Steve Hulshizer preaches about the fallen nature of man since Adam's rebellion, leading to a lineage tainted by sin and incapable of producing anything pleasing to God. Despite God's efforts with Israel, they failed to bring glory to Him, resulting in captivity and ultimately being set aside. The stage was set for the True Vine, Jesus Christ, to come and bear fruit for God, breaking the line of fallen humanity and offering a new beginning where His followers can bring glory to God.

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. John 15:1 In a “twinkling of an eye” this beautiful world came under a curse. Like Lucifer before him, the man who was created in God’s image and placed over His creation rebelled, being dissatisfied with the position and provisions his Creator God had given him. Everything under Adam was affected by his fall. The woman would bring forth her children in sorrow. The earth came under a curse and thorns and thistles marred the beauty of God’s creation. Man now had to labor for his needed bread. (Gen.3:16-19) God had designed all things to reproduce after their kind. (Gen. 1:11, 12, 25) This is an important truth which runs through the Bible. Jesus told this to Nicodemus when He said,“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit in spirit.” (John 3:3) All that the herbs and trees produced was the fruit of the cursed earth. All the offspring of Adam would reproduce after His kind, and thus sin would run through the human race. (Rom. 5:12-13) As such, there was nothing produced by man that would be pleasing to God. The best efforts of man would still be the product of a fallen nature, called in the Bible, “the flesh.” No matter how intelligent, no matter how zealous, no matter how religious, all the works of man are from a fallen and polluted nature. All that which was to bring glory to God was now tarnished and polluted. Man would“become unprofitable” to God. (Rom. 3:12) This was proven in the years to follow. Mankind became so wicked and evil that God repented that He had made man, and sent the flood to cleanse the earth. In His grace He saved a small remnant of people from the flood to carry on the human race—Noah and his family. (Gen. 6-9) However, since Noah was a descendent of Adam, his offspring was also produced of the flesh. Despite the institution of human government to control the behavior of man, failure once again came in and God once again brought judgement upon mankind, this time by confusing their language. (Gen. 11) God then took up a special nation. They were to be His people, and He was to be their God.Beginning with Abraham, God formed the nation of Israel. Certainly such an arrangement would result in glory to God! To have the only God of heaven and earth as your God would no doubt stir the people to bring glory to Him! God made Israel His personal vineyard (Is. 5:7). He brought them as a vine out of Egypt,and prepared a place for them. (Ps. 80: 8-19) He provided everything necessary for this vine to bring forth fruit for Him. He fenced it, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in its midst, and provided a winepress. (Isa. 5:2) After this He looked for grapes, but it only produced wild grapes. (Isa. 2) Despite all of His work with this nation it brought no glory to Him. In fact, God’s name was blasphemed among the Gentiles because of the sin of Israel. (Rom. 2:24) Several times God sent the nation into captivity. Finally, He set them aside and established the Gentiles nations as the rulers of the world. (Dan. 2, 7, 8; Rom. 11) This see the stage for the True Vine that would come and bear fruit for God. What was needed was a new beginning by which the line of fallen humanity from Adam could be broken. A race in which the fallen nature would not be reproduced in the offspring. This new Man and His race would then bring glory to God. This is exactly what was accomplished when God Himself took on humanity in the person of Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, being conceived by the Holy Spirit, and thus the line from Adam had been broken. (Matt. 1:18-25) Jesus, the Second Man, or Last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45,47), was from heaven and was heavenly in character. He pleased God the Father in all that He did. (Matt. 3:17) Of all those who walked on the face of the earth since Adam, Jesus was the only One Who always pleased God. (John 17:4) When Jesus declared Himself to be the True Vine, He was stating that He was the one that would bring forth fruit unto God. He would bring glory to God here on earth. Like Israel, He too was taken out of Egypt, but unlike Israel He would accomplished the purpose for which He was sent. He glorified God on the earth (John 17:4), and those who abide in Him will likewise bring forth fruit to the glory of God.