The true vine; part 1

    part 1

John 15:1-5” Jesus said to his disciples: I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.

He cuts away every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit. But he trims clean every branch that does produce fruit, so that it will produce even more fruit.

You are already clean because of what I have said to you.

Stay joined to me, and I will stay joined to you. Just as a branch cannot produce fruit unless it stays joined to the vine, you cannot produce fruit unless you stay joined to me.

I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you stay joined to me, and I stay joined to you, then you will produce lots of fruit. But you cannot do anything without me” (Contemporary English version)

Jesus announces a great report of great Joy to the disciples. He is in the summit of his ministries and the events are rolling on quickly as he nears his crucifixion which is the apex of his mission and the passion of his heart.

In order to appreciate the vine we must know some few things. First the vine is the whole plant plus the branches. When Jesus makes this statement therefore he refers himself as the true plant. “I am the whole picture in here” That is his announcement. I am the real picture guys! I have brought you new Kainos way of perceiving things. Jesus makes that statement which is so profound.

Jesus does not only define who he is and who is father is, but he also defines us. He says you are the branches. A branch is found in the vine and does not survive apart from the vine.

Who is this vine? He is Jesus, the one in whom all things hold together. He is all and in all. He is God and by him and through him all things were created. He is the firstborn of all creation. He is the second and the last Adam. He is the perfect man of Genesis 1. He is the word which was from the beginning and now made flesh and the disciples saw him face to face and Jesus opened their eyes to see the reality of who he is.

Who are the branches? It’s you and i? This verse has been misunderstood for many years and the proponents of religion have used these portions of scripture to place a hedge between themselves and the world. Those who ‘know God ’ and those who don’t. Those who have made themselves to be branches and those who have not branchified themselves for a lack of a better word.

The reality though is that Jesus reveals the identity of man. Man started in God. Jesus is the vine and mankind is his branches. If that was not so he couldn’t have said the branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit he casts away. The earth is the Lord and its fullness thereof (Psalm 24:3).

This is the reality that Jesus brought and unveiled before a bunch of unregenerate people. Iam the reality and you are the branches in me, part of the vine. Every branch in him that does not bear fruit Jesus says that he casts away. What is that branch? I believe it’s the branch of separation. It’s the branch of hostility brought about by the law of sin and death which was in operation since the fall of Adam. It’s the branch of the law and the code of conduct that man could not keep to please and attain Godliness.

Col 1:21-22” You used to be far from God. Your thoughts made you his enemies, and you did evil things.

But his Son became a human and died. So God made peace with you, and now he lets you stand in his presence as people who are holy and faultless and innocent.

” C E V

That’s the statement of our past as declared by the scriptures above, our thoughts made us severed from the vine. We fell out of the divine perfection of God in the fall. As the result of this separation we withered and died But Jesus came and died for us and us who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

The branch in him that does not bear fruit he casts away and that was what he came to do. Cast away that which severed us from the vine.The gospel now reveals your identity. You are the branch existing in the vine. Your faith does not improve that but it confirms it.

Jesus presented you before God as one holy and faultless and innocent before God. You are already clean through the words spoken to you by Jesus and received by you through faith and trust and reliance in the working of God.

This is the glad announcement of the gospel that you are also included in Christ. People have accused the preaching of grace as a preaching that encourages universalism. Whatever universalism is, that thought is a concept of being severed from the vine who is Jesus. When we grasp the integrity of the gospel, the project of God, the success story of the cross that makes us kainos creation in Christ Jesus , then we as Paul declared therefore do not regard any man according to the flesh(2^nd cor 5:14). We calculate that humanity is equally represented in Christ Jesus. The knowledge of this inclusion saves people .

We draw a fair and a just inclusion therefore that Jesus is the true vine and father is the true vine dresser and you are the branch. You existed in God before the creation . Of God do you take the origin f image and likeness.