“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” (John 12:24)
The greatest hindrance to our spiritual growth and effectiveness in the world is how thoroughly determined we are to making the old covenant work, and how unaware we are of this insistence. It is my firm belief, because I am among them, that the pews of Christendom are filled with old covenant Christians trying really hard to get from God all the things they already have been guaranteed by His grace, but are not experiencing because of an unwillingness to die.
Proof of this is how shocked and saddened we are when anyone fails, sins, or “falls from grace.” And what’s more, we are saddened by the very thing that is about to release God’s power in their lives. (Unfortunately they will most likely be gone from our company before we have a chance to see that.)
God’s purposes in our lives are not found primarily by figuring out the right thing to do. They are found out by failing to do the right thing and finding out, lo and behold, that God wanted to bring His presence and His purposes (His will) out of our failure. God wants to bring forth life in us, but He can’t do that without a death (and nobody wants to die).
Unless the old covenant fails, you don’t get the new one. As long as you think the old one is working fine, that’s how long you will fail to see God at work in your life. And yet for how many Christians is Christianity reduced to a list (or class, or seminar, or book, or sermon) of all the right things to do, and perpetuated by the false assumption that we are actually doing them?
The greatest enemy of Christianity is the insistence that given the right church, the right network, the right pastor, the right approach, it is working. We might as well send all our leaders back up the mountain to get a new version of the Ten Commandments for us to break as soon as they get back down (or before – while they’re gone – as was the case with the children of Israel. When do you think was Moses’ first clue that this wasn’t going to work even if he went back up the mountain and got new copy of the original?)
It’s really very simple: yes, we have a new covenant, but you don’t get it without getting rid of the old one, and you don’t break the power of the old one without a death.
“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” (John 12:24)
John Fischer The Catch 
Many of you will remember that John also wrote a song that is relevant to today’s “Catch” posting. From his “Dark Horse” album, the song is “Nobody Wants to Die.”
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CHRISTOPHER: “What does it mean to die, Papa?”
JOHN: “Well, it means different things to different people. To some people it is the end of everything; to others it’s only the beginning.”
C.”I just don’t understand this.”
J. “I know, son, it’s hard for you to understand right now. Let me try another way to explain it. It’s like going through something very hard to receive something so wonderful, that you forget how hard it was getting there.”
C. “Like when we had Annie in Denver, Colorado?”
J. “Why, that’s exactly what it’s like! We almost lost Annie, so having her is that much more wonderful.
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Nobody Wants to Die
Words and Music by John Fischer
You want to have wisdom
Without making mistakes
You want have money
Without the work that it takes
You want to be loved
But you don’t want the heartaches
Everyone wants to get to heaven Lord
Nobody wants to die
Everyone wants to get to heaven Lord
Nobody wants to die
You want to be forgiven
Without taking the blame
You want to eat forbidden fruit
Without leaving a stain
You want the glory
But you don’t want the shame
Everyone wants to get to heaven Lord
Nobody wants to die
Everyone wants to get to heaven Lord
Nobody wants to die
You want to be a winner
Without taking a loss
You want to be a disciple
Without counting the cost
You want to follow Jesus
But you don’t want to go to the cross
Everyone wants to get to heaven Lord
Nobody wants to die
Everyone wants to get to heaven Lord
Nobody wants to die
Brilliant.
I turned 60 on May 10. In a conversation with my mom on or around that day, I was told that my older sister believes I have wasted my life. Obviously, she and I have different goals, different criteria of what constitutes a life well-spent.
I once wrote an article called “God Loves a Loser” (http://www.waitsel.com/Father/Loser.html). In it, I talk about how, in the Bible, there are very few examples of what we today would call “winners.” Why? For the very reason you are giving, John: because if we could save ourselves, we wouldn’t need Him. We need to die for Him to make us alive. We need to be weak for Him to make us strong. We need to be lost for Him to find us. If we weren’t the most messed up people on the planet, God would have nothing to do.
