John 15:4-5 NASB
[4] Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. [5] I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
Romans 7:4 NASB
[4] Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.
Hosea 14:9
…I am like a luxuriant cypress From Me comes your fruit.
Over the years when I’ve heard people teach about the vine and the branches in John 15, in the process of fruit bearing, they talk as if the vine and the branch were. two separate things that hasve been attached to each other. The reality is, the vine and the branch are one, not separate. If you see a healthy grape vine you don’t just speak of the branch, or speak of the stem; you always just speak of the vine, and in doing so, you are speaking of the whole plant. It is very important that we understand this when trying to understand our union with Christ. We are branches which means, we are the part of the vine called “branch” through which the vine bears fruit, and of course the vine is Christ himself. Since we are one with him, he can’t have something and we not have it. The vine can’t have peace and the branch not have it. The vine can’t have power, or strength and the branch not have it. The vine can’t have holiness and the branch not have it, etc. etc. As branches, our job is not to produce fruit; instead, our job is to simply abide in the vine and the bear the fruit he produces. I love what that verse says in Hosea, “From Me comes your fruit.” The Christian life isn’t the life of a branch straining and struggling, and striving by its own best effort to be fruitful, instead, the Christian life is one of resting in the joyful fact that all the vine has and is is flowing into me each and every moment, and from that position of restful faith allowing the vine to produce fruit. Again, we are fruit bearers, not fruit producers.
That verse in Romans 7 says that in the death of Christ, the person that I used to be died and that now I am been joined in union to another who is Christ, the one who is risen from the dead. The vine that I am a part of is a vine that carries resurrection life and resurrection power, which means, that no matter how weak and inadequate to be a fruit bearing branchyou may feel, the one that can produce fruit through you does it in the power of resurrection. You don’t have to be a strong branch, or proven branch, you just have to be a resting branch, resting in the resurrection power of the vine that you are one with.