Based on how our food is labeled and packaged, where it comes from matters to us. Some people care more than others if their food is organic. Others want to know if it’s locally grown. Is it genetically modified? Farm grown? When someone drops by with home-grown fruit or veggies, you know it’s going to taste just a little bit better. When we’re talking about meat, plant-based or lab-grown options will continue to be a part of the discussion. We pay attention to how things are grown.
Planted by the Word.
Christians are grown, too. But there aren’t a variety of options when it comes to how Christians are grown; there is just one. Christians are Word grown. Every single one of us came to faith in Jesus Christ in one way and in one way only: through the Word.
That Word may have come in the form of a promise attached to the washing of water in baptism. That Word may have worked in us as little ones who learned Bible stories that pointed us to our Savior, Jesus. That Word may have worked repentance, forgiveness, and the joy of salvation in us as adults whose skepticisms and doubts were put to rest through Bible study or one-on-one discussions of biblical truths with a Christian. However our faith was worked in us, in each an every case, it was always worked through the Word of God. It’s how you became a Christian.
If you have faith, then, it was worked by the Word. But, why doesn’t the Word always work? Why doesn’t it always bring people to faith every time it is heard, read, or studied? We could offer any number of pretty rational or logical reasons, but at some point, there comes a time and place when we simply have to acknowledge our limitations.
Isaiah reflected on those limitations when describing God in verses 8-9. “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” God is God and we are not.
While we may think it unfair or resent God for not revealing everything to us, is it prudent or realistic to presume that we should be on the same level as God? If we suppose so, is that because we are guilty of thinking so highly of ourselves or so little of God? Does he owe us an explanation or understanding of why and how he operates?
Nevertheless, just because our thoughts and ways are not on par with God’s, that doesn’t mean God has completely left us guessing as to what his thoughts and ways are. We simply rest easy in knowing the basics – that God “wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). This truth keeps us from spending our time distracted by what we don’t know so that we can focus on what we do know: God wants all people to be saved, and the only way he saves is through the Word.
There is another explanation as to why the Word may at times appear to us to be ineffective. Sometimes, it’s because we’re not actually sowing the seed of the Word, but rather talking about it. Do you know the difference?
If it appears that my unbelieving friend’s life is coming unraveled and I point out to him that he needs Jesus in his life, have I sowed the seed of the Word? Well, not entirely. I may have taken the first step toward doing so, but at that point alone the Word has not been sown. I have made reference to a name in that Word, but the Word itself has not been sown.
Or consider your bumper sticker that says “Jesus saves.” It is true, yes. But it is incomplete and not clear enough to the point. The person reading your bumper sticker may conclude that you are a Christian, knowing enough to equate Jesus with Christianity. However, the sticker reveals nothing about who Jesus is, how he saves, who he saves, or why it matters that Jesus saves. The seed hasn’t fully been sown.
This point is not so much a criticism as a much-needed clarification. This friends, is where we can make a difference. We can be more intentional about sowing the seed rather than just talking about it. In other words, we can – and we must – make certain we are clearly communicating law (which exposes our sin) and gospel (the good news of our Savior).
A gardener can go to great lengths to till the soil and prepare it for the seed. However, once the soil has been made ready, the seed still has to be planted. If all the gardener does is tell others what great soil she has and speaks of the superior quality of seeds she has, nothing will grow. The seed must be planted. It must be sown.
In the same way, if all the gardener does after the soil has been made ready is assure others that he has plenty of good seed to plant in his fields, this, too will yield no harvest. Whether the gardener speaks of the praise of the soil or the praise of his superior seed, one thing has been left undone: the seed has not been planted in the soil. It must be sown.
Where is this seed sown? Sure, it is sown in churches, Bible classes, or classrooms by called pastors and teachers. Praise God for that sowing! But how many fields lie fallow if only pastors and teachers sow the Word in those places?