It’s amazing how many “Christian” self-help books, tapes and articles there are out there. I love the way you have put it in this article: “how thoroughly determined we are to making the old covenant work;” and “Unless the old covenant fails, you don’t get the new one.” I so desperately want to be perfect and, somehow, I believe it has something to do with me. I just can’t handle the idea that “Perfection is in the Lord.”
“How blessed are the poor in spirit, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them.” It wasn’t when the Children of Israel had honed their fighting skills that God led them into the Promised Land – it was when they were ready to let Him do the fighting. “The Lord is a Warrior; the Lord is His name.” God is still the One who does the fighting; we just hold the light.
Thanks!
Love the John 12:20-16 passage. After his triumphal entry into Jerusalem before his death, the disciples didn’t know what to do with some Greeks who wanted to see Jesus. They should have known by then, but they apparently didn’t yet understand that the gospel would be for all, not just for Jews. Jesus gently instructed them, in his parabolic way, that his death would result in fruit not just in Israel, but among the gentiles too. And if his disciples wanted to be his followers, they needed to likewise lose the life of insulated Jewishness they had known and go where Jesus was going to go. Like the curious Greeks, the gentile world would soon be asking “to see Jesus,” and if the disciples truly wanted God’s honor, they had to die to one life, and live for a new one.
As you so beautifully expressed, John, we are still like the disciples. Even though we know better, we can become insulated and comfortable in our enculturated Christian experience with Jesus and not even realize it. When “Greeks,” those scary people outside of the church, come asking to see the Jesus whom we say we follow, we don’t know what to say. We act like Jesus is our “homeboy,” but not like he is Savior of the world beyond our neighborhood of faith. We think, “Should they be coming to see Jesus?” And soon we’re creating rules about what church should be, and who can be there, and what is acceptable lifestyle. In the spirit of the old covenant, we create “Christian law” to define the Christian life. Jesus, meanwhile, has left the building and as he goes he gently instructs us, “If you love that life, you’ll lose my life. If you will lose that worldly life, you’ll gain my eternal life.” Will we follow? Will I follow?
It is a pivotal moment in John’s narrative of Christ’s life. You reminded us (me!) today that it is a pivotal truth for our lives even today. The grace of God in Christ cannot be contained or controlled. If we want it, we must lose to gain, follow to find, die to live.
Thank you, Clay. Well said.
I’ve recently had this inescapable image of jumping high into the air on a trampoline, lying back, and allowing myself to free-fall back onto the undergirding trampoline….this is the grace of the new covenant…allowing myself to be saved by his blood, and doing nothing on my own to help.
The old covevant in me wants to spare Jesus from as much of the cross as I can….as if I could do my best to live up the standard, then claim Jesus for whatever remains. It doesn’t work that way.
“God’s purposes in our lives are not found primarily by figuring out the right thing to do. They are found out by failing to do the right thing and finding out, lo and behold, that God wanted to bring His presence and His purposes (His will) out of our failure. God wants to bring forth life in us, but He can’t do that without a death (and nobody wants to die).”
Can you say any more (perhaps in a future Catch) on how God brings his presence and purposes out of our failure? What does true “victorious Christian living” look like after our great fall into his grace?
Great questions. I will take you up on this!
Beautiful, John, just beautiful. I have to admit, I often find myself arguing with you — but just as often shouting, “Amen!” This is an amen moment. If we could just learn what victories Jesus can only bring out of defeat, and by no other means, how much better tuned in to God’s wavelength would we be? Thanks for the insight — and the challenge.
Thank you so much for reminding us that we do NOT have to be perfect, or even close to it, to be loved and used by God; that it’s through even those parts of us that we despise, wish were not there, wish we could just conquer, that God has chosen to speak & transform and love.
Hey I was wondering where you got the photo of the wheat seed from. I am trying to create a creation vs evolution epic and this photo will be fuel for the cause if i can sucessfully reference the original owner.
Regards,
Philip Bruce Heywood
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