Song 2:2: "Like a lily among the thorns is my darling among the maidens."
March 26, 2023
If we are truly a son/daughter of God, as we discussed in the last post, that means we are co-heirs with Christ. “And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him” (Rom 8:17). It means Christ lives in us. “To them [the saints] God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27). “For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21, NKJV). “Now it is God who establishes both us and you in Christ. He anointed us, 22placed His seal on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a pledge of what is to come” (2 Cor 1:21-22).
That means that each individual son and daughter of I AM is a miniature trophy of how God’s power and glory overcomes darkness and evil (the whole body of individuals put together is the larger and fuller trophy and demonstration of the glory of God, but that discussion is not the focus of this post). The constant battle within and without requires one of two directions, which reveal whether we are saved or heading to damnation: we finally cave to the sinful inclinations that we’re trying to hold back for any number of reasons (i.e., social pressure, pleasing to self, religious tradition, etc.) because we are so exhausted and decide to stop paddling against the current, or, we will overcome and be victorious until the very end because God’s power at work within us cannot fail. That is why Scripture says, “But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved” (Matt 24:13).
Proving and Sanctification
So the reason why God does not immediately do away with the sin nature (Mr. Flesh*) upon our conversion to Christ has to do with the proving of our faith. There is a two-sided perspective to this:
First, our battle against sin while striving to know God, reveals our hatred for sin and our love for God, which “confirms our calling and election” (2 Pet 1:10), thereby giving us confidence in Christ while glorifying God’s work within us.
Second, our battle against sin while striving to know God, refines us. This is a process of time the Holy Spirit uses to slowly purge out of us the tendencies of the sinful nature–in many respects driven by pride–and to confirm in us the truth of our salvation: that we are adopted children of God and therefore no longer our own but vessels of the divine nature.
The Lord has used a sickly plant in my house to help me understand this concept. Last year, I had brought the same type of plant into my house from my outdoor garden, and it had begun to get sickly. However, it was still flowering, but it was infested with aphids and was clearly compromised. I was led to completely prune it down low, removing all the leaves. Doing this fully removed the aphids, but the plant died because there were no leaves with which it could absorb the light and produce food. This year, I have been led to very slowly prune the plant while at the same time fighting the aphids with an organic pesticide (though I used this sparingly, because the plant didn’t seem to take well to it). As one branch died, I pruned it. I recently tied up its spindly stalks so that the leaves it did have would reach the light well. There were new sprouts coming out of the lower parts of those stalks, and I had hopes that I could preserve the plant. It looked very sad, worn, and weak, but had lived all winter. However, shortly after beginning this blog post, I sprayed the plant again with the pesticide and gave it plant food, as I was feeling a strong urge not to neglect the plant food. However, it fully died within a day, completely falling over, wilted. I was heartbroken after all my efforts and couldn’t understand it. Upon having a conversation with my mom, I realized that the dish soap in my pesticide mixture was harming it, and its already weak condition couldn’t handle the recent application. Furthermore, the plant food probably aggravated it further because it was so weak, for I should have fed it very sparingly; instead, I was generous. This makes me think of the following Scripture in Exodus 6:6-9: “Therefore tell the Israelites: ‘I am YHVH [the Existing One], and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians and deliver you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. 7I will take you as My own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am YHVH [the Existing One] your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. 8And I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am YHVH [the Existing One]!’ ”
9”Moses relayed this message to the Israelites, but on account of their broken spirit and cruel bondage, they did not listen to him.”
The Lord had to gently show the truth of His words to His people to help them break free from their depression, and so He does with us!
As with my plant, the Lord slowly prunes us, only far more masterfully than I did with my plant. He is working in us to sprout the fruit of righteousness that is the result of the Spirit of God moving within us. If He prunes us back too quickly, we will go into a shock and be unable to absorb the training God has for us. We will die. The master Gardner slowly works in us so that He does not lose the identity He has made us to be while yet slowly springing into fruit within us the identity of God to whom we are attached. “I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). He will facilitate that growth and vitality in us by feeding us “plant food,” which is the Word of truth, but He will do so slowly or we will die of the shock of overexposure, resulting in confusion and frustration. As He slowly opens our eyes and ears to see and understand what His Word means, the way He intended it to mean, we gain spiritual nutrition and confidence on the foundation of truth. Furthermore, He knows the perfect means to purge from us the parasitic sins of our nature without harming us, unlike my pesticide, which was an amateur recipe.
