Isaiah 5

It is one of the paradoxes of life that, while God takes total responsibility for dealing with the sin problem, He is in no way responsible for sin. It entered His universe through the free choice of Lucifer, one of His beloved creatures. He is not to blame for sin. It has infected His creation through no fault of His own.

In that sense, God is like a man who planted a vineyard:

“My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. ‘Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?” (vs 1-4)

Indeed, what more could have been done for this vineyard? The owner utilized fertile ground, tilled the soil, cleared the obstacles, used the best vines, protected it with a watchtower, and made sure it had state-of-the-art processing facilities. This vineyard had everything going for it. If any vineyard could have and should have produced fine fruit, it was this vineyard.

But the vineyard produced no fine fruit. In fact, the text says it produced bad, or wild, fruit. This doesn’t just mean that it was unfruitful—that would have been preferable by comparison. It means that the vineyard produced poisonous fruit. It wasn’t just an indifferent vineyard; it was toxic.

Obviously, a vineyard which had been cared for in such a way by its owner would produce huge crops of marvelous fruit. And that’s precisely the point! We are like a vineyard—in that our Owner has done every single thing He can to give us every possible advantage—yet we still have the option of rejecting all of it and going our own way. We have the option to yield bad fruit instead of good. Each of us is a vineyard, and God goes the extra mile in caring for us, but He stops short of forcing us to produce the results He wants.

Thus, the question of the owner regarding his vineyard definitely applies to God and His human vineyards: What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? This will be the question at the end of the age, and everyone will see that—in the life of each person—God has left no stone unturned in the quest for our salvation. We will realize how God has given us every opportunity and every advantage to bear good fruit.

I’m sure He will be incredibly sad about all those who choose to bear toxic fruit instead. I’m sure He will be incredibly sad that anyone would choose to reject the Owner who loves them so much. But it will be clear that God is not to blame for those who choose to go that route. Though He has always taken on the responsibility of dealing with our sin, He is not responsible for its existence. It is here against His will, but because of His great love for us, He has done, He is doing, and He will continue to do everything He can to redeem us from it.