Cut Flowers Are Dead
I'm always searching for new ways to express not only the Gospel itself but man's need for the Gospel of grace through Jesus Christ. I often contemplate in relation to myself and my own experience, and I realize that for a long time I didn't understand my need for the Gospel or its power to really transform my life. When I did get an inkling of both my need and its power, I received it by faith. Before that, as someone raised nominally Christian, I only gave my mental assent to key statements, that is, I decided to agree that Jesus died for my sins and rose again for my justification. This most important thing I did not understand: that He died not just to forgive my transgressions but to enable me to receive by faith His Spirit, who transforms the believer progressively into the image of Christ (2 Cor 3:18) and gives the power to preach the Gospel and walk in daily victory over sin. He died to break the bonds of sin around me (Rom 7:14), to set me, the captive, free (Isaiah 42:6-8)! He died to defeat my addictions. He died so that following His Resurrection and Ascension, I could receive His Living Spirit and come alive myself.
In other words, I did not realize that I was dead in sins and trespasses. I thought all my life I had been alive, and in fact I had been dead.
This is a point of crucial importance for people to understand, and it is often helpful for an evangelist to explain this. So we need a clear, accessible way to understand how a person who appears to be alive can in fact be the walking dead, in desperate need of being born again. The Lord gave me the image of a leaf fallen to the ground. It died the moment it became separate from the tree, yet it looks as alive as it ever was. Though it is dead, it will take several days to wither. This is like the natural man, who dies the moment sin is imputed to him. However, outwardly, nothing has changed! So the moment we reach the age of responsibility in GOD's eyes, we die spiritually and become slaves to sin. Sin, when full grown, gives birth to death (James 1:15). This is why we are fundamentally unable to stop sinning by any exertion of our own will, because this will is itself owned by sin!
"For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin." Romans 7:14
"Jesus replied, 'I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin." John 8:34
"Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" Romans 6:16
So we are in need of the Gospel for POWER!!! The power of Resurrection from spiritual death! By receiving JESUS CHRIST, through faith, we die to the Law that justly condemns us and are forgiven! Since a dead man is no longer under the Law, sin has no more strength in us (1 Cor 15:56). Then we are given a new, living spirit, such that we can and shall walk in newness of life. Since I died to my old man and sinful self, how can I continue to walk in its ways? Now I walk according to the Spirit of Life, Who is Christ in me (1 Cor 15:45)! Having this wondrous Life in me, I have the power to walk in daily victory over sin! This is the Gracious gift of GOD, received through faith, and actualized in the life of the believer.
This is the powerful reality of the true Christian life. Real change is evidenced, real Life is experienced through the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ. It is not about mental assent to any series of propositions, it is about Resurrection from the spiritual death in which all the unsaved are currently trapped, many of them not even knowing it. Their leaf is withering, and Jesus has told us so: "For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you." (1 Peter 1:24-25)
Come to Jesus and He will reconnect you to the Living Vine, Himself. You will live again, and as He Is Eternal Life, so too will you share His Life forever!!!!
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Romans 8:10
Read all of Romans 8!
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
5I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
6If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. John 15:4-6
In other words, I did not realize that I was dead in sins and trespasses. I thought all my life I had been alive, and in fact I had been dead.
This is a point of crucial importance for people to understand, and it is often helpful for an evangelist to explain this. So we need a clear, accessible way to understand how a person who appears to be alive can in fact be the walking dead, in desperate need of being born again. The Lord gave me the image of a leaf fallen to the ground. It died the moment it became separate from the tree, yet it looks as alive as it ever was. Though it is dead, it will take several days to wither. This is like the natural man, who dies the moment sin is imputed to him. However, outwardly, nothing has changed! So the moment we reach the age of responsibility in GOD's eyes, we die spiritually and become slaves to sin. Sin, when full grown, gives birth to death (James 1:15). This is why we are fundamentally unable to stop sinning by any exertion of our own will, because this will is itself owned by sin!
"For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin." Romans 7:14
"Jesus replied, 'I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin." John 8:34
"Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" Romans 6:16
So we are in need of the Gospel for POWER!!! The power of Resurrection from spiritual death! By receiving JESUS CHRIST, through faith, we die to the Law that justly condemns us and are forgiven! Since a dead man is no longer under the Law, sin has no more strength in us (1 Cor 15:56). Then we are given a new, living spirit, such that we can and shall walk in newness of life. Since I died to my old man and sinful self, how can I continue to walk in its ways? Now I walk according to the Spirit of Life, Who is Christ in me (1 Cor 15:45)! Having this wondrous Life in me, I have the power to walk in daily victory over sin! This is the Gracious gift of GOD, received through faith, and actualized in the life of the believer.
This is the powerful reality of the true Christian life. Real change is evidenced, real Life is experienced through the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ. It is not about mental assent to any series of propositions, it is about Resurrection from the spiritual death in which all the unsaved are currently trapped, many of them not even knowing it. Their leaf is withering, and Jesus has told us so: "For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you." (1 Peter 1:24-25)
Come to Jesus and He will reconnect you to the Living Vine, Himself. You will live again, and as He Is Eternal Life, so too will you share His Life forever!!!!
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Romans 8:10
Read all of Romans 8!
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
5I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
6If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. John 15:4-6
