Without Me, You Can Do Nothing

by Terry Wane Benton

"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" (John 15:5).

• Without Jesus, we cannot be saved from a useless and aimless life. With Jesus, we can.
• Without Jesus, we cannot ask God for forgiveness and get it. With Jesus, we can.
• Without Jesus, we cannot even pray to God, and God respects our prayers. With Jesus, we can.
• Without Jesus, we cannot overcome the power of the devil to get us to sin and set us on the road to hell with him. With Jesus, we can.
• Without Jesus, we cannot bear fruit and have spiritual life within us. With Jesus we can!
• Without Jesus, we cannot have the inward satisfaction and peace that all is well with our soul, and we lack a good reason for it. With Jesus, we can.

When people tell us that they cannot live the Christian life, it is because they are thinking of trying to walk that road alone. Such a life would not be the Christian life, because the Christian life is based on knowing Jesus has all we will ever need, and He wants to form a partnership, a union where we are not planning to walk alone and relying on our strength.

Knowing Christ first involves knowing that the one who is the author of our faith can be the finisher of our faith. It is knowing that “greater is He Who is in us than he that is in the world.” It is knowing that “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

If you plan to walk without Christ as your constant companion, teacher, and provider of strength, then you cannot be a Christian, period! But, if you wonder if it is possible to form a union with Christ, the answer is yes! He is bringing that union within reach of all of us, no matter how dark our past may have been (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:38; Galatians 3:26-28). No, you cannot live the Christian life without uniting with Christ, but with that union, you can. Without Jesus as the center of our camp, we set ourselves up for failure. With Jesus, you can feed and strengthen your faith daily and take on the challenge of one day at a time, but without Him, you would be aiming to fail and reap misery. You can yoke to Him and find rest for your soul, so that you can succeed and reap eternal life with Him.

Are you trying to go it alone? There's the trouble!