08. Death Is The Price Paid For Spiritual Life

8 -- DEATH IS THE PRICE PAID FOR SPIRITUAL LIFE

Someone has well stated that "Christ alone can save the world, but Christ cannot save the world alone." The salvation of the lost requires both the divine and the human element. There is something that only God can do, and there is something that only man can do. The divine and the human elements must work together if the work of reaching the lost is to be accomplished.

One of the outstanding examples of the divine and human working together is seen in the crucifixion required of both Christ and Christ’s followers. Just prior to His own crucifixion, Jesus made a very important statement to those who crowded about Him. Jerusalem was filled with visitors who had come primarily for the keeping of the passover, but also to see the man named Lazarus who had been raised from the dead. Among the many travelers were Greeks who had requested that they might see Jesus. Doubtless, their request voices the desire of many yet today who have the same desire to see Jesus. Christ’s reply on this occasion seems a little strange at first for He speaks about wheat and the harvest that is produced by its planting. In John 12:24, Jesus says to them, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." What did wheat have to do with the question of dying and bearing fruit? I believe Jesus was conveying to them that an uncrucified Christ could mean nothing to men everywhere or anywhere. They must not see Jesus only in the form of fallen humanity, but in the light of the death to be accomplished on Calvary. The life of Christ would become most meaningful after His death by crucifixion. Jesus Christ must die, and they would see His redemptive work only through that death. In one sense, Jesus is saying that His own life would bear no lasting fruit until it passed through the agonies of the crucifixion. Yes, there had to be a crucifixion in Christ’s case, and there must be a crucifixion in our case if we are to become fruitful in reaching a lost world with the Gospel. This is a part of our problem today: We do not bear much fruit simply because we are unwilling to die. I believe the purpose Christ had in mind when He stated that we should take up our cross was our dying upon that cross; it was His way of telling us that we are to die to all our own desires, our own plans and ambitions.

Jesus uses wheat which is the staff of life as His way of illustrating His meaning. I think of how one kernel was planted and when it was fully developed, it came up with several distinct stocks. These stocks were planted again and after two years, the harvest revealed over thirty-two thousand grains of wheat. The wheat had become abundant in its fruitfulness because of passing through the process of death. It has been stated that the wheat does not really die, but in what seems to be death, it begins to live on a different level. Certainly this is true also in the lives of those who die out to their own plans and ambitions. We begin to live a new life on a far different level than we lived the old. In the process of the wheat being planted, there are a number of changes that take place and some of these changes are typical of what takes place in the heart and life of the child of God. Some of these things are duplicated in the lives of those who die to themselves or who are crucified with Christ. The text that I have quoted applies equally to Christ’s crucifixion and our crucifixion. We must die if our lives are to become fruitful and useful in the work of His kingdom.

Someone may say, "Brother Glenn, I would like to be more effective for Christ." Well, my answer to you would be, "Have you been to the cross, is your life crucified with Christ?" I believe we could paraphrase Christ’s words without doing any violence to the scriptures. We could read it this way and make it more personal, "Except an individual is willing to die to his own desires and ambitions, he remains unfruitful, but if he is willing to die to them all, he bringeth forth much fruit."

I would like to notice with you some similarities between the death of the wheat and the crucifixion of the individual. First of all, the hard grain must go through a softening process as it enters into its death. Certainly this would be a qualification of those who would be useful in the service of Jesus Christ. We must be softened. Our lives must be tender and our eyes filled with compassion. There are few with dry eyes who ever bear much fruit. O! How we need a tenderness of spirit; how we need God to fill our hearts with His presence until we will be softened, and tendered, and broken. I have gone through experiences in my own life that have brought about this process of brokenness. Things have happened that have helped me to see more clearly the tremendous need of a lost and perishing world. The needs have so possessed my soul until I have gone out many times when I should have remained in bed. I have gone out to fulfill commitments that I would have had good reason to cancel; I have traveled to the mission fields and other areas when I was in no condition to travel. Someone may ask just why did you do it, Brother Glenn? Well, I can give you no answer except that the need of others was so heavily impressed upon my consciousness. God’s softening process was at work in my own heart and life. O! We need to be softened and broken if we are to spend our strength for the salvation of others.

Again I would point out that the dying wheat must be enlarged in its death. It is enlarged in death beyond what it was in life. We are narrow by nature and God calls upon us to reach out beyond our narrowness. In Isaiah 54:2, we are called upon to, "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes." Isaiah 54:3 tells us, "For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make desolate cities to be inhabited." We are to reach out beyond our limited vision and go beyond the four walls of our immediate area. We are to build a canopy that will embrace the entire world population; we are to erect a tent large enough to include all of a lost and perishing world. This thought leads us directly into the next characteristic of the seed. It must burst open and break forth out of its limitations. It must mingle with the earth in order to produce its finished product. We must be more than a spiritual sponge soaking up truth and keeping it to ourselves. We must burst forth and mingle our message with the world about us; we must give out and we must break out of the boundaries we have placed about ourselves. The final process of the seed is its own death. It dies and we die also. We have several graves on the mission fields of those who actually paid the price of physical death. Yet from those deaths much fruit has come forth. A missionary in India desired to burn out for the Lord and within three years he had done just that. He burned out in three short years, yet the light of that flame still burns today.

Years ago one of my brothers died on the mission field and people passing the funeral site heard my parents singing as they buried my brother. One man walked several miles to ask my father how he could sing when he was burying his own offspring. This inquiry gave my father opportunity to tell the person about the Christ who could comfort the heart in times of tremendous sorrow. Yes, they died that the Gospel might be carried to those in other lands; they gave themselves just as fully as it was possible to give in order that the light might shine in the darkness of heathen night.

I wonder just how complete our dedication is? I wonder if you have made such total commitment of yourself to the cause of reaching the lost with the Gospel? My prayer is that God will help each individual to see that the price of self-crucifixion must be paid if their lives are to be effective in reaching others. I believe it is only as we die to ourselves and our personal ambitions that we will be the fruitful vessels that Jesus died for us that we might be.

Even as I write to you today, the needs on the mission fields are staggering and cannot be met in our present situation. There are tremendous needs that can only be met as your own heart is challenged to help do something about them. I believe there is no need that cannot be met if God can get through to our hearts concerning our responsibility. We can advance the work, and we can expand our efforts as others join us in spreading the Gospel of Christ. Will you stand with us in these tremendous efforts? Will you join us in prayer that the redemptive work of Jesus Christ might be made known to the multitudes yet living in the darkness of heathen night?

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