The Father is the Source, Christ is the True Vine, we are the Branches, and the Spirit is the Reality

John 15 reveals four important matters: the Father as the husbandman (the farmer), the Son as the true vine, the Spirit of reality as the life sap flowing in the vine, and the Body of Christ as the many branches in the vine.

John chapters 14-17 show us how we as believers in Christ can live in and with the Divine Trinity, and John 15:4-5 best encapsulates what this means.

First, we need to realize that, as believers in Christ, we are branches grafted into Christ as the vine; we were born in a different tree, but we were grafted into Christ, and He as the true vine has us as His branches.

If we see that we are branches in Christ as the true vine, we will seek to abide in Him; our abiding in the Lord is our living in the Divine Trinity.

The branches in a vine cannot but remain in the vine, for their whole living, supply, and source is in the vine, and by receiving the riches of the vine they can bear fruit.

Similarly we, as believers in Christ, are branches in Christ the vine, and we need to abide in Christ.

When we abide in Christ, we live in the Triune God, for our whole living with our daily activities is in Christ, the One who is our life, our life-supply, and our everything.

It is by abiding in Christ that we can bear fruit, for, by the enjoyment of the riches of Christ, we can bear forth fruit. Amen!

What is it for us to live with the Divine Trinity? It is for Christ to abide in us. When we abide in Christ, we live with the Divine Trinity, and when Christ abides in us, we live with the Divine Trinity.

For us to live in the Divine Trinity is for us to abide in Christ so that we may live Christ; for us to live with the Divine Trinity is for Christ to abide in us so that Christ lives in us.

These are two sides of the same thing – we live Christ and Christ lives in us, we abide in Christ and Christ abides in us.

By believing into Christ we have entered into a mysterious relationship with Someone we have never met or seen physically, but whom we love; we are now in an organic union with Him in spirit, and He is the true vine, and we are the branches.

He lives in us and we live in Him; we abide in Him and He abides in us, and what others see is not just Christ but the Body of Christ, the expression and expansion of Christ, the branches in the vine.

In a mysterious yet wonderful way, the Triune God lives in us and we live in Him; He as a person lives in us, and we as a person live in Him.

This is co-inherence, persons dwelling in one another, and this is both marvelous and mysterious.

When we call on the name of the Lord and contact Him, we make a move toward Him and we choose to abide in Him; then, He abides in us, and there is a mutual abiding. Hallelujah!

Christ as the True Vine with the Believers as the Branches is the Organism of the Triune God to Express His Life and Glorify Him

The Lord Jesus likened Himself not to a cedar tree, a pine tree, an oak, or any other tree but to a vine tree; in John 15:1 He said that He is the true vine.

We live in the Divine Trinity by abiding in Christ as the true vine.

The true vine with its branches, that is, Christ the Son with the believers in the Son, is the organism of the Triune God, the expression and glorification of the Triune God (1 Tim. 1:4; Eph. 3:9; John 15:1, 5).

Even in the Old Testament, we see that God likens the people of Israel to a vine; God’s enterprise on this earth is to grow a vine (see Psa. 80; Isa. 5; Jer. 2; Ezek. 19, 15).

This is a good picture of what is happening in the heavenly realm; in the church life we are on a farm, and God is growing a vine, even the true vine, which is a mysterious body, the organism of the Triune God.

This true vine is not only Christ but also Christ with His believers, for He is the true vine and we all are members of the Body of Christ as the branches in the vine.

This is a mysterious yet wonderful reality in the universe: Christ as the true vine with the believers as the branches is the organism of the Triune God to express Him in His life and glorify Him by bearing fruit and spreading.

In other words, Christ the Head and the church as the Body of Christ is one organism, one Body of Christ, to grow with the riches of God and express His life for the Father’s glorification.

If we look at a vine, we will see no distinction between the trunk and the branches, for they are one; with a regular tree, we can distinguish the trunk from the branches, but not with a vine tree.

