Faith Knows It is a Seed Born to Die

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” – Jesus
John 12:24 ESV

Jesus spoke these words just days before He died and His body buried in the ground.
Upside-down words to a world turned upside-down by the lies of the enemy.
How can dying be fruitful? a remedy for loneliness?
It sounds like a way of… well… DEATH.

Warren W. Wiersbe said this about the teaching Jesus gave on the need for a seed to die to be fruitful:

Jesus used the image of a seed to illustrate the great spiritual truth that there can be no glory without suffering, no fruitful life without death, no victory without surrender. Of itself, a seed is weak and useless; but when it is planted, it “dies” and becomes fruitful. There is both beauty and bounty when a seed “dies” and fulfills its purpose. If a seed could talk, it would no doubt complain about being put into the cold, dark earth. But the only way it can achieve its goal is by being planted.

–The Wiersbe Bible Commentary, The Complete New Testament in One Volume

Maybe you have planted seeds in a garden. Dead looking lifeless seeds. But, when each one is buried in the dirt, watered, and warmed by the sun, something happens. It springs to life! The end result is “fruit.” Often in the form of more seeds. In Jesus’s example, wheat. When sunflower seeds are planted their fruit is more of the same – sunflower seeds. An apple seed grows a tree that eventually, if planted in a favorable environment, bears apples filled with seeds.

According to a fun fact guide published by the Kansas Farm Bureau: “There are 50 kernels in one head of wheat and up to 17,000 kernels in just 1 pound!” What is produced by one seed is always more than the seed itself. It is no longer alone.

But how does this relate to people? and faith?
The explanation is found when we look to Jesus: The Author and Perfecter of our faith.

Jesus. Son of Man. Son of God. emptied Himself of all His divinity.
Every aspect of His God-character left behind to enter His creation as one of His creatures. Spirit became flesh. Unbounded became bound by the laws of nature and time. Self-sustaining became dependent. Immortal became mortal.

The only difference between us and Him? He was without sin. His father wasn’t Adam, the one who corrupted all the generations of seed within himself at the time of his rebellion. Jesus’s Father was God. Who by the Holy Spirit implanted life in a virgin womb, effectively bypassing the sins of our fathers. With this unique Family lineage, Jesus enjoyed unhindered access to His Father in heaven. He came to show us the way we were created to live. In unbroken relationship with God our heavenly Father.

He came on a mission – to restore what we broke and redeem what we lost.
With His sinless life He paid the price for sin – death – making the way for all who would, to be set free.

Jesus is the Seed – The Word of God – that fulfills the Law.

We too are seeds – diseased seeds – from the line of Adam.
In and of ourselves we bear fruitless deeds of darkness culminating in death… not life…
Each of us destined to die.           

By faith we receive the fruit of Jesus’s seed.
Dying He was raised to life.
Believing we receive freedom from sin and death.
In Him we gain access to real life – life eternal.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
2Corinthians 5:17 NIV

In Christ, we become a new seed.
What was dead because of sin is brought to life by the redeeming power of Jesus’s blood.
In addition to receiving His death for our sins, we receive His resurrected life.
His Holy Spirit comes to live within us.

Wiersbe continues his teaching on this verse about the fruitfulness of death:

God’s children are like seeds. They are small and insignificant, but they have life in them, God’s life. However, that life can never be fulfilled unless we yield ourselves to God and permit Him to “plant us.” We must die to self so that we may live unto God (Rom. 6, Gal. 2:20). The only way to have a fruitful life is to follow Jesus Christ in death, burial, and resurrection.

–The Wiersbe Bible Commentary, The Complete New Testament in One Volume

As His followers, we have the choice to live as Christ, die to self, bury our personal preferences, and allow the Son to rise and shine in our lives. Empowered by the living water of the Holy Spirit we produce fruit for His Kingdom. Or we can refuse…

Choose life.
Die to self.
Faith knows it is a seed born to die.

“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.” –Jesus
Mark 8:35 NIV

Choosing death to find life,
Carol

Featured Image Photo by Vince Veras on Unsplash