The believers live in the organism of the divine Trinity and participate in the dispensing of the divine Trinity by abiding in the Son (the vine as the organism of the divine Trinity) with the Father as the expression of the Father (John 15:1-8; 14:9-10). The Lord Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman” (John 15:1). He also said to the disciples, “I am the vine, you are the branches” (v. 5a). Christ as the true vine is the universal organism of the divine Trinity. The Son is the vine, the Father is the husbandman, and the Spirit is the testifier. Hence, this vine is the organism of the divine Trinity.
Christ and the believers, the vine with the branches, form the organism of the divine Trinity in the divine dispensing. The vine in John 15, therefore, is a universal vine comprising Christ and His believers as the branches. In this vine, this organism, the Triune God lives, expresses Himself, and dispenses Himself to the uttermost.
Christ as the true vine is the center of God’s economy, of God’s universal enterprise. In the Bible the universe is pictured as a vineyard, and centered in the universe is the vine, Christ. Everything that God the Father is and has is for the vine as the center and is embodied and expressed through this center. God the Father is expressed, manifested, and glorified through the vine. God is life, and this life needs an organism in which to grow and express itself. God desires to grow within an organism and to have Himself expressed by means of this organism. This organism is the vine with the branches, Christ with the believers. As the organism of the divine Trinity, this vine is corporate and universal.
As branches of the vine, we need to abide in the vine. The Lord Jesus says, “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. 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” (John 15:4-5). Only when the branches abide in the vine can the vine be everything to them. Our life and enjoyment are to abide in the vine, and our destiny as branches is to remain in the vine. Apart from the vine, we, the branches, can do nothing. Therefore, it is crucial for us to abide in the Lord and for the Lord to abide in us. 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.
When we abide in Christ the Son who is the expression of the Father, we abide in the Son with the Father. This is a mystery. As members of Christ, we abide not only in Him but in Him with the Father. When we abide in the Son, we abide in the Son with the Father. This means that we abide in the Father as well as in the Son.
We abide in the Son in order to bear fruit. Fruit-bearing comes about as the branches abide in the vine and let the vine abide in the branches. This fruit-bearing is the overflow of the riches of the life of the vine. This means that bearing fruit is a matter of the overflow of our inner life. We need continuously to enjoy Christ as everything to us. Then we shall have an abundance of life. Out of this abundance there will be a flow that will reach others, penetrating into their lives, and this flow will bear fruit. This is fruit-bearing by the overflow of the riches of the divine life.
The bearing of fruit is for the Father to be glorified. In John 15:8 the Lord Jesus says, “In this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit.” In fruit-bearing the Father’s life is expressed; hence, in fruit-bearing He is glorified. The vine and the branches are an organism to glorify the Father. With the vine we have the glorification of the Father through the expression of the riches of the divine life in fruit-bearing.
The fruit born by the branches of the vine is the expression of the life of the vine. If the branches do not bear fruit, there will not be any expression of the inner life element of the vine. However, the fruit born by the branches is the expression of the inner life of the vine. This is an illustration of how the Father is glorified through our fruit-bearing.
The word “glorify” in John 15:8 means to have the intent, content, inner life, and inner riches expressed. As an organism to glorify the Father, the vine and the branches express the riches of the Father’s life. When the vine bears clusters of grapes, the riches of the divine life are expressed. This expression is the glorification of the Father because the Father is the divine life.
The Father is the source and the substance of the vine. Apart from the fruit borne by the branches, the essence, substance, and life of the vine are concealed and confined. But when the branches bear much fruit, the riches of the inner life of the vine are expressed in the fruit. This expression is the release of the divine substance from within the vine. This is the glorification of the Father, for it is the expression of the riches of the Father’s life. Whenever the divine life is expressed through us in fruit-bearing, the Father is glorified. The inner life, the intrinsic element, of the divine Father is expressed. This expression is not merely glory-it is the Father’s glorification. As we abide in the vine to bear much fruit, a transaction takes place which results in the glorification of the Father.
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