be “in Him.” “Ye are the branches.” “You are in Me”; now abide, not as an intruder, a lodger at a week’s notice, but as a welcome permanent guest. The invitation, “Abide in Me,” conveys as true an invitation to the disciple, as “Come unto Me” does to the laboring and heavy-laden sinner.
But something beyond the right to be there is needed; that is fitness to be there. Here the truth of verse 3 comes on once more with appropriate force. The work of Christ on the Cross gives us the right, the work of the Spirit in regeneration, the fitness. “Giving thanks to the Father, who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col. 1:13).
By the new birth we possess not only a new life, but a capacity to enjoy new surroundings–a nature to feel at home with God. All these truths are to encourage us to “abide in Christ.” How persistent are the appeals of the world, the flesh, and the devil to allure us from this abiding place. Alas, how often they prevail! Hence the failure to bear fruit. There is, however, this difference between a literal branch and a spiritual branch. The former can only be either connected or disconnected with the vine; the latter can be connected and in healthy relationship, or morally out of touch, or again severed altogether, in the sense already explained. A branch cut off from a vine retains a semblance of life for a time; the foliage is green, but it cannot produce fruit. So a believer, out of touch with Christ, may for a time go on, but gradually withers, until such time as his life is renewed by fresh communion with Christ. Then there is a fresh flow of sap, a fresh supply of the Spirit of grace, revival and fruitfulness.
Heaven alone will reveal all we shall then appreciate of the Father’s ministry as Husbandman.