The vine tree is not only the trunk or the stump, but the entire thing, the trunk and the branches, for they are one and there’s no distinction.

There is no distinction between Christ and His members today; Christ as the true vine and the believers as the branches in the vine are one, and together they are one organism, the Body of Christ to express the Triune God.

God today is growing this organism in the divine economy to express Himself, to manifest His life, and to glorify Himself.

The function of the true vine as a sign of the Son is for the Triune God to have an organism in the Son for His multiplication, spreading, and glorification in His divine life (John 15:8, 16).

God did not only create all things and also man so that the whole creation would worship Him; He wants to work Himself into man and gain an increase of Himself, a mingling of God and man, a corporate entity that would express the riches of His life.

So He is like a vine, branching out again and again in those who believe into Him and cooperate with Him, and He wants to bear fruit for the glorification of God.

In this is the Father glorified, that we as branches in Christ as the true vine bear much fruit so that we become His disciples (John 15:8).

Without any fruit, we may see the vine but we may not know how rich it is; but when the vine becomes fruitful, we will see the overflow of the riches of the life within that vine, and that glorifies the Father.

Hallelujah, Christ is the true vine and we believers in Christ are the many branches in Christ to express God corporately! Amen, Lord, praise You for branching out in us and bringing us into an organic union with You so that we may be part of the corporate expression of the Triune God! Keep us abiding in You, Lord Jesus, so that we may be richly supplied and bear fruit for the glorification of the Father! Grow in us, Lord, and be manifested through us so that the riches of God’s life may be expressed. Hallelujah, God is today growing the Body of Christ, the organism of the Triune God, for His expression and glorification! praise the Lord, we are the organism of the Son of God for His multiplication, spreading, and glorification in His divine life!

The Father is the Husbandman, the Son is the True Vine, the Spirit of Reality is the life-sap, and the Believers are the Branches of Christ to be the Body of Christ, His Expression

John 15 is a deep and mysterious chapter in the Bible, for it reveals four major items: the Father as the husbandman, the Son as the true vine, the Spirit of reality, and the believers in Christ as the branches in the vine.

The Father is the husbandman, the farmer, who cares for the vine (John 15:1); He is the source and the founder of Christ the true vine, and He richly cares and supplies the vine.

God the Son, Christ, is the center, the embodiment, and the manifestation of the Father, and He embodies God to express Him as the true vine.

As the true vine, Christ is the center; all that the Father is and has is for Christ the center, and it is all embodied and expressed through Christ.

God the Father is expressed in Christ the Son, and Christ manifests and glorifies the Father.

In John 15:26 we see the Spirit of reality; the Spirit Himself is the reality, the realization, of all that the Father is and has, and of all that the Son has passed through and obtained.

All that God the Father is in the Son is made real to us by God the Spirit who is the Spirit of reality.

The Father is rich and immensely vast and bountiful; He is embodied, manifested, and expressed in the Son, and the Son is realized and made real to us in and by the Spirit of reality.

All that the Father is and has is embodied in Christ the Son and then realized by us, the believers in Christ, in the Spirit as the reality (John 16:13-15).

All that the Father is and has, He has given to the Son, and the Son embodies and expresses Him in full; all that the Son is, has, and has attained to and accomplished, is now in the Spirit of reality, who makes the Triune God real to us.

All that the Spirit has is wrought into us, the branches abiding in Christ as the true vine, to be expressed and testified through us.

In this way, the processed Triune God in His economy is expressed, manifested, and glorified in the church (Eph. 3:16-21).

John 15 speaks of Christ as the true vine; also, it speaks of the branches abiding in the vine – the vine plus the branches are the Body of Christ.

The Body of Christ is the church; we as the Body of Christ are likened to the branches of a vine.

If we remove the branches from a vine, the vine will have no body, for the vine is expressed, manifested, and glorified in its branches.

God the Father is the source of the vine, Christ the Son is the true vine, the Spirit of reality is the life-juice of the vine, and the believers in Christ are the many branches in the vine.

