God is able to reveal spiritual truth to us even when we aren't looking for it. Yesterday provided a perfect example. After being away in Israel, in my front and back yards there was a fair amount of yard work to do. So instead of changing out of my baseball uniform after my game on Saturday, I cut grass, trimmed shrubs, and cleaned the guttering. I also tasked my sons to do some mowing, trimming, and raking. One of the rose bushes provided me an illustration I didn't know I needed!
Before we moved into the house, a previous tenant planted four rose bushes. One of these bushes yields pink flowers, but a couple of big suckers had sprouted from below the graft, yielding red flowers I did not recognise. They did not have the beauty or fragrance of roses. I am not an avid gardener by any means, but I have been told roses are often grafted into a hearty rootstock. This enables the plant to better survive harsh conditions. The suckers from the rootstock yielded many flowers, but the portion over the graft only yielded two. Cutting away the growth from below the graft will no doubt promote the health and flowering of the desired roses.
Jesus said to His followers, "I am the Vine, and you are the branches." Spiritually speaking, all who repent and trust in Christ are grafted in to Him, and the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us. Christians are given a new nature which is like Christ's, and for the first time the good fruit of the Holy Spirit is yielded from our lives - like those fragrant pink rose blooms. But though we have been transformed inside, we still live in a body of flesh. As long as our bodies remain in our fallen state, we are like a grafted rose bush which has that hearty rootstock always warring against our new nature. If the rootstock is permitted it will rob all the nutrients from the good plant above.
Paul recognised the tension between the flesh and new nature given by Jesus Christ. Romans 7:18-25 reads, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin."
When we recognise the fruit of the old man in our lives - the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life springing up from below the graft, repentance cuts off those suckers which war against the soul. Jesus has delivered us from this body of death, and even whilst we are alive and remain we can produce fragrant blooms above the graft God finds beautiful. This fragrance is lovely not only to God, but to those who will receive the Gospel and be saved. As it is written in 2 Corinthians 2:14-16, "Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. 15 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things?" Our call is to examine our hearts and lives and cut from us all which grows under the graft through repentance and allow Christ to expertly prune us so we might be more fruitful still.
The Christian life has assurances and absolutes, yet there are aspects of continual, ongoing maintenance as we embrace the process of being sanctified into the image of Christ. The object is not to be more focused on self and our faults, but to fix our eyes upon Jesus as we seek and obey Him. In this manner we can easily discern the red from the pink blooms above the graft, and praise God we can bear fruit which is according to His holy nature.
Before we moved into the house, a previous tenant planted four rose bushes. One of these bushes yields pink flowers, but a couple of big suckers had sprouted from below the graft, yielding red flowers I did not recognise. They did not have the beauty or fragrance of roses. I am not an avid gardener by any means, but I have been told roses are often grafted into a hearty rootstock. This enables the plant to better survive harsh conditions. The suckers from the rootstock yielded many flowers, but the portion over the graft only yielded two. Cutting away the growth from below the graft will no doubt promote the health and flowering of the desired roses.
Jesus said to His followers, "I am the Vine, and you are the branches." Spiritually speaking, all who repent and trust in Christ are grafted in to Him, and the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us. Christians are given a new nature which is like Christ's, and for the first time the good fruit of the Holy Spirit is yielded from our lives - like those fragrant pink rose blooms. But though we have been transformed inside, we still live in a body of flesh. As long as our bodies remain in our fallen state, we are like a grafted rose bush which has that hearty rootstock always warring against our new nature. If the rootstock is permitted it will rob all the nutrients from the good plant above.
Paul recognised the tension between the flesh and new nature given by Jesus Christ. Romans 7:18-25 reads, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin."
When we recognise the fruit of the old man in our lives - the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life springing up from below the graft, repentance cuts off those suckers which war against the soul. Jesus has delivered us from this body of death, and even whilst we are alive and remain we can produce fragrant blooms above the graft God finds beautiful. This fragrance is lovely not only to God, but to those who will receive the Gospel and be saved. As it is written in 2 Corinthians 2:14-16, "Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. 15 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things?" Our call is to examine our hearts and lives and cut from us all which grows under the graft through repentance and allow Christ to expertly prune us so we might be more fruitful still.
The Christian life has assurances and absolutes, yet there are aspects of continual, ongoing maintenance as we embrace the process of being sanctified into the image of Christ. The object is not to be more focused on self and our faults, but to fix our eyes upon Jesus as we seek and obey Him. In this manner we can easily discern the red from the pink blooms above the graft, and praise God we can bear fruit which is according to His holy nature.
No comments:
Post a Comment
To uphold the integrity of this site, no comments with links for advertising will be posted. No ads here! :)