The Word
Vol.
9 No. 4
Upper Room Discourse
John 15:2
In
The first clause in verse 2,
“Every branch in me that does not bear fruit,” represents the reversionistic believer; he is a non-producer. A producer
is one who applies Bible doctrine in their lives to daily experience. The
greatest productivity in life comes as a result of thinking Bible Doctrine (i.e faith) that results in works. This is in comparison to
the non-producer, the one who just enters into works without faith / Bible
Doctrine cycling through their soul,
In verse 24 when James says, “You see that a man is justified by works
and not by faith alone.” He is not
nullifying the faith alone in Christ alone doctrine as the means of salvation
as noted throughout the New Testament,
James is emphasizing the
fact that works are a necessary part of the Christian way of life and there
must be faith motivating those works.
Notice how Paul used the
phrase “works of the law” in
contrast to faith, where James simply says “works”.
Production starts in the soul and works outward. Yet in
The born again believer should not be thinking with anything but Bible
doctrine, yet the reversionistic believer is negative
toward doctrine, therefore he lacks food for thought.
The reversionist never uses his soul, he never has food for thought and
therefore he is full of human viewpoint, full of divine discipline and full of
misery. In other words, he never amounts to anything.
Then in
AIREI is the Present, Active, Indicative, Third Person, Singular of AIRO that means “to raise, take up, or lift - away.” The Gnomic Present Tense
states a timeless general fact. It’s a general maxim of God’s grace. The Active
Voice with the Third Person Singular refers to God the Father, the Farmer /
Vinedresser. He performs the action of removing the reversionistic
believer. The Indicative Mood is for the
reality that God the Father cuts out the branch which has not produced fruit.
So we say “He (God the Father) takes away.”
So
we have “Every branch, (Church Age believer), in Me, (Jesus Christ the Vine), that does not bear fruit, (no Divine good production), He, (God the Father), takes it, (Church Age believer), away, (divine discipline).”
This is ultimately a reference
to the Sin Unto Death the third stage of Divine
discipline. The reversionistic believer winds up
under the Sin Unto Death.
When you stop thinking with
Bible doctrine, God eventually pulls you out because you are a spiritual
zombie, a dead branch. He doesn’t pull you out right away, you have three
chances: a) The warning / knocking type discipline; b) The intensified /
pounding on the door type discipline; c) The dying / final stage
discipline. See
In our recently completed
study of
The
Sin Unto Death:
1. The Sin Unto Death is for believers only,
2. It is maximum punitive discipline for the reversionistic
believer,
3. The Sin Unto
Death does not mean loss of salvation,
4. Reversionism is the cause
for the Sin Unto Death,
5. There are four causes of
the death of any believer.
a) Our work on
earth is finished,
b) To glorify God
in an unusual way,
c) Maximum
discipline for reversionism or the Sin Unto Death, 1 Chron 10:13-14;
1 Chron
10:13-14, “So Saul died for his trespass which he committed
against the LORD, because of the word of the LORD which he did not keep; and
also because he asked counsel of a medium, making inquiry of it, 14and
did not inquire of the LORD. Therefore He killed him and turned the kingdom to
David the son of Jesse.”
d) Suicide, the
reversionist superimposing his own will over Divine will.
6. Case histories of the Sin Unto Death.
a) Approbation
reversionism, Annanias and Saphira,
b) Phallic
reversionism, 1 Cor 5:1-5;
c) Ritual reversionism,
d) Mental attitude
reversionism, 1 Chron
10:13-14;
e) Foreign policy
reversionism or antiestablishment reversionism,
f) Verbal
reversionism, Hymenaeus and Alexander,
7. Reversion recovery
eliminates the discipline and removes all sins,
8. The cancellation of the Sin
Unto Death. The first category of Divine discipline
can be recovered from by rebound, but the second and third categories demand
repentance, a change of mental attitude.
Having noted the negative
consequence of not producing Divine Good, “the fruit of the Spirit”, we now
turn to the believer who is producing Divine Good and how the Father works in
that believer’s life.
The
The Greek is, “êár ðOí ô’ êáñð’í
öÝñïí êáèáßñåé ášô’ líá êáñð’í
ðëåßïíá öÝñw.”
