Reaping What We Sow
by Larry White Feb. 21, 1990
Man has a dual nature – we are born physically in a race procured from Adam the first man and we also have a spiritual nature, which is the thing about us that holds the image of God. God is a spirit – so are we.
But because of sin, man is spiritually dead and his spirit has been corrupted away from God’s image.
We, who are Christians, have cried out to God for mercy and grace to have our image restored, and in Jesus Christ, God’s son, he has forgiven us and given us a new birth. This birth is the restoration of life to our spirits; the restoration of the image of the one who created us. We are born again of the spirit.
We Christians now have a responsibility to promote our spiritual lives and grow to maturity.
In Galatians 6:8 Paul says that, “he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting.”
A farmer’s field is very important to him. That is where his capital is tied up. That is where he has put all his toil and labor and sweat. That is where his hopes of a prosperous future depend. That is where his activity and livelihood are. To a certain extent that field represents his life.
Christians have two fields:
One is our flesh – our human lives and all the self-gratifying interests that go with an earthly life lived only as Adam, our “lower nature.”
The other is the spirit – Our lives lived from the type of the second Adam, Jesus Christ. It is our divine nature that we have received through the spirit and all the eternal interests that go with our “higher nature.”
Which field are you in? Where do you cast your seed, and labor over it for a harvest? Where do you put all your time and sweat? Where do all your hopes and expectations for the future lie? What is more important; your life in Adam, or your life in Christ?
If it is the “here and now” of your human life – then the crop you will reap is eternal corruption and decay, to never be able to see the face of God.
If it is the spirit – then the crop you will reap is everlasting life, and a place with God in eternity.
Let’s all be busy about the things of our Father and in due time we will reap if we do not faint and give up.
1Jno.2:15-17
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust of it: but he that does the will of God remains for ever.”LW