There is no doubt that there are many lessons in
the parable of the sower. There is one however that can greatly affect how we
view the scripture. In the parable of the sower Jesus defines the phrase the
word of God. It comes from looking at two parallel accounts of the explanation
of the seed in Matthew and Luke. Let’s
look at the explanation from both passages.
Matt 13:18-19 KJV
"Hear then the parable of the sower: (19) When
anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one
comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown
along the path
Luke 8:11 KJV “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word
of God.”
In the Matthew passage, Jesus explains to his disciples
that the seed is the word of the kingdom or in other words, the gospel. Luke
records him saying that the seed is the word of God. It follows then that
in Jesus vocabulary, the gospel of the kingdom and the word of God are synonymous.
Actually, we have established this in many other posts in this blog, however,
it is instructive to see that the redefining of the phrase word of God came
from Jesus himself. Luke’s understanding is that one can substitute the phrase
word of God for the gospel of the kingdom. This means that when he thought of
the gospel or word of the kingdom, he automatically thought of the word of God.
The two phrases become interchangeable.
This becomes very important in defining how the
phrase word of God was used in the New Testament writings. For example, when
Paul writes: Eph 5:25-27 KJV “Husbands,
love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for
it; (26)
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the
word, (27) That he might present it to himself a
glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it
should be holy and without blemish.” The gospel is the washing water. Jesus
has cleansed the church with the washing of the water of the gospel. This is
why the gospel is so important.
It sounds like this should be an ongoing process
from the Ephesians five passage. It is the way that we look continually to the
cross. The cross is God’s answer for everything. It is his answer for
justification, it is his answer sanctification, it is his answer for health, it
is his answer for prosperity, and it is his answer for the washing process. When
you add anything to the work of the cross you offend God.
So then, if one looks at this passage from
Deuteronomy and believes that it is for all the seed of Abraham, both Jew, and
Gentile, then one must simply look to the cross for all of the promises that
follow because the cross of Christ handled these two passages once for all:
Deu 28:1-2 KJV
And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt
hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which
I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all
nations of the earth: (2) And all these blessings shall come on thee,
and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.
All of the blessings that follow in Deu 28 will
overtake the one who trusts the cross and nothing else. There is nothing else
to do. The passage has been handled by the cross. Perhaps one of the reasons
that we don’t see more of these blessings is that we are still trying to add to
the cross with our effort. That immediately offends God. When will we stop
trying to do and just begin to trust?
The person trusting in the cross will give from
the love for God just for knowing that Jesus did it all. Real prosperity is
found only in the cross.
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