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Hebrews 2:3 admonishes us not to neglect so great a salvation. The one Jesus, our Father, and the Holy Spirit accomplished for us. So GREAT a salvation. Let’s apply some of this great salvation reality to a bible passage that may be terrifying you, dear Christian friend!
It is John 15:1-2 and it begins this way: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away….” And how about verse 6 to feed your fears: “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.”
At first reading it sounds very conditional, doesn’t it? Conditional upon our performance. Jesus has saved us, but we had better stay stuck close to Him, and even if we do, but don’t bear fruit, we will be thrown away and tossed into the fire, the fires of Hell!
Friend, the Gospel is GOOD NEWS, and what I’ve just said is NOT Good News. It is NOT the GOSPEL. Here is the Good News: In verse 2, it begins, “every branch IN ME.” That means believers abiding in Jesus. Remember, He did the grafting. You are grafted into GOD Himself. It’s a great salvation. Then there is the picture is of a vine. A vine is an odd sort of tree – it grows along the ground and climbs up on objects. The part on the ground does not, cannot, produce fruit. In contact with the ground it produces roots. Check it out! But when a branch of the vine can climb up something, it produces fruit.
Now listen, because the translators had a tough time here. The verb translated as ‘takes away’ is Strong #142, AIRO. It means, ‘to raise, to take up, to lift.’ What Jesus is telling us is really good news here. He is assuring us, that if we are in Him, that is, if we are believers, and are having trouble producing fruit because we are down, downcast, downtrodden, flattened by life – whatever – He will lift us up. And when lifted up it is an easy thing for the life that is in the vine to flow through us, the lifted up branches – fruit is produced: everywhere! Hallelujah!
Verse 6 is not directed at you, if you are a believer in Jesus, my friend. Notice how it begins, “If anyone does NOT abide in Me, he is thrown away….” Do you see? Unbelievers do not abide in Jesus, only believers do. Do you believe? Then you abide in Him! Never forget that it is GOD who did the grafting in – and it happened when you first believed. And it does not ‘unhappen’ based on your performance. Salvation, eternal life, is a gift by God to those who INHERIT salvation, they DO NOT EARN IT! So today, rest in Him, knowing you are abiding in Him, by inheritance. Let those life-giving juices of the Spirit flow into you, and Come Alive!
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