PAYING THE PRICE

PAYING THE PRICE

                In His parable of the sower in Luke 8, Jesus explained that the seed is the Word of God and that we are the soil. In more personal terms I can pick up my Bible and say to myself.” I am soil and this book is the seed. If I want a good crop to grow in my life then I must plant good seed in me.” And the crop that I receive will be commensurate to the amount of seed that I plant.

                 Seed may look like any old pebble or other tiny object we may see on the ground, but in fact a seed is profoundly different. If you put a pebble in the ground it will remain a pebble, but if you put a seed in the ground, somehow something within that seed will stir and wake up and respond to the soil and water and sunlight. It will burst open and put forth a shoot that will seek out the warmth of the sun and in so seeking it will grow into something thousands or even millions of times bigger than the tiny thing that went into the ground. Heb. 4:12

                It is that hunger for the sun that keeps us going back to the Word, and folded up inside that seed is the very Spirit and person of Jesus Christ.

                Jesus said to the Pharisees, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me.” John 5:39

                There is many a scholar that has put the Word under a microscope and studied it from every angle, listing its facts, questioning its authority, its historical accuracy, its prophetic significance and its grammatical structure. Higher critics have gone after the Word starting with the premise that there are no such things as miracles. They will claim that the account of Jesus’ many miracles were added to spice up the story. But for them, the seed remains a pebble. It is dealt with intellectually, but it is never planted in their hearts. The life that is in the seed remains lifeless for seed only comes to life in warm wet soil.

                There is a price to be paid for bringing forth a harvest of righteousness and salvation in our lives. Yes, salvation is free and the Word is freely given and the blood of Jesus is only a prayer away, but unless a seed goes into the ground and dies it cannot bear fruit.

                Today many Christians want only that which they can pick up at the checkout window. They want it fast and simple and free of effort. So in their search for an effortless brand of Christianity, they strip everything away that would resemble our giving, or sacrificing, or dying to self.

                Nicodemus had an intellectual relationship with his religion. He knew every nuance of the truth and so he came to Jesus thinking to parlay with Him as equals, but Jesus cut right to the chase. He totally ignored all of the intellectually dead seed and said “Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3. Then He explained that unless a person is born of the water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. John 3:5.

                Many years ago I attended an intellectual forum where I had been invited to put on the music. In this forum each one was striving to sound more intellectual than the last and I was shocked and dismayed to find only death… seeds in the laboratory, but never planted in the heart. I went away disillusioned and sad.

                Again in John 12:24 Jesus said, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains by itself alone; but if it dies it bears much fruit.”

                Whenever Jesus began a sentence with “Truly, truly, or verily, verily” He was speaking emphatically. He was driving a stake of truth into the ground. It was non-negotiable and eternal. Eternal life is born out of death… and unless we are willing to die, that eternal life cannot be born in us.

                There is no such thing as Christianity apart from death and rebirth. In order for the seed to bring forth life it must die. This Jesus first did for us by dying and rising again, but in turn, we must enter by faith into His death. Our life as a tiny brown seed must come to an end. We must go into the ground. We must die to all that we were before. Then a new life must come forth from within us that is born of the Water and the Spirit.

                It is this new birth that the world hates. It despises and denies the life that is in the seed. For them there are no such things as miracles. The seed is merely an intellectual idea. It has been looked at under the microscope and sure enough, there was no life to be found. They turn from their microscopes with smug self-satisfaction having proved their own point. The Word is dead… God is dead.

                But for the one who has taken the seed into his heart and watered it and warmed it with the Holy Spirit, he has discovered a marvelous and infinitely wonderful life. It has begun to unfold within him… and having died to the self that once was, he now begins to live by the Spirit and the water and the blood as eternal life springs forth in him.

                There is a fundamental price to be paid for our salvation. IT IS OUR DEATH FOR HIS LIFE. Galatians 2:20 is a pivotal text even as is John 3:3.  It stands as the great barrier between the true church and the false church, the wheat and the tares.

                On this point Jesus ignored completely any intellectual discourse, or discussion on the matter. It wasn’t Nicodemus’s doctrine, or his tradition, or his intellectual prowess, or his position in the righteous community that would save him. Only His death and rebirth would do.

                Likewise it is today, that apart from our doctrines, our prophetic interpretations and our discussion of the issues… none of it adds up to eternal life, but our death and rebirth. We must die so that He can life His life in and through us.

                As long as we continue to skip that one thing, we will always feel like outsiders looking in through a window. The Christian life will be a continual struggle, because the flesh is still alive and our flesh is at war with the Spirit.

                If we want to be sons and daughters of God, we must first die… for it is those who are led by the spirit of God that are sons of God. Death to the flesh is the beginning of true freedom.

                At one time every one of us was a tiny little sperm seed. We had to lose our own identity and be buried in the egg in order to bring forth life. This life gave us entrance into the physical world of fallen man… sons and daughters of the first Adam.

                Now we must once again give up our identity as sons and daughters of the first Adam. We must enter by faith into the death and resurrection of Jesus so that we may become sons and daughters of the new Adam. We must be born again into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

                In this there are no shortcuts. No amount of doctrine or tradition or interpretation of Scripture or Law keeping will by any means save us. The only entrance into the kingdom of our Lord is through His death and resurrection…and our subsequent death and resurrection in Him.

                If we are still living by the flesh… if we are still limited by the weakness of the flesh… if we are still plagued by the lusts of the flesh… then we have not really died yet have we? While I, of myself can do nothing, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. Phil. 4:13

                The things that Jesus says to us, need to become more than sayings. They are very life, for Jesus said, “Abide in Me and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.” John 15:4, 5

                Have you ever seen an apple tree sweat? Me neither. And as long as its branches are connected to the trunk, it continues to produce fruit season after season. Just so, our lives can be fruitful. An apple branch has no identity apart from the tree. Once the branch is cut off, it not only ceases to bear fruit, but the leaves dry up and fall off, the fruit rots and turns back to soil and the wood itself dries up and becomes brittle to the point where it no longer bears any resemblance to the tree from which it was cut.

                Today we need to look at our own lives. Are our lives fruitful? Are we alive with the Spirit of Christ? Have we indeed died to the old flesh in order to live by the Spirit? Are we still struggling with the flesh or are we living an abundant life by the Spirit.

                God has been flashing His warnings in the sky and on the earth for going on 6 years now, telling us that it is time to rightly assess our lives and to make sure that what we have is the real thing. He is not telling us to work harder. He is telling us to die, so that His life can spring forth in us. We will be known by our fruit and our fruit is not of the flesh but of the Spirit. Gal. 5:22.

                There is a war going on in us between the flesh and the Spirit. And as the tabernacle of Moses shows us, our soul (corresponding to the Holy Place) is in the middle between flesh and spirit. We must choose which one will dominate our lives. And if we live by the Spirit we will not carry out the deeds of the flesh. But in all of this we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 8:37