Scripture: Jeremiah 31:31-34, John 15:1-8
In our previous
series regarding the 7 Churches of Revelation, we saw the Lord Jesus at work in
two separate ways – first in proclaiming what those churches had chosen to do
that separated them from Godly ways, and second, in His recognition and
acknowledgment of the Godly ways that they were living in that were bringing
praise and glory to their Lord. As we
read of Christ’s evaluation of their lives, we discover that He was offering
them both his hurting heart as well as his divine glory, both his love and his
disappointment, both His judgment and his joy.
In the verses preceding
our opening passage for today, we see God offering the same judgment and the
same restoration that He does in Revelation.
From those verses in Jeremiah 31:27-28, we read “Just as I
watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster,
so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the LORD.” In these few words, the Lord tells the
Israelites in exile, as well as the oppressed church of today, that there is
far more in the love that He has for His people than they could ever fully
know.
God knows
that we will always have problems living a life of perfection in His commands
and laws, and that we need His ways to be rebuilt and renewed within us after we fall away
from living in His perfection.
Today, we see the
plan that God has created to accomplish that very thing – and that it will be
accomplished through His New Covenant of forgiveness. And as we take just a moment to reflect on the
renewal and fulfillment that will be ours by faith in Jesus, His new covenant should
become clearer and firmer and more vital in each and every heart that is given
to the Christ of life.
Read Jeremiah31:31-34
God reveals the
problem that overwhelmed us in the former covenant – that when we broke the
promise of God, our insufficient and inadequate sacrifices were the only way to
work our way back into the Lord’s good graces – and they were never
enough. So the Lord would provide a new
and perfect means to rebuild, restore, and pardon us through His grace and
mercy. The prophet doesn’t describe this
process in very much detail, except to say that it will be based in the fact
that we will know God, and will never have to obey an unknown quantity
ever again.
It doesn’t mean
that God’s commands are going to be taken away, that we will finally have free
rein over our personal lives. Divine law
has been instilled within us, written on our heart and filling our mind. Of course that still doesn’t preclude many
folks from simply ignoring the Lord’s will, in favor of their own!
And why do we now know
God? Because He has now become one in us! Jesus came to this place, not simply as the
divine Being from heaven, but who is also “fully human”, just as we are. We can easily come to know another person,
if we just spend some time with them, and rejoice in all that their
experiences, their knowledge and their wisdom can come to mean for our lives. For
when we know Jesus, we also know God the Father, as well as God The Holy Spirit. And the humanity of Jesus actually has an
additional benefit that comes through our relationship with Him.
Remember all those
sacrifices that people used to have to do to earn God’s forgiveness for all the
sins and failures that we have so intently committed during this lifetime? Human sin required a human’s sacrifice if it
was to mean anything, and it had to be offered over and over again. So the human side of the Lord Jesus did what
we could never do on our own! He gave up His own life on the Cross, so that His
human brothers and sisters could know the forgiveness that Christ’s divine love
and mercy has always been so eager to grant to each and every one of us. And his sacrifice was so perfect, that it
only had to be offered once, not over and over again. And all that we are asked to do is to name
the sins that we want the Lord to forgive within us.
Jesus has done all
that needed to be done, that we might not only know Him, but that we would know
His blessed forgiveness, too! And when
God forgives, it is so complete that our sin passes from God’s presence and
into the darkness of yesterday. Praise
the Lord for His goodness!
Read John 15:1-8
This “I AM” saying
lends additional credence to our getting to know Jesus as a friend, and not
simply as an unapproachable divine Being.
This gives us a glimpse into the “giving” nature of the Lord Jesus as we
consider how a vine or stalk supplies nourishment, strength, and support to the
fruit that it bears.
So how is Jesus
“the Vine” for our lives? He enables our
life to have meaning beyond anything that we could envision on our own; he
provides guidance for us in this existence that we might have direction and
vision for a life founded in His holy name, one that will always bring glory to
the Father; He shows us how our obedience to His word will be nourishing and
strengthening for our walk with Him in faith; and the spiritual fruit that
grows, as defined in Galatians 5:22-23 - “love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” – will fill
us and supply us with the desire and focus to pour it all out for the needy of
this world. And as the fruit of every
plant contains seeds that go to produce even more plants and fruit, so does the
fruit that comes from our faithful service.
And Jesus shares
the difference between cutting and pruning that the Gardiner does on our
behalf. Dead branches are just a burden
and a distraction, and have no useful purpose whatsoever – the only thing they
actually accomplish is to get in the way of new and vital growth in the plant. So the only action that is needed is to
remove it and destroy it to keep from its passing on disease and death to
others.
But pruning, on
the other hand, is the removal of good and living growth, with the purpose
being to direct more nourishment to fewer pieces of “fruit”, so that while
there may be less fruit in numbers, each one that does grow will be larger,
healthier, and more pleasing to the Gardiner.
So how does this
fit into God’s “new covenant” that He prepares as a blessing for all who love
him, and serve him, and follow him? It
enhances the life we live, and as we walk and grow and produce for the glory of
our Lord, more and greater fruit begin to grow, and the covenant that is
founded in our relationship with Jesus, will empower and fulfill those words
from Jeremiah – “I will be your God, and you will be my people”.
And what is our
part in living God’s “new covenant”? To
follow joyfully, to allow the Lord to shape us, and prune us, and to remove the
“dead wood” that develops in our lives, to repent of our bent to preserve the
“dead” branches that clutter up our lives, to share the fruit that Jesus the
Vine produces within us for the benefit of others, and to give God the glory
for whatever comes from our faithfulness.
Just as Jesus gave
his all in faithful joy for our benefit, our walk with Christ must also be one,
in that same kind of blessed and hopeful joy, for others. And as we continue in acknowledgment and commitment
to this New Covenant in Jesus’ name, may we be renewed and strengthened in
faith and obedience to Jesus, and no other.
Whole and healed
and right again - not by our efforts and will, but solely because of God’s.