God’s vision included a far greater harvest than just those fields! He knows his Word works wherever it is sown by whomever sows it – including you. And you are qualified to do it.
You have unique relationships with non-believers. There is your soil. You also have the message of the gospel, the good news that Jesus died to save sinners. There is your seed. Sow it. Go confidently beyond the step of simply talking about the seed and sow the seed. Start with highlighting the blessings Jesus fills your own life with, and point them to how he can do the same in theirs. Plant the Word. It’s the only way others will ever come to faith.
Produce through the Word.
And do so with the confidence that it will work. Crops need rain. Some states right now are in a drought. Other states are flooding. What determines this? Rain. With all of our advancements and the amazing technologies that exist, it is such a striking reminder that we have zero control over the one thing essential to crop growth: rain. Without it, crops die. Crops need rain.
Christians need the Word. Without it, Christians die. The seed planted may sprout and grow, but if not watered by the Word, it will die. That same Word that was planted in you to bring you to faith is the thing that produces a harvest in your life and in Christ’s kingdom. The Lord promises you it will work.
Isaiah described it like this: “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (v.10-11).
We sometimes make the mistake of presuming that our knowledge of the Word is adequate, that once we know it, it has done its work by providing us with the information we need to apply it to our lives. Well then, why do you continue to sin if you already know the information in the Word? You know you shouldn’t lie or steal. You know you shouldn’t get drunk. You know sex is reserved for husbands and wives alone. You know your bitterness and anger are unjustified. You know all of these things from the Word… yet you still do them. If the Word’s method of working was merely to provide information to set you on the track of holiness, I think we’d have to conclude that the Word is pretty ineffective.
But the problem is not that the Word is ineffective. Rather, the problem is that we fail to take God’s promise to heart and keep putting the Word to work. It doesn’t just work informationally – by giving us a list of do’s and dont’s; it works supernaturally, by continually crushing the sinner in us and awakening the saint.
The law keeps accusing and killing us while the gospel restores and renews us. The Spirit works supernaturally through the Word as we marvel at the reality of being baptized children of God. As we take and eat the food of forgiveness in Holy Communion. As we hear and believe the faith-fueling forgiveness announced again and again through the Word. This is not mere information; this is a supernatural transformation that the Spirit produces through the Word. In each and all of these ways the Word works in our hearts to reveal to us the endless ocean of forgiveness that completely engulfs all of our sin.
Understand then, why Isaiah gives us this encouragement: “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon” (v.6-7). Free pardon. Mercy. These are the gifts of God earned for us through Christ and delivered to us through the Word. How could we forsake this Word, this pardon, this mercy?
Quite the opposite! Let us return to it again and again, so that this endless mercy and free pardon work in us to produce an abundant harvest in Christ’s kingdom – both in our personal lives and in the lives of others.
Do you believe it will actually work in your own life? I suppose you could keep stumbling in the same sin over and over for the rest of your life and keep justifying it to others by explaining that’s just the way you are. Or, you could allow the Word to do what it does and work supernaturally on your heart so that you experience more victories in this or that area of life, and yes, even overcome certain inclinations or temptations. That same Word builds up your faith to lean more on God on less on excusing your inadequacies and shortcomings.
Do you believe it will actually work in the lives of others? Rather than being so surprised when the Word works in the lives of others, what if we were instead more surprised when it didn’t? In other words, if we’re going to make a mistake – as if this could ever be considered a mistake – what if we over-sowed the seed? What if we assumed it would work in the lives of others who so desperately needed it that we always sowed it rather than presuming others have already heard it or would probably just reject it? The more you sow it, the more it works, and the greater the harvest.
Christian, are you budding and flourishing in your life? You can be. Test God in this and see if these words of Isaiah are actually true. See if the planted Word produces – in your life and in the lives of others. Let us embrace this central defining characteristic of what it means to be a Christian: that the Word permeates our lives and that the Holy Spirit uses it to produce and flourish in and through us.