Metaphor 25- The Vine

A new creation? Yes. With the old tree of humanity having been dealt with at the cross, God is now in the process of creating a new tree of humanity (or in another metaphor a vine), which is a new kind of humanity.

It was something else Christ had told His students before His crucifixion that they failed to comprehend until after the fact:

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman ... Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing."

How is this abiding accomplished? By the Holy Spirit of God indwelling in the inwardness, the Chicagoland, of a person!

Remember what Christ said:

"when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you."

The Son reveals the Father and the Holy Spirit of God communicates the Son to the inwardness of whoever He indwells.

Doesn’t this communication get rather crowded, what with how many human beings there are now and have been in the past? No actually.

The "persons" of the Godhead are co-eternal. That means that communication among the "persons" and to human persons, stand outside of time and have nothing to do with duration. And the Record says that "God is Spirit," one consequence of which is that God stands outside of space as well as time. There are no limits to this communication. One individual can have the whole of Almighty God’s attention for all time, and this will not decease God’s attention to another individual one wit less. Every individual who has ever been and will ever be has the whole of God’s infinite and eternal attention, without fail. As Christ told His students, "the very hairs of your head are all numbered."

When this connection occurs, a new thing occurs: sonship by adoption. Or as the Record reads:

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ..."

Prior to the New Testament, the expression "Sons of God" (plural) was an expression that was used to distinguish the race of angelic messengers from the race of human beings, who were referred to as "Sons of Man" (Adam). In the above, we now have that term applied to human beings. They became that by an "adoption" that occurred when the Spirit of God came to indwell them. A good metaphor for what happened is the Greek myth of Pygmalion.