Day 40
The Seven I AM’s
Each Sunday of #LentenDaily 2026 we focused on a specific I AMstatement made by Jesus to His followers. I realize that today is Saturday, but I want to finish our I AM study today instead of tomorrow, Resurrection Day.
Physical imagery and symbolism is often an important part of our worship and understanding of God; it’s how we’re wired as humans. And in Jesus’ seventh and final I AM statement - I AM The True Vine - He turns to a particularly evocative image, taking us back to the original Garden of Eden.
Read John 15:1-17
Before we dig into Jesus’ True Vine allegory, we do well to first consider the Old Testament background of the vine image and what it says about Jesus’ place in God’s plan of salvation. Frequently, God’s prophets, like Jeremiah, Hosea and Ezekiel, referred to the covenant people of Israel as God’s vine, but everywhere they do this, they also condemn Israel for being unfruitful and spiritually degenerate, as a vine that has become wild or fruitless. I find Ezekiel’s Parable of the Two Eagles and the Vine particularly intriguing. He shares that a vine“had been planted in a good field by abundant water in order to produce branches, bear fruit, and become a splendid vine. You are to say, ‘This is what the Lord God says: Will it flourish? Will he not tear out its roots and strip off its fruit so that it shrivels? All its fresh leaves will wither! Great strength and many people will not be needed to pull it from its roots. Even though it is planted, will it flourish? Won’t it wither completely when the east wind strikes it? It will wither on the plot where it sprouted.’” (Eze 17:8-10) Some serious uprooting would take place in Israel - God would use the nation of Babylon to discipline His wild vine, but also promised a new vine in the future, a messianic vine who would bear branches, produce fruit and become majestic, providing shade and protection for all. (from Eze 17:23)
When Jesus said, “I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener” (v 1) He declared that He is the true Israel of God, the promised fruitful servant who will accomplish God’s purposes for Israel. In Jesus, the Lord God would reconstitute the people in whom He works to save the world. The true Israel of God is Jesus and all who are in Him by faith alone.
Jesus extends the analogy by saying, “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.” (v 5) Jesus is the true vine, but this vine has branches, and we who love and serve Christ are those branches. Thus, we are a part of the true Israel of God. More than that, unlike the old covenant community that, as a whole, was not spiritually fruitful, though individual Israelites were often true to God, the true Israel, the true branches in Christ Jesus’ vine are fruitful. In fact, our Creator God - the Divine Gardener is continually pruning this true vine in order to increase its yield. No human gardener is content with a vine that is unproductive or that produces very few grapes. Such a vine is useless to him. Similarly, God refuses to be content with branches that yield nothing or very little, and He will do whatever it takes to make true branches bear fruit.
We branches bear fruit only because we are connected to, abide or remain in Christ the vine. (from v 4) Augustine of Hippo reminds us that “the relation of the branches to the vine is such that they contribute nothing to the vine, but from it derive their own means of life; while that of the vine to the branches is such that it supplies their vital nourishment, and receives nothing from them.” Our spiritual fruitfulness is nonexistent, impossible apart from Christ. He is the only true source of our lasting fruitfulness.
And Christ’s heart is for us to flourish and grow. We are not just told to stay put, but to ask for whatever we wish in confidence that it will be granted, and to bear, not just some fruit, but much. All this, Jesus concludes, is so that he can delight in us and our joy will be complete. The only way that we can see godly, eternally significant fruit produced in us is if we are intimately abiding in Christ, and the way that we remain in Him is by cooperating with His Spirit, sent to dwell within each of us who believe. The Apostle Paul describes this fruit by contrasting it with the deeds of the flesh in his letter to the Galatian church:
“I say, then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” (Gal 5:16-25)
Big Picture Question for Today:
* As you ponder Jesus’ death on our behalf over the course of today, how did He go above and beyond obeying His Father and giving His life for us?
Pray and thank God that His heart was and is for us to live in peace and joy; flourishing in his presence for all time.
Lastly, enjoy this lovely song, “Abide,” by Aaron Williams and Dwell Songs (2021) Listen to the end, if you have time, and note the repeating of the phrases, “I depend on you.”
Dwell Songs - Abide (Lyrics) ft. Aaron Williams
