Have You Been Grafted In?

John 15:1-8 says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.  Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.  Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.  Abide in me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.  If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.  If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.  Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” 

I was working with my Grandpa at our nursery one day when he discovered a pecan tree with one of its branches broken off.  Evidently it had broken off when unloading it from the delivery truck.  The branch was still tender indicating it had only recently been broken.  It was a young tree and would not have been nearly as fruitful if it had grown to full maturity with that branch missing.  Grandpa said he could fix it.   

That day, Grandpa taught me how to graft a branch back onto a tree from which it had broken.  Sure enough, that branch became a living part of that tree as if nothing had ever happened to it. 

Grandpa said that he could graft branches from one tree onto other trees, if they were similar. He said, for example, he could graft a pepper plant onto a tomato plant because they were related.  So he showed me how he could do this, too.

When he went to graft the pepper branch onto the tomato plant, the first thing he did was cut off a branch from the tomato plant.  He said it is impossible to graft a branch onto a plant without first making a place for it.  The branch needs access to the plant’s sap just like our arms need blood.  Not only this, but the branch must be cut to conform to the place where it is to be attached to the plant, and the place on the plant where the branch is to be attached must match the branch.  It is not a matter of simply taking a branch and taping it to a plant.  Lastly, the branch must be held tightly in place.  So he attached the pepper branch onto the tomato plant and the tomato branch onto the pepper plant, and both plants lived and produced fruit.

A branch not attached to a tree has no life in it.  The only way a branch can be grafted into a tree is for the tree first to be wounded, the branch to be conformed to the tree and the tree to match the branch, and then, the branch must be affixed in place.    

Jesus is the vine and we are the branches.  If we branches are not attached to the vine, we have no life in us.  When we get saved, we are grafted into the vine where we are to remain and bear fruit.  We are grafted into Him at the places where He was wounded on the cross of Calvary for our sins.  The only reason we can be grafted into Christ is because He was wounded for our transgression, bruised for our iniquities, died shedding His blood, and buried and arose from the grave.  By faith we believe and are conformed to Him. We now bear His likeness.  He, being God, was made in the likeness of man yet without sin.  The two now matching are held in place for eternity by the Husbandman, the Father

Now, my dear fellow branches, we must bear fruit – not produce fruit, but bear fruit.   It is impossible for us to produce fruit, but the Holy Spirit of God produces His fruit in us and through us, and we simply abide in the vine and bear the fruit.  We must abide in the Vine and bear His fruit. 

The fruit produced is always for the benefit of others.  Just like that pecan tree, the pecans were not for the tree but for those of us who love pecan pies.  The fruit of the Spirit is produced in us and through us for others that we might lead them to the vine and they may be grafted in, too.

Have you been grafted into the Vine? The only way to enjoy being a Christian is to be one, and the only way to be one is through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

Are you abiding in the Vine bearing His fruit? The only way to enjoy the Christian life is abiding in the Vine.

May the Lord richly bless you!

- Pastor Greeson

 

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