WE continue now where we left off in the previous comment, Chapter 19—Position Defined and Illustrated. I’m going to forgo my introductory comments, and get right to this important lesson.
In the wondrous blessings of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa. 30:15 & Job 2:10
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The Principle of Reproduction
There is another wonderful principle involved here: like produces like. “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind” (Gen. 1:11, italics mine). Our Lord Jesus, as the Grain of Wheat having fallen into the ground in death, and having risen again unto life eternal, is still bringing forth the “much fruit,” “after his kind.” “For whom he [God] did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29). The Lord Jesus is our life; therefore, as we grow spiritually, the family likeness is manifested. We are gradually conformed to His image, who Himself is the “express image of his [God’s] person” (Heb. 1:3). And, “when he shall appear, we shall be [completely] like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).
In the natural realm, the first grain of wheat contained, complete and perfect, the life of every subsequent grain of wheat to this day. It did not abide alone, retaining all, but fell into the ground and died, finding resurrection in the “much fruit” of life out of death. This same principle applies in the spiritual realm. The position, the source of life, of every believer as a grain of wheat, is God’s firstborn Grain of Wheat, our Lord Jesus Christ. Each of us is “after his kind”; we have His life. Thus, when we speak of our position, we refer to our place in the risen Lord—our “life is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3).
The principle of position, therefore, both natural and spiritual, is that life in its fullness and completeness is resident in the source, and is transmitted through birth and growth. Resurrection life is explicitly after its kind; it is “conformed to the image” of its positional source. The Lord Jesus Christ as the Father’s Grain of Wheat took our place at Calvary, and His death and resurrection brought forth the “much fruit” of similar grains of wheat, believers predestined to be conformed to the image of God’s Son.
There is a stillness in the Christian’s life:
The grain of wheat must fall into the ground
And die, then, if it die out of that death
Life, fullest life, will blessedly abound.
It is a mystery no words can tell,
But known to those who in this stillness rest;
Something divinely incomprehensible:
That for my nothingness, I get God’s best!
—Selected
…to be continued
