Romans 11:22-23 (ESV) 22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you too will be cut off. 23 And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.
Here is a crazy thought…when you are in Christ, you are like an alien. You may be thinking, “what an absurd and odd thing to say?!” “Aren’t we made in His image?!” The answer to that question is an overwhelming YES!
Imago Dei as it is called in the theology world is a core principle of our very existence! We are made in His likeness and expected to live in His law and commands for all of our days! Yet obviously, we are grossly incapable of doing that! Heck, I get lost in my own neighborhood (true story) sometimes…how could I expect to navigate through life in accordance with His commands without fail?!
This right here is what alienates us from Him. Going back to the fall of man, and the introduction of sin in the Garden of Eden, man was cut off from Him. We were cast out of His purely good graces. However, in His infinite mercy and love, He has given us a simple plan for redemption! Faith and Repentance! When we submit to the Lordship of Christ and the sacrifice He made, while turning away from our previously sinful lives, we are welcomed to the family of God! And welcomed with open arms!
The sojourner is a sojourner no more! The lost is found! The lonely are never alone! We become a branch in the vine of Christ’s Kingdom! And like any branch on a vine, we are expected to bear good fruit!
The above scripture in Romans is a great representation of this. The Apostle Paul uses wonderful language to describe the horticultural and agricultural practice of “grafting”. This is a practice that takes branches or vines from OTHER plants and connects them to a healthy vine or tree and ties them down until the point of grafting heals. In his example he uses a fruit bearing olive tree! Those grafted vines or branches will be able to bear fruit now whereas previously they may not have at all or bore bad fruit!
When we make that transition from our old sinful life into the new resplendent life, we undergo such a grafting! From the vines of our previous life, producing no good fruit, we are grafted into the eternal and abundant vine of Christ! Through this action not only is our soul secured to be a part of that vine for all eternity, but we are equipped and made ready to make good fruit!
What a wonderful God it is that gives such blessings and gifts out of adoration to His children! It is beyond understanding that He loves His Church so much and so fully that He offers this wonderful gift not only freely, but eternally! No sin you can commit in your past, present, or future will rot away the grafting of the vine! Any and all who desire rest may find it in His arms…and His alone. What kind of mercy and love is that?!
SOLI DEO GLORIA!!!!
