E
Christ is the true vine, and we are His branches—15:1-8:
１
The life, the substance, and the nature of the vine are the life, the substance, and the nature of the branches—1 John 5:11-12; 2 Pet. 1:4.
２
The Son as the vine is the center of God’s economy and the embodiment of all the riches of the Father; the Father, by cultivating the Son, works Himself with all His riches into the vine, and eventually, the vine expresses the Father in a corporate way through the believers in Christ as its branches.
F
The subjective experience of Christ is actually Christ Himself entering into us to be our life and the constituent of our being—Col. 3:4, 10-11.
Ⅲ
The Gospel of John reveals the subjective truths concerning the church:
A
The issue of our receiving the Lord into us is that we become constituents of the church— 12:24; 20:17; 15:4-5; 3:29-30.
B
The Lord’s recovery is to recover the subjective experience of Christ for the practice of the church life—Gal. 1:15-16; 2:20; 4:19; 1:2:
１
The church, which is the issue of our subjective experience of Christ, is Christ constituted into His believers—Eph. 3:16-19.
２
The Christ who died and resurrected has been wrought into us to produce the church, which is His Body—Col. 1:27, 18; 2:19; 3:15.
３
Christ in Himself is the Head, and Christ constituted into us is the Body—Eph. 1:22-23; 3:17; 4:15-16; Col. 1:18, 27; 3:4; 2:19; 3:15.
C
Although the word church is not specifically used in the Gospel of John, the fact of the existence of the church and the constituents of the church are clearly defined, and the church is referred to in seven ways:
１
The church is composed of many grains, which are the many believers produced through Christ’s death and resurrection—12:23-24.
２
The church is composed of the Lord’s many brothers—20:17.
３
The church is the Father’s house—14:2, 23.
４
The church is the Son’s vine with many branches—15:5, 7.
５
The church is the Spirit’s new child, the new man, born by the consummated Spirit— 16:20-22.
６
The church is the bride with Christ as the Bridegroom—3:29-30.
７
The church is the one flock with Christ as the Shepherd—10:14-16.
D
The practical church life is an issue of our experience of the subjective truths; when we experience the subjective truths, the church is spontaneously produced—Rom. 8:10-11; 12:4-5; 16:1, 4-5; 1 Cor. 1:9, 30; 15:45b; 6:17; 1:2; 12:27.
E
The issue of our subjective experience of Christ as life is the church life as a house of feasting—John 12:1-11:
１
In the church life we all must be a triangular member of the church—a “Martha-Lazarus-Mary.”
２
In the real church life the diligent service to the Lord is rendered, the living testimony of the Lord is seen, and the absolute love toward the Lord is poured out; this is the real expression of the Body of the Lord, which is a vessel to contain the Lord and express Him.
Morning Nourishment
John 15:1 I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman.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.
[In John 15:1] this true vine (the Son) with its branches (the believers in the Son) is the organism of the Triune God in God’s economy. This organism grows with His riches and expresses His divine life. (John 15:1, footnote 1)
The Father as the husbandman is the source, the author, the planner, the planter, the life, the substance, the soil, the water, the air, the sunshine, and everything to the vine. The Son as the vine is the center of God’s economy and the embodiment of all the riches of the Father. The Father, by cultivating the Son, works Himself with all His riches into the vine, and eventually the vine expresses the Father in a corporate way through its branches. This is the Father’s economy in the universe. (John 15:1, footnote 2)
Today’s Reading
The Lord said that He was a grain of wheat [John 12:24]…. This [one] grain died and grew up to become many grains. Christ was the one grain, and we are the many grains. We were not the many grains by our human birth. When the Lord’s life came into us and the Lord dispensed Himself into us, we were regenerated to become the many grains to be made into one bread. Even though we are many, “there is one bread” (1 Cor. 10:17). Originally, the many grains were grains individually, but now they have been ground to powder and blended together to become one bread. This one bread signifies the church…. This bread is one Body, and this one Body is the church. The church is not… a society… organized by people….The church is produced out of Christ. The church is an issue of His dispensing Himself into us through His death and resurrection to make us grains of wheat. When we as the grains of wheat are blended into one, we become the one bread, and this one bread signifies the one Body.In John 20, after His resurrection the Lord said to Mary, “Go to My brothers and say to them…”(v. 17). Before His death and resurrection, when the Lord was on earth,…He called [His disciples] friends [15:13-15], but He never called them brothers. Why? It was because at that time the Lord’s life had not yet entered into the disciples. It was through resurrection and in resurrection that His life entered into the disciples. Now since they had His life, they became the Lord’s brothers. According to Hebrews 2:12, these brothers are the church: “I will declare Your name to My brothers; in the midst of the church I will sing hymns of praise to You.” What is the church? The church is the composition of the Lord’s many brothers.
In John 15 the Lord said, “I am the vine; you are the branches” (v. 5a). The branches are not branches if they do not have an absolutely subjective experience of the vine. The branches and the vine are one and cannot be divided. The life in the vine is the life in the branches, the nature of the vine is the nature of the branches, and the substance of the vine is the substance of the branches. There is no difference at all between the vine and the branches. Strictly speaking, all the branches are parts of the vine.
When a small sprout first comes out of the ground, there is no branch. After a certain period of growth, the branches appear one after another. By this we see what the church is. The church is composed of the branches growing out of Christ. The church is the aggregate of all the branches of Christ. Every one of us who believes in Him is a branch of Christ because it is He who comes into us to grow in us. Therefore, we are all members of His Body, and when all these members are put together, they are the Body. (CWWL, 1977, vol. 3, “The Subjective Truths in the Holy Scriptures,” pp. 123-125)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1977, vol. 3, “The Subjective Truths in the Holy Scriptures,” ch. 3