These words are meant to humble God's people. Yes, we are called God's vine, but what are we by nature that makes us better than anyone else? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

By God's goodness alone, we have become fruitful. He planted us in good soil. He trained us up the walls of his sanctuary. We bear fruit for his glory. But what are we without our God? What are we without the Spirit's constant work, creating fruitfulness in us? Dead wood. That's what.

O believer, learn to reject pride! You have no ground for it. Whatever you are, you have nothing to be proud about. Think about it: the more you have, the deeper your debt to God. And who gets proud about being in debt?

Consider where you came from. Look back at what you were. Consider what you would have become without divine grace. Now look at yourself as you are right now. Doesn't your conscience reproach you? Don't your thousand wanderings stand before you, shouting that you are unworthy to be called his child?

And if God has made you into something, doesn't that very fact teach you that grace alone makes the difference? Great believer, you would have been a great sinner if God had not intervened. O you who stand valiant for truth—you would have fought just as valiantly for error if grace had not laid hold of you!

Therefore, be not proud, even if you possess a large estate—a wide domain of grace. You once had nothing to call your own except your sin and misery. Oh! What strange infatuation, that you who have borrowed everything should think of exalting yourself! A poor dependent pensioner living on the bounty of your Savior, one whose life dies without fresh streams from Jesus—and yet proud?

Fie on you, O silly heart!