John Calvin Commentary John 15:5

"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from me ye can do nothing." — John 15:5 (ASV)

Without me you can do nothing. This is the conclusion and application of the whole parable. As long as we are separate from him, we bear no fruit that is good and acceptable to God, for we are unable to do anything good.

The Papists not only diminish the force of this statement but destroy its substance; indeed, they completely evade it. For, though in words they acknowledge that we can do nothing without Christ, they foolishly imagine that they possess some power, which is not sufficient in itself but, being aided by the grace of God, cooperates (as they say), that is, works along with it; for they cannot endure that humanity should be so reduced to nothing as to do nothing of itself.

But these words of Christ are too plain to be evaded so easily as they suppose. The doctrine invented by the Papists is that we can do nothing without Christ, but that, aided by him, we have something of ourselves in addition to his grace. Christ, on the other hand, declares that we can do nothing by ourselves.

The branch, he says, does not bear fruit of itself; and, therefore, he not only praises the aid of his cooperating grace but deprives us entirely of all power except what he imparts to us. Accordingly, this phrase, without me, must be explained as meaning, except from me.

Next follows another fallacy; for they allege that the branch has something from nature, because if another branch, which is not fruit-bearing, is grafted into the vine, it will produce nothing. But this is easily answered, for Christ does not explain what the branch has naturally before it becomes united to the vine, but rather means that we begin to become branches at the time when we are united to him. And, indeed, Scripture elsewhere shows that, before we are in him, we are dry and useless wood.