"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone; but if it die, it brings forth much fruit. He that loves his life shall lose it; and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." (John 12:24-25) "That which you sow is not quickened, except it die; And that which you sow, you sow not the body that shall be, but a bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other kind; But God gives it a body, even as it pleased Him, and to each seed a body of its own." (1 Corinthians 15:36-38) "To Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He said not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to your Seed, which is Christ." (Galatians 3:16) "As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. ... And if you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3:27,29) "As He is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4:17) "He saved others; himself He cannot save." (Matthew 27:42) "Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; Who, being in the form of God, counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God, But emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of man; And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him the name which is above every name." (Philippians 2:5-9) "When He came into the world, He said, Sacrifice and offering You would not, but a body You have prepared me." (Hebrews 10:5) "We are members of His body." (Ephesians 5:30) "They that are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, you shall die; but if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live." (Romans 8:8-13) "For, verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord ... That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death." (Philippians 3:8,10) "For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection." (Romans 6:5) "For our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; Who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory according to the working whereby He is able even to subject all things unto himself." (Philippians 3:20-21)
All our knowledge comes from the Word. The statements that follow are not comments, but simply repetitions of what is set forth in the preceding texts. They are for the purpose of calling closer attention to the texts themselves. Let each reader ponder these texts until they are indelibly printed in his mind and on his heart. They should be as familiar to us as our own names. Then can we see not only the truths that follow, but much more that cannot be put into words.
The kingdom of God is like seed cast into the earth. (Mark 4:26-29) We are God's husbandry, or tillage. "You are God's husbandry [margin: "tilled land"], God's building." (1 Corinthians 3:9,RV)
The growth of a seed from the time that it is sown until the harvest, is a visible and constantly recurring manifestation of the truth of the Gospel as it affects men.
That which was placed in the earth in the beginning, to cause it to bring forth grass, herbs, and trees, was the Word of the Lord. The Lord, therefore, is the real seed, the life of all visible seeds. Christ is the Word, and He is the Seed. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone; but if it die, it brings forth much fruit." (John 12:24) "That which you sow is not quickened, except it die." (1 Corinthians:36)
If all men would remember one of the first and plainest truths concerning plant life, it would be their salvation. That truth is that the seed must die in order to live and multiply. No one ever gets back the seed which he sows, yet this fact does not cause the farmer to keep the seed, and not sow it. He who would keep the little quantity of grain that he may have, gets nothing from it; but if he casts it into the ground, seemingly throwing it away, he gets much more. "He that loves his life shall lose it; and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." (John 12:25)
So the man who lives for himself, loses his life, while he who lives for others, giving his life for them, gets more abundant life. Even Christ pleased not himself, (Romans 15:3) yet He has the most perfect satisfaction, and fullness of joy.
In coming to earth Christ "emptied himself." The word in Philippians 2:7, rendered "made of no reputation," and "emptied" in the Revision, is the same that is rendered "made void," in Romans 4:14 and 1 Corinthians 9:15, and "of none effect" in 1 Corinthians 1:17. Thus we can see that Christ not only gave up everything that He had in heaven, in coming to this world, but He most literally gave up himself. God prepared Him a body, and made Him a perfect Man. "He saved others; himself He cannot save." (Matthew 27:42)
This intended taunt flung in the face of Jesus as He hung on the cross, was really His glory as the Saviour of men. Only by giving himself, taking absolutely no thought for himself, could He save others. He gave up His life, not simply when He was on the cross on Calvary, but constantly. His whole life was in giving of His life for others.
But in giving away His life, throwing it away, as it must have seemed to many, when He chose death rather than being made king, He not only gained it, but saved the lives of millions more. "For, verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. ... That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death." (Philippians 3:8,10) "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds by Christ. And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation." (2 Corinthians 1:3-6)
Any man who is thoroughly devoted to the salvation of others, thinking not once of himself, not even of his own salvation, will be made salvation to others, and will thereby have his own salvation assured; for only the presence of God with a man can work this perfect unselfishness which saves others, and that presence is the man's own salvation. While we are looking out for others, God himself is looking out for us. "Wherefore when He came into the world, He said, Sacrifice and offering You would not, but a body You have prepared me." (Hebrews 10:5) God prepared Jesus a body, by the same power by which He prepares a body for every seed that is sown. And by the same power, He makes us members of Christ's body. Just as the Spirit of God completely filled Jesus, so that His body was only the instrument through which the Holy Spirit manifested himself, even so it will be with all who give up their own lives for the sake of the Lord Jesus. God will prepare them a body fit for His own dwelling place. "The body is ... for the Lord, and the Lord for the body." (1 Corinthians 6:13)
He will use the brain to think through, the vocal organs to speak through, and the hands and feet to act through. It will be God manifest in the flesh, for Jesus came to this world for no other purpose than to show us the possibility of this being the case with every man.
The life of the seed that is sown, as well as of the plant that grows, is the life of God alone. That life manifests itself through the form which we see, as a constant object lesson to us. If we are willingly as passive in the hands of God as the grain is involuntarily, His life will work in us the same as in Jesus of Nazareth.
This in "the power of the resurrection." (Philippians 3:10) The resurrection of Jesus simply declared Him to be the Son of God with power. (Romans 1:1-4) He was the Son of God all His life, but the resurrection from the dead made it apparent to all; for it showed that the power by which He had lived a righteous life was the power that brings life from the dead. The very same power was manifested in His resurrection that was manifested in all His life.
The belief in the resurrection of the dead is nothing else than the belief in God's perfect righteousness manifested in human flesh. Jesus was "put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." (1 Peter 3:18) "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. ... But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in you." (Romans 8:9,11)
This is a thing done not merely at the resurrection of the last day, but every day. For note what the consequence is of this quickening of our mortal bodies: "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh." (Romans 8:12)
Jesus said: "Whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." (John 4:14)
The water that He gives is the Holy Spirit. "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this He spoke of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive.)" (John 7:37-39) "It is the Spirit that quickens." (John 6:63)
When we come to the Lord, to receive wholly of His life, to live by Him, our bodies are prepared for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit quickens the body, so that instead of being dead in sin, it is alive unto righteousness. Our members then become instruments of righteousness. The life of Christ manifest in mortal flesh gives not simply victory over sin, but over disease as well: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits; Who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases." (Psalm 103:2-3)
It is this same life dwelling in us that, by the same power that it has over the flesh, quickens our mortal bodies into immortality at the coming of the Lord. The power that now works in believers is the power of the resurrection. Christ in us is the hope of glory. 59 "For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection." (Romans 6:5) "For our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; Who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory according to the working whereby He is able even to subject all things unto himself." (Philippians 3:20-21)
The life of Christ in the flesh is of course the perfect example of the quickening power of the Spirit. But God has provided that we may have it continually before us. Every seed that sprouts, of whatever kind, is an illustration of the power of the life of the Spirit to triumph over difficulties.
Here is a seed enclosed in a shell that is so hard that a vigorous blow with a hammer will not suffice to break it. The shell is hard and dead. Is it possible that any life can come from that? Wait and see. Silently, without observation, the Word of life within operates, the dead, hard shell gives way before it, and the new life manifests itself. Even so, "The kingdom of God is within you. ... [It] comes not with observation," (Luke 17:21,20) but its power is infinite. If we will but acknowledge that the kingdom is the Lord's, and allow Him His own rightful place in His own kingdom, we shall "be conformed to the image of His Son," (Romans 8:29) and, "Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man will be renewed day by day," (2 Corinthians 4:16) "in righteousness and true holiness." (Ephesians 4:24)--Present Truth, September 29, 1898.