Day 5: Jesus, The True Vine

Today's reading is from John 15:1-4

Each year the Israelites celebrated the Passover season as a week-long festival. The day of Passover was surrounded by the Feast of Unleavened Bread - all of it a picture of God's deliverance of them from Egypt. When they came to the land that God gave them, God described it as a land of "milk and honey". It was fruitful with vineyards that they did not plant and they began to reap the fruit of the vines immediately. They were "in" Israel because of God's redemption, and they were "blessed" because they were "in".

The night Jesus met with his disciples to celebrate the Passover, he opened his heart to them in the John 13 - 17.
“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me."

We are "in Christ" because of his redemption. We have been grafted in by faith. Our life is attached to Christ's life. It's his righteousness we receive.

Paul later writes in Romans 8, "So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death."

"In Christ" is more than a neat thought. It is the declaration that we are "attached" to Christ, even as the branches are "attached" to the vine. He is the source of our life, our strength, our hope. In him, we find everything we need for grace, mercy, goodness, peace. In the midst of a life filled with the corruption of the Fall, we stay "in him" and see the fruit that makes life be more about the joy of the harvest than the difficulties of life.

Peace

If you're also reading the Bible through in a Year, read Joshua 12, 13, 14, & 15.

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