(Wednesday, 28 November 2007) Written by Tove Tveit
Hi.
Here is just another (simple) thought – also on John 15:5. So let's get a hold of this vesre and start being who we really are.
John 15:5:
I am the vine; you are the branches.
When Jesus says: “I am the vine” that actually means THE WHOLE TREE – including the branches. And when He then says: “you are the branches” – that must mean He is in us. Everything in us is Him, and each one of us (each branch) is a part of Him. If we grasp this, then the rest of the verse might be easier to accept:
“If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
We bear fruit because we are a part of the tree, and because the life of the tree is the live of the branch.
A friend said to me that when she was little she always used to feel sorry for Jesus every Easter – now He had to die again. We know the story does not end there – He rose again. Heard it before? Of course, as a Christian you have! But what does it mean to us? Does it mean anything, or is it just a part of a story that will be repeated next year?
For us who this year heard the Easter message at The Grace Project – live or online – heard that He is risen, we are risen and they are risen . I don’t think most of us will have any trouble accepting the first part: He is risen. That means HE IS ALIVE – NOW!
The next part, we are risen, might be a bit more difficult to accept – at least for some. After all it doesn’t feel like I have resurrection life – I often feel miserable. But when we read the Bible we read verses like Eph 2:6: “and raised us up with him , and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus”, and Col 3:1: “If then you have been raised together with Christ , seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” So I know what the Bible says, but what does that mean? It means: HE IS ALIVE – NOW – IN US, you and me.
Now the last part: They are risen. They = Christians in other churches? No, more then that: They = All people (Christians and not). Acts 17:24-25 “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. ” That means: HE IS ALIVE – NOW – IN EVERYONE. Difficult to accept and understand?
Sometimes I’ve heard people using the picture of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly illustrating going from being an unbeliever to a believer. So maybe we have to remind ourselves that the caterpillar has life – actually the same life that we can see in the butterfly later. Then it might not be so strange to see that His life already is within the unbelievers.
If this is difficult to accept, why is it so? Probably because we haven’t understood, at least not to the full extent, that we are risen. How can we accept that they have His life (but they don’t know it) if we really don’t believe that we have His life (even though we DO know it)?
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tracy
