Connected to the True Vine

“As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” 

The image of the Vine and the branches is one that has great importance in our day to day lives.  Each day we are confronted with the truth of what would happen if we are separated from the Vine:  we die!  What happens to a body that’s separated from its head?  Apart from the Vine, branches can do nothing!  We have no life apart from Christ.  The sap that flows from the vine nourishes the branches.  We confess that our very lives sprout forth from our Heavenly Father, and that by our sin, we have cut ourselves off from our source of life.  Yet, by His grace through the blood of His Son, shed on the cross for the sins of the world, our sin, we have been reconciled to God, grafted back into the true vine!

The life that flows from the side of Christ Crucified and Risen now nourishes us with His life and forgiveness, so that by faith we might live in union with Him.  The message of the Vine and the branches gives us hope!  Through being grafted into the Vine and by the care of the Vinedresser – we bear His fruit!

So how can our lives be altered, changed, transformed?  Remember, we don’t produce fruit – Jesus does.  When our lives are so consumed with all sorts of things other than bearing the fruit of Christ – then we are the branches that need to pruning of the vinedresser.  The word for pruning in Greek means “Cleanse”.  It takes this pruning – this cleansing – to remove bugs and disease that will cause the branch not to produce fruit.  It’s for that reason that we need pruning.  When we experience this pruning, we must trust that God is in control and the Vinedresser knows that He is doing – He’s working for our very best!

Satan would love for us to think otherwise though.  Satan works very hard to convince us that we don’t need pruning – that He would never cut into our lives – that we would be in compete control.  But jointed to satan – we are dead!

Thanks be to God – for we are alive in Christ.  One of my favorite parts of God’s Word is Galatians 2:20 which says, “I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”  We are alive in Christ – the true Vine – and through Him we produce His fruit.

That fruit that we produce is what Paul speaks of in Galatians chapter 5 - the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”. These are, above all, characteristics of our Savior in his relationship with us.  But they are also the fruit that He produce in us as we are joined and grafted into Him.

Being grafted into the True Vine, may the Holy Spirit use the good fruit we produce to be a blessing to each other, our families, and our community and to give the glory to God the Father.

 

Heart Transplant

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”  Proberbs 4:23

God looks at each and every one of us and proclaims that we need a brand new heart.  He’s not talking about the organ beating in our chest – but that which really makes us tick from the inside out.  God wants us to have a new heart that recognizes sin, mourns and repents of this sin, and treasures God’s forgiveness.  Having this heart transplant is literally a matter of life and death.

The process for this heart transplant begins with repentance.  What is the definition of repentance?  To turn away from sin – to believe what God says is the truth about you.  We were all conceived with a heart that doesn’t want to take responsibility for sin, a heart that doesn’t believe that sin is worthy of death.  The wages of sin IS death.  We know that we are powerless to turn because we are dead in sin, incapable of returning to God.

God reveals that our problem (as his people) is not outright disobedience – but its with the heart.  There is no such thing as a “safe sin”.  We tend to justify our sin because we haven’t done anything terribly disobedient or we haven’t done anything that isn’t being done by everyone else – or my sin is far less than what so and so has done!  But God is blunt, saying, the soul that sins shall die.  God demands perfection.  Every last one of us falls short of that.  Therfore, the result is death.

Our self righteousness can even run so deep that we find ourselves blaming God for the mess we’re in.  It’s as old as Adam saying to God, “The woman who YOU gave to be with me…she gave me the fruit of the tree, and I ate.”  Things haven’t changed.  Every one of us at one time or another has pointed the finger at others, even God, as the reason for our wrong-doing – as if this excuses our sin or removes us from any accountability before God.

Only in repentance can we be restored so that our thoughts, words, and deeds match God’s will.  It is not repentance that saves us; but rather repentance is the sign that I realize what God has done in Christ Jesus.  We are made right with God because prior to all else, Christ lived, died, and rose for us.  Sinful men and women can only be changed into new creatures by the marvelous work of God in Christ Jesus.  Through the atoning work of Christ, we are able to do the will of God – to answer gladly when the Lord calls.

The true and reliable source of life is in Jesus Christ.  How does God give us this new heart for life?  It’s a lot like the way you would receive a new heart if you checked into the hospital for a heart transplant.  Before you can receive a new heart, someone has to die.  Not only that, the person must be willing to give of their heart and it has to be a match or your body will reject it.  You see the similarities with Jesus, don’t you?  Jesus give us the new heart that God demands.

He made that possible by living the perfect life that God demands and dying the death our sin deserves on the cross.  An organ donor is only willing to give you their heart once they’re done with it, not a moment before.  Jesus willingly went to the Cross so that you could receive His heart – now!

And how do we treat this new heart?  We treasure it!  We treasure the new heart and forgiveness God has given to us.  We “cast away all our transgressions” or as Luther put it – our entire lives are lived in repentance – treasuring our relationship with God above all things.  We nurture our new heart with the Word and with the life-giving food of Christ’s body and blood.

Therefore, when we face sin and temptation, we TURN away from it and rejoice in the promises of God that give us strength.  When we face doubts and circumstances that take away our confidence, we TURN to the promises of our Baptism and the sure and certain truth that we belong to God and we have been given a clean heart and have been restored in salvation.



Clothed with Christ

In the month of October we often times talk about dressing up.  Usually we are speaking of dressing up for a Halloween celebration.  The real reason I want to talk to you about dressing up is because of what the Bible says we, as Christians, are clothed with – Christ’s righteousness.

Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ lived the perfect life that we are totally unable to.  He died the horrible death that our sin deserves.  He then rose victorious from the grave to ensure the promises of forgiveness, life, and salvation for us!  This is good news!  It’s even better news when we realize that through Baptism, we have been clothed with the very righteousness and innocence of Christ.  This Good News affects everything we do as renewed, redeemed, and reformed children of God.

We have been clothed with Christ!  Galatians 3:27 tells us, "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ."  As Christians who have been clothed with Christ’s righteousness, we have the awesome opportunity to give witness to the forgiveness, life, and salvation found in Christ alone.  May the month of October serve to remind us of the most important garment we have – the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.