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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Why Christians Must Bear Fruit
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. (John 15:1,2)
There is no more wonderful and no more terrible passage in the Scriptures than the above two verses.
The wonderful part is that Jesus is the true Vine. The Father is the farmer. The fruit is Christ. The believer is the branch growing from Christ. The branch that bears Christ will be pruned and then bear Christ more abundantly.
The terrible part is that the branch, the believer, that does not bear Christ will be removed from the Vine, removed from Christ.
I'm sure the people who teach that once you are "saved" you never can be lost, once you are in Christ you never can be removed from Christ, have an answer for this verse. But it looks pretty plain to me! I think they are taking an awful chance believing and teaching such a thing!
The whole purpose of being in the royal priesthood is for us to bear fruit. When we don't bear the fruit of Christ the purpose of our calling has been aborted.
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. (John 15:16)
I would like to stress that the fruit is Christ. The life flows from the vine into the branch and brings forth Christ. It is not just a better person that is the fruit, it is Christ that is the fruit.
Picture a race of mankind gone bad. God looks down and plans to do something about it. What is God's plan? It is first of all to perfect the kind of person He wants on the earth. Then to use that person as a vine and to graft branches into that vine. When the branches bear fruit, the fruit will be the kind of person God wants on the earth. It is as simple as that.
There are two behaviors God wants to find throughout the Church and then throughout the saved nations of the earth. The two behaviors are righteousness and praise. Not just righteousness and not just praise but righteousness and praise. God wants His priesthood and all the nations of
the earth to be filled with His righteousness and His praise. Won't that be marvelous when it comes to pass?
For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. (Isaiah 61:11)
Each Christian is a garden. Christ has been planted in that garden. If the Christian obeys the commandments given by Christ and His Apostles, Christ will grow in His garden.
To be continued.