Transliterated, “KAI PAN TO KARPON PHERON KATHAIREI
KAI is the conjunction for “and, even, also, but, etc.”
It is a Contrastive Conjunction denoting the difference between the
inter-workings of God the Father in the life of the non-producer and producer.
So we translate this as “but”.
PAN is an Adjective in the Accusative, Neuter, Singular
meaning “all or every.”
Since
we already declared KLEMA EN EMOI, “branch in Me (Christ)”, above, to be
allegory for the believer, KLEMA EN EMOI is not needed here, yet it is in view
because of the Contrastive Conjunction, KAI, differentiating the previously
mentioned – “branch in Me that does not bear fruit” above, with the
“branch in Me that does bear fruit” here. So PAN will act as a pronoun
here meaning “everyone” in reference
to “the branches in Christ that bear fruit.”
TO is the Accusative, Neuter, Singular
Article for “the”. It is not
translated here.
KARPON is the Accusative, Masculine, Singular
of KARPOS that means “fruit”.
PHERON is a Participle Verb in the Present, Active,
Accusative, Neuter, Singular of PHERO that means “bear, carry, or bring forth”. The Customary Present Tense is for action that regularly occurs or an
ongoing state. This is ongoing production of the positive believer. This is the
regular life style of the positive believer. The Active Voice tells us
the positive believer produces divine good on a consistent basis. The Participle
reinforces the Customary Present as an ongoing state of bearing fruit. The believer who
“bears fruit” is the mature believer. Again, this is thinking in terms of Bible
doctrine, doctrine that is on the launching pad of your soul. To convey the
Customary Present Participle we will say “bearing”
for linear aktionsart, ongoing action.
Next
we see How God the Father works in the life of the positive believer.
KATHAIREI (kath-ah’ ee-ray) is the Present, Active, Indicative, Third Person,
Singular of KATHAIRO (kath-ah’ ee-ro)
that means “to cleanse” or specifically
“to prune”. Figuratively
it means “to expiate” that is “purge.”
Its root word KATHAROS also means
“clean” and is used in verse three regarding the believer’s positional
sanctification.
Thayer
defines its use in scripture as, “to
cleanse, of filth impurity, etc., to prune trees and vines from useless shoots
and metaphorically from guilt, to expiate.”
BDAG defines it first as
“to cause something to become clean that is make
clean.” Then in relation to
So it comes to mean here in
The Gnomic Present is a timeless general fact of God’s working in the
positive believer’s life to continue to refine and mature him. The Active Voice, the Vinedresser, God the
Father produces the action of pruning. The Indicative
Mood is a statement of fact as to God working in the life of the positive
believer. The Third Person, Singular points to the Vinedresser, God the Father.
Therefore the pruning is the mature believer getting occasional
adversity, suffering, trial, etc. in order that he might be blessed even more.
The mature believer has capacity for suffering and he has capacity for blessing
in suffering. Therefore, pruning only makes the branch stronger and more
productive. We
will translate this as “He prunes”.
This
is a Hapax Legomenon, a
word used only once in Scripture. Although in
So we have “But everyone (positive Church Age believers) bearing fruit He (God the Father) prunes (undeserved suffering) it.”
This will lead us
to the Doctrine of Underserved Suffering, (i.e., Suffering
for Blessing) which we will see next week.
If you would
like more information on this subject,
you may listen
to lessons 10-007 and 10-008.
A PERSONAL NOTE
FOR YOU
If
you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I am here to tell
you that Jesus loves you. He loves you
so much that He gave His life for you. God the Father also loves you. He loves you so much that He gave His only
Son for you by sending Him to the cross.
At the Cross Jesus died in your place.
Taking upon Himself all of your sins and all of
my sins. He was judged for our sins and
paid the price for our sins. Therefore
our sins will never be held against us.
Right where you are, you now have the opportunity to make the greatest
decision in your life. To accept the free gift of eternal life by truly
believing that Jesus Christ died for
you. So wherever you are, pause to reflect on what Christ has done for you
and say to the Father:
"Father, I believe that Your Son,
Jesus Christ, died on the cross for the forgiveness of my sins."
If you have done that, I welcome you to the Eternal
Family of God!