“Verily, Verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” John 12:24
There is a Biblical principle that the Lord Jesus expounded upon, that is essential to understand and to grasp, if we would bear much fruit. It is the principle of “death to life.” The Lord uses the illustration of a corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying. What does He mean by this? For all intents and purposes, that corn of wheat, when it enters the earth, and is covered over by the soil, is lost from view. It is helpless and hopeless. All that it knew of life above ground, in the world, has been left behind. There is a definite separation of that corn of wheat in the ground, from that which is above. The exposure to all that it knew above ground has brought it to aloneness, and solitude, with God. But there, God will give life to that corn of wheat, so that by His Spirit, the corn of wheat will germinate, and bear much fruit.
There is a magnificent hope, and promise, concerning the corn of wheat. One would think, from a human standpoint that the end of the world had come. There was no way to rise. In one sense this is true. But God’s perspective is not that of man. As Samuel Rutherford once said, “He purposeth a crop.” In a paradoxical statement, the Lord Jesus says that if the corn of wheat does not “die,” it will remain alone. It remains singular and suffering in its inability to change anything about its existence, and certainly, that which would pertain to the eternal. The promise that Jesus gives is this: “…if it die, it bringeth forth MUCH fruit.” In another passage in the gospel of John, the Lord Jesus says: “Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear MUCH fruit, so shall ye be MY disciples.” (15:8) It is the will of God that the true disciple of Christ, not only bear the fruit of Jesus’ life, but do so abundantly, for the glory of the Father. How can this be? First and foremost, the corn of wheat must be truly willing, by the grace of God, to “lose his life,” in order to find it. What does this mean? The man who is determined to stay above ground, so to speak, and to “save his life,” is that one who will lose it. The most precious thing we have is the life that God has given to each of us. But what we choose to do with that life will determine if the life will count for Christ, bearing much fruit for the glory of God. To seek to save the life, living for oneself, will result in great loss. A life lost to Christ is a life given, yielded and surrendered to Him. It is thus a life lost, for it is one that will no longer be lived for oneself, but for Christ. The “corn of wheat” which falls into the ground, is that one who has chosen to lose all, to gain all in Christ. Just as certainly as the corn of wheat, by the grace of God, yields itself to God wholeheartedly, it becomes the repository of the Spirit of God, Christ coming to dwell in the heart by faith. The bearing of fruit has begun, and will increase. It will be out of a new existence, a new life in Christ, and in the measure that one abides in Christ, that much fruit will be born and manifested.
The Apostle Paul, in his second letter to the Corinthians wrote that we “…have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” (4:7) He goes on to reveal how this “power” will work. “For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” (v.11) This is true fruitfulness.
Dear Father, Grant us grace today to abide in Christ, bearing much fruit for Thy glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.