If his branches don’t bear fruit …

John 15:1-6 says Jesus is the “true grapevine” and promises that if you, like a branch of the vine, will remain/abide in Christ, then he will remain/abide in you and you “will produce much fruit.” Praise God! What a great promise from the one who is faithful and true, the one who is able to keep every promise he makes!

However … “if” implies “if not.” So the passage also notes that branches “severed from the vine” cannot produce fruit. It says the Father is a gardener who “cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit.” It warns: “Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.”

This is not about people who were never saved in the first place. Jesus says these are his branches. They were connected to the vine at one point but did not produce fruit. Because they were useless branches, the gardener severed them from the vine. They were cut off and thrown away. They withered. They will wind up being  gathered into a pile and burned.

The crucial difference between a Christian and a branch on a grapevine is that a Christian chooses to abide in Christ and be fruitful — or not.

“Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.” (Rev. 2:7,11,17,29,3:6,13,22 )

You must ‘hold fast’

Your teaching about salvation is inadequate if it doesn’t include the fact that obedience and endurance are essential to being saved.

1 Corinthians 15:1-2 – Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.

Salvation isn’t only a matter of having accepted Christ one day long ago. I was saved on April 6, 1961 — no doubt about that. But as a journey is more than the first step, salvation is more than accepting Christ. Choose Christ every day. Keep choosing his way. Stand firm. Hold fast. When you reach the end of your road, you will be saved. You can be completely confident that Christ will keep his promise.

‘If ‘ may be a very small word, but it has a very big meaning. Its presence in this verse is no accident. When it says “you are saved, if you hold fast,” that is exactly what it means. And where there is an “if,” there also is implied an “if not.”

It is possible to not hold fast. You don’t want to go there.

You must “hold fast” to be saved.

And if you don’t remain …

“If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.” (John 15:6 NIV)

The preachers talk all around this verse. This morning, my pastor at least said, “You figure out what it means. It’s not good.” The once saved, always saved crowd and their more honest Calvinist brethren won’t usually commit to anything more than “You’ll lose some of your reward in heaven” or, perhaps, “You’ll experience some kind of punishment before you enter heaven.”

Not sure what the biblical basis for either of those ideas is. Would like to know.

But it seems clear from the passage that Jesus is talking to someone who is abiding/remaining in him and warning them of the danger of not abiding/remaining. It’s not directed to someone who is only “almost saved” or “never was really saved in the first place.”

And what is the burning? Clearly it’s about destruction, not purification. Unproductive land might be burned off to make it more productive. Hebrews talks about that. But withered branches are burned to destroy them. They have no use and no future.