Christ is the true vine, and God the Father as the husbandman cultivates this vine. In other words, God grows the vine. If we could ask God what He is doing every day in the universe, He would say that He is growing the vine. The Pentecostals may expect God to say that He is healing people. The Bible scholars and seminarians may think that God is teaching people the Bible. The missionaries may believe that God’s burden is to mercifully save fallen sinners. However, we know that today God is growing the vine. Christ is the true vine; therefore, God is growing Christ. Growing Christ may be an unfamiliar expression not only to unbelievers but even to most Christians, including many pastors. Nevertheless, just as certain farmers grow cotton, God grows Christ; He farms Christ. I once met some cotton farmers in Texas. There was nothing but cotton on their mind, in their talk, and even in their dreams. Cotton was their lifeline, their economy. In like manner, Christ is God’s economy. God is doing nothing in the universe other than growing Christ. God grows Christ all the time. Furthermore, God does not grow Christ alone. We are branches of Christ, and as His branches, we also grow Christ. We help the husbandman to grow Christ.
The vine is God’s economy. We need to see a vision of what God is doing today. Briefly, God is growing Christ. Christ is God’s economy. This is a great vision. Since the day I saw that Christ is God’s economy, this vision has rendered much help to me. Christ, who is God’s economy, is the Word, and the Word is God Himself (1:1). Thus, God’s economy is God Himself. Although we have already seen that God the Father is the husbandman and that Christ as the vine is His economy, now we see that this economy is also God Himself. God the Father has an economy, and this economy is the Word and is God. Moreover, this economy is altogether a matter of life, light, grace, and reality (vv. 4, 14). God’s economy is full of the Word, God, life, light, grace, and reality.
Life is simple. We should not complicate matters of life. Although medical doctors have studied the physical life for centuries, their knowledge of life is still very limited. To fully understand life may be impossible, but to experience life is simple. We do not need to study in medical school to know how to experience life. Even a newborn baby experiences life. Life itself is complex, but in our experience life is simple.
Christianity and even some local churches are full of works and activities. However, we need to see that God’s economy is not a work or a movement, such as evangelization. God’s economy is simply the Word, God, life, light, grace, and reality. The Gospel of John reveals God’s economy in this light by showing that God the Father as the husbandman grows Christ as the vine and that Christ is the Word, God, life, light, grace, and reality. If we see only a glimpse of this picture, we will have a marvelous view of what God is doing today. God is growing Christ as the vine.
Unlike a pine tree, which is tall and has relatively short branches, a vine does not shoot up but spreads outward through its branches. Christ today is spreading through us as His branches. God as the husbandman grows Christ, and we as the branches also grow Christ. However, the Father’s growing of Christ is different from our growing of Christ.
The Father grows Christ by cultivating, supplying, and being the source of the vine. God the Father supplies the vine by being the soil, the sunshine, the air, and the water that the vine needs. Because God the Father is the source of supply for Christ as the vine, Christ is the very embodiment of God (Col. 2:9). Thus, the vine and the husbandman are one. The husbandman cannot be separated from the vine, nor can the vine be separated from the husbandman. The Gospel of John says the Father and the Son are one (10:30; 17:21). The Father as the husbandman with the supply is fully embodied in the Son as the vine.
The Father grows the vine by supplying the vine and by being embodied in the vine. The believers grow the vine in a different way. We do not supply the vine, nor are we embodied in the vine. Rather, the vine is embodied in us, the branches. Moreover, the branches do not supply the vine, but the vine supplies the branches. The Father as the source grows the vine by growing into the vine, and we as the branches grow the vine by expressing the vine. The Father is embodied in the vine, and the vine is embodied in us. The vine is the embodiment of the Father, and we the branches are the embodiment of the vine. The branches do nothing but branch out the vine. The branching out of the vine is the growth of the vine. The vine grows through the branches, and the branches grow the vine by spreading the vine.