This is a four-in-one entity, which is one entity composed of four things that mutually abide in one another.

The Father is the source, and His riches are inexhaustible and fathomless; however, He is hidden, and He is manifested only in and as the Son, who embodies Him, expresses Him, and manifests Him.

Christ the Son is the true vine, and the Spirit of reality makes God real and enjoyable to us, the believers in Christ as the many members of Christ, the many branches abiding in Christ the true vine.

Within the vine there’s the circulating flow of the Spirit; the Spirit carries the riches of the Father to sustain the vine with its branches.

We believers in Christ have been grafted into Christ as the true vine, and together we and Christ are the organism of the Triune God to express and manifest Him on earth.

All that God the Father is and has is centralized and embodied in Christ the Son, and all of this is realised in the Spirit of reality.

This Spirit flows in us, for we have received the Spirit inwardly and we were baptized in the Spirit to be fully immersed in the Spirit. Hallelujah!

Now we as believers in Christ, the many members of the Body of Christ, the many branches in the vine, are the full expression of the Triune God on earth today.

The Father as the source and husbandman takes care of us and arranges all things for our perfecting and for our growth in life to manifest His life.

The Son has accomplished everything, and He has grafted us into Himself as the true vine.

The Spirit of reality is continually flowing in us to richly supply us with all that we need so that we may express God.

We simply need to abide in Christ, the true vine, enjoy the riches of His life, drink the Spirit, grow in life, and there will be part of the corporate expression of the Triune God!

The Triune God is expressed in the church as the Body of Christ, for the church manifests and glorifies the Triune God by the believers abiding in Christ as the true vine. Hallelujah!

Hallelujah for the Father as the husbandman caring for Christ the true vine and for the Spirit of reality flowing to bring the riches of God into us! Praise the Lord, we believers in Christ are branches grafted into Christ, the true vine, and we richly enjoy the bountiful supply of the Spirit to be the church, the Body of Christ, the organism of the Triune God! Wow, all that the Father is and has is embodied in Christ and then realized in the Spirit of reality for us to enjoy, partake of, and express in full to the whole universe! Amen, Lord, we open to You as we abide in You so that all that the Spirit has would be wrought into us to be expressed and testified through us. Amen, Lord Jesus, gain the glorious expression and manifestation of the Triune God in and through the church today!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Mark Raabe, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 285-286 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living In and With the Divine Trinity (2021 Thanksgiving Day Conference), week 2, entitled, Living in the Divine Trinity (1) – Abiding in Christ as the True Vine.
• Recommended similar sharing:
  – The Vine and the Branches – excerpt from, Lesson Book, Level 2: The Triune God—The Triune God and the Person and Work of Christ here.
  – The Triune God and the Branches in John 15 – excerpt from, The Mending Ministry of John here.
  – The True Vine as the Organism of the Triune God (outline here).
  – The universal spreading of Christ as the true vine – the organism of the Triune God in the economy of God (outline here).
• Hymns on this topic:
  – No more in vain need we struggle, / Trying the way in to find. / Praise God—we’re in Him already, / Hallelujah, abiding in the vine. / Abiding in the vine, / Abiding in the vine, / All the riches of God’s life are mine! / Praise God, He put us here, / Never to leave; oh, we’re— / Abiding, abiding in the vine. (Hymns #1162)
  – Oh, how precious this abiding, / Oh, how intimate and sweet; / As the fruit of life is added, / And our joy is made complete. / In the vine, in the vine, / In the vine, in the vine, / We would know Thee, Lord, / more deeply, / E’er abiding in the vine. (Hymns #1163)
  – I am just a branch, and You’re the vine. / As I dwell in You, everything is fine. / Here I’d like to be, Lord, all the time. / Here I’m Yours, dear Lord, and You are mine. / I’m a branch that’s been, Lord, grafted in. / I’m supplied in You in this life union. / Here Your riches, Lord, in this sweet life flow. / As I dwell in You, I will surely grow. (Song on, Just to be in You)