In addition to being the door and the pasture, Christ is our Shepherd. He calls His sheep by name and leads them out of the fold (John 10:3). Then He goes before the sheep, and they follow Him (v. 4). As the Shepherd, Christ takes the sheep out of the fold through Himself as the door and to Himself as the pasture.
In John 10:11 the Lord Jesus says of Himself, “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” As the good Shepherd, Christ laid down His psuche life, His human life, for the sheep so that they may have the zoe life, the divine life, the eternal life. Now He shepherds us inwardly in the way of life, not in the way of outward activity. Inwardly we have Christ as our Shepherd, as a Shepherd of life and in life. Because Christ shepherds us by being life to us from within, the more we live by Him as our life, the more we enjoy His shepherding. On the one hand, Christ lives in us. On the other hand, we live in Him, by Him, with Him, and through Him. When we live in the Lord in this way, we are under His shepherding. As we are under Christ’s shepherding, there will be a life consciousness within us and also an instruction, a guidance, in life. The life within us, which is actually Christ Himself, will indicate that the Lord intends to lead us in a certain way. This life consciousness with its leading and instruction is an indication that we are under the Lord’s shepherding.
The real Shepherd is the living Christ. As our Shepherd, the Lord not only gives us life; He is life to us. The living of Christ within us is actually His living shepherding. Hence, the Lord Jesus shepherds us by being life to us and by living in us.
As the believers’ Shepherd, Christ forms them into one flock (John 10:16), the one, universal church, the one Body of Christ, consisting of all the believers in Christ. The Lord supplies His sheep with Himself as life so that there may be one flock and one Shepherd, one Body and one Head. This one flock is very different in nature from a fold. A fold is a religious organization; the one flock is the church. As our Shepherd, Christ has brought us out of the fold into the flock, where we are in the pasture enjoying Him as our life and life supply.
In John 15 we see the focus of what God is doing in the universe. Here the Father is a husbandman, a farmer, cultivating the true vine, Christ, with its branches, the believers in Christ. In His economy God is growing Christ, and all of us are branches in Christ as the true vine. Therefore, to us as believers, Christ is the vine.
No plant other than the vine tree can illustrate adequately the living relationship between the believers and Christ. As believers, we are branches of the vine and are good for nothing except to express the vine. All that the vine is and has is expressed through the branches. Individually, the branches are the regenerated ones. Corporately, they are the church, the Body of Christ. The branches, the believers in the Son, are for the expression of the Son with the Father.
When we believed in the Lord Jesus, He branched out into us. This branching out has made us branches of Christ as the vine. Now as branches we are filled with Christ as life, for to be a branch in the vine means that Christ has become our life.
The vine is everything to the branches. Whatever is in the vine is also in the branches. This indicates that as the vine Christ is a great enjoyment for us, the branches. From the vine and through the vine we receive everything we need: life, nourishment, light, water. Therefore, we need to abide in the vine. Only when the branches abide in the vine can the vine be everything to them. This is the reason the Lord Jesus said concerning Himself as the vine and us as the branches, “Abide in Me and I in you” (John 15:4). Our life and our enjoyment are to abide in the vine. Our destiny as branches is to remain in the vine.
In John 15:5 the Lord Jesus says, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” A branch of a vine cannot live by itself, for it will wither and die apart from the vine. The relationship between the branches and the vine portrays the relationship between us and the Lord. We are nothing, we have nothing, and we can do nothing apart from Him. What we are, what we have, and what we do must be in the Lord and by the Lord in us. Therefore, it is crucial for us to abide in the Lord and for the Lord to abide in us. Otherwise, we shall be finished and be nothing. We should not do anything in ourselves; rather, we should do everything by abiding in the vine. Christ as the vine is our portion, an all-inclusive portion, for our daily enjoyment. Because we are branches to the Lord and the Lord is the vine to us, we must abide in Him and let Him abide in us. Then in our experience Christ will be everything to us for our enjoyment.
To the believers Christ is also the abiding place. In John 15:4 He tells us to abide in Him. The Greek word translated “abide” means not only to remain in a certain place but also to dwell there, even to make our home there. Christ is our abiding place, our dwelling place, our home, and we need to be fully settled in Him.
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