Jesus Wants You to Know You Are Weak
In America, it is common to believe that we can achieve anything we put our minds to. Young children imbibe this self-help gospel throughout their earliest years. Parents fuel this mentality by spending exorbitant amounts of time and money helping their children build a successful life based on the fallacy that their hard work and willpower are the ultimate means of their favorable outcomes. None of this is inherently sinful, and we shouldn’t be overly cynical. Hard work, dedication, and diligence are virtues our children and grandchildren need. Yet, when these achievements become their hope, they are blind to the innate weakness found in every one of us.
Like our children, we love to feel strong, too. We desire to stand on our own. We love to marvel at our accomplishments. Can we agree that the hustle culture led to the burnout culture we are facing today? Yesterday’s productivity culture ended up crushing us. We lose our humanness when we refuse to see our weakness. Instead of creatures reliant on the God who gives rain for the grass, seeds for the birds, and dens for the lions, we frame ourselves as little gods who can get on without relying on others.
We don’t say these things out loud. That would be far too crass. Instead, we mumble, “Give us this day our daily bread” as we dash out the door to work—daily bread in hand as we go make money to buy more. As strong as we feel, Jesus wants us to know that we are weak, and he wants us to see that weakness is a prerequisite for true spiritual growth.
Self-Reliant Sanctification Doesn’t Exist
Jesus uttered some of the sweetest words in all Scripture when he said, “I am the true vine” (John 15:1). At first glance, this sounds odd to those of us who haven’t grown up near grapevines. Yet, both in Jesus’s day and in Mediterranean culture today, grapevines produce the fruit needed to make the antioxidant-rich wine found around dinner tables and in churches. Jesus couldn’t be clearer: if the branches of a grapevine aren’t attached to the vine, it is impossible for them to produce fruit.
Christians, we are the branches and Jesus is our true vine. Let those words steep in your heart. Absorb the scent and taste of those words deep into your soul. It is impossible for us to bear spiritual fruit apart from Jesus because self-reliant sanctification doesn’t exist. We won’t even be truly concerned with fruit-bearing and spiritual growth if we aren’t abiding in him.
We may be concerned with keeping up appearances. We may desire to check off the spiritual boxes on our productive Christian to-do lists. We may even desire to please God by obeying his commands. But when we aren’t abiding in Christ, we are living an oxymoron. Self-reliant Christianity shouldn’t be a concept in our worldview.
The Gospel Is Inherently against Self-Help
We were dead in our trespasses and sins, but he saved us by grace through faith (Eph. 2:1–10). We are blessed when our sins are covered, and our iniquity is forgiven (Ps. 32:1–2). It is God who cleanses us, gives us a new heart, puts his Spirit in us, and causes us to walk in his statutes and obey his rules (Ezek. 36:22–38). Jesus died for the ungodly at the right time—“while we were still weak” (Rom. 5:6). We didn’t initiate the process and we don’t add to the finished work of Christ. We are justified by his grace as a gift (Rom. 3:24). We don’t self-help our way into the kingdom of God any more than an infant child self-helps herself into or out of her mother’s womb.
Why highlight this point if we are already gospel people? Because we need constant reminders. Jesus reminded His disciples that they were already clean because of the word he had spoken to them (John 15:3). This motley crew of ragamuffins didn’t have it all together and neither do we. We are so forgetful. We often do our devotions and move into the workday as though the weight is completely on our shoulders. We treat our vocations, our hobbies, our parenting, and sometimes even our ministries as though we don’t really need much help. We’re like the adopted child who keeps trying to prove to his parents that he is part of the family.
Christ Himself Is the Source of Our Spiritual Growth
We all need the constant reminder that “apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Just as we don’t expect to see grapes growing from a withered branch lying on the ground next to a grapevine, we can’t expect to see spiritual growth from Christians who don’t have a rich, living relationship with the Son of God. When we aren’t dwelling with Christ, we are not bearing fruit, and God is glorified by our fruit-bearing (John 15:8). We can’t settle for fruitless self-help Christianity because that way of life can’t glorify God (Rom. 8:7) In fact, some nice, churchgoing people will actually be like branches that wither and are thrown in the fire and burned (John 15:6).
This is not a call to do better, try harder, or will yourself into better Christianity. That’s living as a vineless branch that will just wither and be thrown away. What’s the solution? Jesus gives us at least a few ways in John 15.
Spend time with Christ in his Word on a regular basis (John 15:7). Abiding with Christ involves seeking His Word and letting it abide in us. We need slow, meditative seasons where we allow the Word to simmer and saturate all of our being. As a soup broth absorbs the flavors of the meat and veggies in it, so we need to absorb and savor the aroma of the Bible. We need to be constantly hiding the Word in our hearts, building a library of Scripture in our souls for every occasion.
Spend time talking with Christ (John 15:7). Abiding with Christ in His Word will stir up holy desires in our hearts and minds that only he can fulfill. We need to share those desires with Christ and ask whatever we wish. When our hearts and minds are renewed by the Word and the Spirit, he will grant those desires to us in his perfect timing, according to his perfect will.
Cultivate a deep love for God and others (John 15:9–17). As we abide in the Word and ask for what we desire, we will inevitably be asking God to help us keep his commandments. Our desire to love and obey God will be strengthened by a great love for him. The more we love God and obey him, the more we will love and serve those around us.
Self-reliant Christianity is a dead end. It will lead to eternal, spiritual death. However, we have a better way. All who have true union with Christ will live a life pursuing communion with him. Jesus wants us to know we are weak so we can find our strength in our communion with him.
Chrys Jones (@chrys_jones) is a husband and father of four. He is a pastoral resident at Grace Church in Danville, Kentucky, and he writes regularly at dwellwithchrist.com. Chrys is also a Christian Hip-Hop artist and producer for Christcentric.