In our walk with Christ, the slightest sin may grieve the soul. A good branch bears the fruit of righteousness and shows evidence that it is attached to the Vine. Jesus, the Vine, speaks of this fruit-bearing. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” On the other hand, the believer may fall into a vileness that shakes the whole foundation of the soul. When this happens, he or she feels like a failure in their relationship with God.
All is not lost. We must consider the love of God for the branch that has fallen to the ground with the leaves muddied up. The Vinedresser will cleanse us and LIFT US UP on the Vine, allowing us to soak in the sun to bear fruit. “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He lifts up (textual variant: the Greek word “take away” can be interpreted as “lifts up”. NKJV Greek English Interlinear New Testament; Thomas Nelson Publishers 1994. The vinedresser lifting up the fallen branch cleansing it and tying it back up to the vine.), and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.” (John 15:2-3) In spite of falling, the Vinedresser cares for His branches. Octavius Winslow (1808-1878) (in his work Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul) writes this blessed truth about God’s saints: “By a state of beginning decline, we mean that decay of spiritual life and grace in the believer which marks its earliest stage and more concealed stage. It is latent and hidden, and therefore the least suspected and the more dangerous. The painful process of spiritual disease may be advanced in the soul so secretly, so silently, and so unobservedly, that the subject of it may have lost ground, may have parted with many graces and much vigor, and may be beguiled into an alarming state of spiritual barrenness and decay, before even a suspicion has been awakened in his breast.” Winslow goes on to say; “In looking into the state of a backslider in heart, we may show what a declining state of falling does not necessarily involve. It does not involve any alteration in the essential character of divine grace, but it is a secret decay of the health, vigour, and exercise of that grace in the soul.” “But, you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Corinthians 6:11) If you are truly a branch attached to the vine and backslidden, be encouraged. Geerhardus Vos in his work Grace and Glory wrote, concerning the believer’s security, “Through justification we are in this life filled with the fullness of His merit, and appear to God as spotless and blameless as though sin has never touched us.”
Those who fall into this state of backsliding will often crawl back to the kingdom of God under the stoop of sin. It is their only hope. Backsliding is such a subtle condition. The flesh has dulled the guilt and shame of sin. Truly, spiritual barrenness and decay has set in. The burden of sin is heavy. Looking up to the cross with a brokenness and repentance of sin is the saint’s only relief. In John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian left the City of Destruction to get the burden of sin off his shoulders. He pursued and entered the narrow way at the wicket gate obtaining his salvation. Although having been saved, the burden of guilt and shame on his shoulders did not immediately fall off. Not until he reaches the place of deliverance, at the cross, does the burden slide off his shoulders. Backsliders need the same remedy – a broken and repentant spirit. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a repentant heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17)
Remember the prodigal son? After receiving his portion of his inheritance he “journeyed into a far country, and there wasted his possessions with wasteful living. — When had spent all — He would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate and no one gave him anything. — I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, Father I have sinned against heaven and before you. — And he arose and came to his Father, But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion , and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.” (Luke 15:11-24)
To those who have defiled their Christian witness and have backslidden, I beg you, come back to the Lord. “Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.” (Jeremiah 3:22) Those who are in Christ and have fallen into spiritual barrenness and decay, God loves you. Your sanctification is in process still. “Through sanctification His holy character is impressed on our souls, so notwithstanding our imperfections, God takes a true delight in us, seeing that the inner man is changed from day to day after the likeness of Christ.” (Geerhardus Vos)
Where the Grace Blows,