Although vastly superior to animals, man is a flawed being, severed from God. Here are things he can accomplish, but with limited success. Here, also, are things of a spiritual and eternal kind, that he cannot achieve without Christ. How may he relate to Christ to gain these goals?
‘I am the vine, ye are the branches, he that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye can do nothing.’
Just those words, friends, ‘for without me ye can do nothing.’ Things man cannot do without Christ, that will be our subject in the short time available to us. Here it is again, being true to the Greek, ‘ye can do not even one thing.’ It is so emphatic. You can do nothing without Christ and that’s absolutely true. He is the creator and he is the sustainer of the universe. Through the eternal Son of God Jesus Christ, according to the Bible, were all things made that are made. The Father and the Holy Spirit deputed to the Son, the eternal Son, the task of creating all things at his word and he sustains all things.
And so, even if we do not acknowledge him, even if we do not believe in him, it is absolutely true that we can do nothing without him. It is only by his permissive will and by his enabling power that we do anything at all in life. Our brain is of his creation, our body is strictly his, he made it, our strength is supplied by him and our energy, he energizes every particle in the universe. If Jesus Christ the Lord were to withdraw his hand of power, everything would instantly collapse. We work by the air that he provides, the food that he provides, everything is by his permissive will and his provided power, for in him we live and move and have our being.
And the Apostle Paul says, if our earthly tabernacle, our bodily tent were dissolved, loosed like you loosed the guy ropes of a tent, if Christ just loosed the power that sustains us, we would all perish instantly. So, there is no more true statement than this. Without me, ye can do nothing. So even without acknowledging him, we can do nothing actually without him.
You May Be Also Interested in…