"I am the vine, you are the branches…. ( John 15:5)

The New Testament is rich in imagery that reveals who we are in Christ and what our relationship with God is like. We see images like the vine and the branches, the temple of the Holy Spirit, the Bride of Christ, and the Body of Christ. These pictures show us that God is a God of union. They reveal the simple truth that what God wants to give us most is Himself. When we understand this great goal of God, it helps us understand the nature of our walk with the Lord.

When we embrace the fact that God’s plan for our lives is not necessarily for us to do something but to obtain Christ, all that happens in our lives, whether good or bad, suddenly makes sense. We begin to recognize the hand of God whether God is giving or taking away.

Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ( John 15:2)

John 15 speaks of our Father in heaven as the vinedresser who prunes us. The whole idea of pruning does not make a whole lot of sense. The way you get more is to take away? If you knew nothing about a vineyard, and you saw a vinedresser happily cutting away parts of a perfectly good branch, you might think he has lost his mind. At times in our lives it might seem that God has lost His mind until we understand that the way God often gives us more is through taking away. Consider the apostle Paul.

“… though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith….” (Philippians 3:4-9)

Paul said that he suffered loss that he might gain Christ. Before Paul met Jesus, his life was one big effort to be right with God. God was Paul’s goal, but he was trying to get there the wrong way. Paul was his own way to God. Who he was was his way to God. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews of the tribe of Benjamin. If you remember your first century history, there were only two of the twelve tribes of Israel that kept themselves pure, Judah and Benjamin. Paul was of the two that got it right. He kept the Law flawlessly.

Before Paul came to Christ, If you asked him how to get to God, He would talk about being the right thing and doing the right thing. Yet, if you talked with him after he came to Christ, he wouldn’t talk about those things would he? He would talk about Who Jesus is and what He has done by dying and rising from the grave. Paul suffered the loss of his own righteousness that he might gain Christ as his righteousness. It was a loss so great that Paul called it the loss of all things.

God does such pruning in our lives. As we walk with God, we too will suffer the loss of ourselves, who we are and what we do, as our way to God that we might gain Christ as our way. Such pruning can be difficult. If we do not understand God’s purpose to give us Himself as our righteousness, it may seem like God is against us when we suffer the loss of our own righteousness. In reality, He is entirely for us. He is forever about His purpose of giving us His Son.