Apart from Me you can do nothing
Thoughts on John 15:5
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5
There are many ways that people try to achieve things in life, but our achievements are all useless, and everything ends in dust, unless our lives are inspired by Jesus, indeed, unless Jesus is at the centre of everything we are and everything we do, unless we remain in Him, nothing that we do will have any eternal value.
But the fact is, none of us can achieve this relationship with God that is essential for eternal achievement: but if it’s not something we can achieve, it’s something we can ask for, and if we do, God will make it possible and we will be given grace to know Him: because “everyone who cries out in the name of the Lord will be saved” (Joel 2:32) and “whoever comes to Me I will never drive away.” (John 6:37)
None of us is perfect, none of us can even make the claim to be good — yet Jesus tells us that the receipt of good gifts from God doesn’t depend on our goodness — He tells us “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11)
And the greatest gift we can ever ask for is the Spirit of Jesus: the very presence of God, by Whom we can know Jesus and be a part of His kingdom.
