“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One - Part 1322

I am the true vine! You are the branches. Every branch in Me that does not bring forth fruit shall be cut off and thrown into the fire. Some church fathers, on reading this passage, had the audacity to assert that the church is the vine and the denominations are the branches which have sprung forth from them. Such brazen nonsensical statements if you think of them in light of the scriptures.

In fact, satan figures his best defense is offence. He always has an alternative rendering of scripture to offer Adam’s now prone to sin fallen race. Follow him, he says, he who has been man’s master since man’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden. But satan only leads people to death. The devil cannot give life.

God, on the other hand loves us. Indeed, God is love. So much so, that Jesus took upon Himself a veil of sinful flesh whilst He was in the womb of a willing surrogate mother. JESUS being conceived of the Holy Spirit - yes, God fathered Himself, as a Son brought us salvation. As a consequence, do not let the traditional church fathers tell you otherwise.

If you refer back to post #344 (where the message states to keep yourself from blood), we can seek to understand that in the blood is the life. Moreover, the blood in JESUS' veins was the life blood of the Holy Spirit. Not Adam’s prone to sin blood. Why not? Because JESUS is the revealing personality of the unseen Holy Ghost. To know Him, or rather begin to know JESUS is to begin to know the personality of God. Of course the Heavens declare God’s glory. The earth shows forth God’s handiwork.

However, in the man JESUS - God manifest in the flesh - we are being introduced to the personality of God Himself. No more surmising about who God is. No more cunning crafty deceptions from or by religious zealots. For now we have seen the unseen God. We have handled Him with our hands. Yes. The very God who is and was before all things was here on earth bringing us the gospel message, and His ultimate plan of salvation.

John, the water baptizer of JESUS, declared, "Behold the Lamb of God." In the life and death of JESUS we perceive the love of God toward us. For it was God Himself, in the flesh who offered His own sinless and yet prone to sin body at Calvary.

Let's repeat this. God in Christ sacrificed His own body - once - only once - before stating that "It is finished!" And, as a consequence, there is no more offering for sin.

JESUS is risen from the dead. The Lamb of God has been sacrificed.

And at the end of the day, God laid down His life for you and I. And He did so with that one sacrifice, in which sacrifice our sin was laid upon God as a Son. This is why God’s justice demanded that a righteous man must die if man were ever to be redeemed. Undoubtedly, Jesus died so that we might have salvation abundant.

Peace to all in JESUS! Stand in the offering plate.