John 15 is a beautiful passage and in our class, along with here in this space, I’ve devoted the last few weeks to exploring the first 6 verses.  As a follow up to this passage, I thought you all would enjoy a short listen to a recent Podcast of John Piper where he explains that verse 2 does not violate the traditional understanding that “once saved, always saved.”

Here’s John Piper’s Podcast:

In addition, you may have heard me state before in class or here that my understanding of verse 2 is modified by verse 6.  That is to say that I take verse 2 in the context of the entire passage, and that I didn’t want to push the metaphor too far.  Well, not surprisingly, D.A. Carson explains this much better than I could have, so I thought I’d just post his thoughts below for your edification!

It is more satisfactory to recognize that asking the in me language to settle such disputes (of losing salvation etc.) is to push the vine imagery too far. The transparent purpose of the verse is to insist that there are no true Christians without some measure of fruit. Fruitfulness is an infallible mark of true Christianity; the alternative is dead wood, and the exigencies of the vine metaphor make it necessary that such wood be connected to the vine (dead branches from some other tree, lying around in the vineyard dirt, could scarcely make the point).