Without Me Ye Can Do Nothing

“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.” John 15:4-5

The Bible is clear that we belong to God. By virtue of the fact that He created us, He owns us. When we are saved by putting our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, a transaction is completed whereby God redeems us (buys us back). God gives us the ability to think, to walk, and to talk. The Bible says that He gives us the power to get wealth. So, physically speaking, God enables us to do all that we do. In the passage above, Jesus takes our total dependence upon God into the spiritual realm. Christ likened Himself to a vine and each of us to branches. He said, “Without me ye can do nothing.” Some people, especially folks who have never trusted in Christ, struggle with the idea of their physical abilities coming from God. They think that they have achieved everything in life by their own strength. We know from scripture that this is nothing more than pride. This is understandable in the case of an unsaved person thinking about physical accomplishments, but it should be obvious to Christians that we have no spiritual abilities on our own. Jesus said that we must abide in Him in order to receive the spiritual strength that we need to accomplish the spiritual works that He has for us to do. As Christians, we need to constantly remind ourselves to rely on the Lord to enable us to bear spiritual fruit.