Growing in Christ, therefore, means purging of sin and increase in the fruit of righteousness. “Still other seed fell on good soil and produced a crop—a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold” (Matt 13:8). Scripture is clear what fruit means: “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; 20idolatry and sorcery; hatred, discord, jealousy, and rage; rivalries, divisions, factions, 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us walk in step with the Spirit” (Gal 5:19-25).
*See the last post in which I impersonated the sinful nature by calling it “Mr. Flesh.”
Discerning Look-Alikes
There are lots of plants in the church that look like good wheat in Jesus’ field (Matt 13:24-30). Only progression of life and/or depth of relationship with them may reveal their true nature, though God never fully draws that out for some in this lifetime. It can stay hidden until death and judgment in which people live in a place of moralism without true conversion of heart, and that is a terrible place to be. Many who are new believers in Christ, whether by true conversion of the Spirit of God or by fake intentions, are similarly bent–they both have a lot of maturing to do in righteousness and understanding of the ways of God, though they both seem to possess genuine excitement for Christ and the gospel. However, as the true wheat matures, their death to self (the flesh) and love for Jesus becomes more and more evident, while those who are tares (fakes), find it harder and harder to keep up in pretense. Their heart passions anchored to the flesh will likely seep out because they cannot hide who they truly are. Consider Jesus’ parable:
Luke 8:5-15: “‘A farmer went out to sow his seed. And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, where it was trampled, and the birds of the air devoured it.
6Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the seedlings withered because they had no moisture.
7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the seedlings.
8Still other seed fell on good soil, where it sprang up and produced a crop—a hundredfold.’
As Jesus said this, He called out, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear.’
9Then His disciples asked Him what this parable meant.
10He replied, ‘The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,
“though seeing, they may not see;
though hearing, they may not understand.”
11Now this is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12The seeds along the path are those who hear, but the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.
13The seeds on rocky ground are those who hear the word and receive it with joy, but they have no root. They believe for a season, but in the time of testing, they fall away.
14The seeds that fell among the thorns are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the worries, riches, and pleasures of this life, and their fruit does not mature.
15But the seeds on good soil are those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, cling to it, and by persevering produce a crop.’”
This is why Scripture explains to us how we can discern between look-alikes in the church (the true sons versus the wolves in sheep’s clothing), though this is not a cut-and dry test when looking at others because of the remaining sin in all of our natures. It should, however, give us reason to fear God revealing to us at the judgment that we were fake Christians! This is motivation to continually self-examine and beg God to show us our true heart while we are yet able to repent!
Eph 5:3: “But among you, as is proper among the saints, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed.”
Luke 6:43-45: “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44For each tree is known by its own fruit. Indeed, figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor grapes from brambles. 45The good man brings good things out of the good treasure of his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil treasure of his heart. For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.”
Self-Inspection
I want to make clear that the primary purpose of fruit inspection is self-inspection. “How can you say, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while you yourself fail to see the beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Luke 6:42). As the Lord shows us, who are converted by the Spirit of Christ, just how putrid our self-deceiving hearts truly are apart from God’s transformational grace, we become more and more uncertain about our own judgements of not only ourselves but others. This drives us to more and more mourning over anything in ourselves that would grieve the Spirit of God (Eph 4:30) and to more and more prayer for God’s wisdom to permeate our discernment. What is wrong with the world begins in me. And if every “me” realized that we are the worst liars to our own selves, we would begin our war within ourselves between us and God, asking God to put His finger on what is wrong with me. If God has done that with you in any kind of real and transformational way, you will understand that it is no picnic, that it is an earthquake of such magnitude to your upside-down idea of reality, that you would have no ability to look through a scope straight enough to shoot outward. However, being gutted now of the lies of sin is the only way to live later.
2 Thess 2:10b-12: “...they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them. 11For this reason God will send them a powerful delusion so that they believe the lie, 12in order that judgment may come upon all who have disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness.”
What To Do With Others
Beyond self-inspection, however, we cannot also ignore the grief that we feel in our spirits when we naturally see coming out of others who we thought to be brethren in Christ, fruit that does not appear to be holy. What do we do with that? I propose that it is here, at this application, that the church has fractured, and I plan to delve into this in our next post.
*I am using the BSB (Berean Study Bible) translation unless otherwise noted.
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