We tend to want to make it on our own. We get this honestly. In the West, we inherit a strong sense of rugged individualism. But we are not created to be self-sufficient.

In the Old Testament there are a number of passages describing Israel as the vine, planted and tended by God. Yet, as people often do, Israel tried to make it on their own apart from God. As history tells us, they failed miserably. And the result was “bad fruit.” On their own, they struggled. It is against this backdrop that Jesus tells us that, “I am the true vine.”

We were never meant to do this on our own. We need God who is our provider. 

In Genesis 22:14, Abraham was about to sacrifice his son Isaac and as the knife was about to take the young man’s life, a ram was caught in the thicket. Abraham coined the phrase, Jehovah Jireh, my Provider. Little did He know that not only would God provide a ram sparing Abraham’s son, but God would later provide His Son, on that very mountain, not only freeing Abraham and Isaac, but all humanity from their sin.

Jesus is our provision. Like the grapevine gives life to the branches, Jesus gives us life, in abundance (see John 10:10). He is the true vine, the true source of life for believers.