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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Sowing What You Want To Reap
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7,8)
Life on earth is mostly a time of sowing. Make sure you are sowing what you want to reap in the ages to come. They make a great mistake who force their way, running over other people in order to seize what they desire. They may gain their ends now, but God remembers their works and they will reap untold sorrow in the future.
Those who sow love and peace now will reap love and peace now and in the new world of righteousness. Those who sow hatred and discord will reap hatred and discord. And who knows if there will ever be an end to it?
One of the greatest of the misunderstandings afflicting us Christians may be the existing confusion concerning Galatians 6:7,8. The confusion exists because we do not know how to reconcile the Kingdom law of sowing and reaping with our customary doctrine of grace.
How does grace affect the law of sowing and reaping? Does grace modify or abolish the law of sowing and reaping? I think this is a big question in the mind of numerous Christian believers.
The confusion arises because of our definition of Divine grace. The current understanding of grace is that we obtain right standing in the sight of God by professing faith in the blood atonement made by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. The idea is that no matter how we behave, as long as we profess faith in Jesus Christ we will be brought to Heaven when we die, there to enjoy the peace and joy of Paradise.
If the above is the scriptural definition of grace, then we may sow to please to our sinful nature throughout our Christian life and yet not reap destruction.
If such is the case, then why did the Apostle Paul warn the members of the Christian churches in Galatia that if they, as Christians, sowed to please their sinful nature, from that nature they would reap destruction? If Divine grace through Jesus Christ renders the Kingdom law of sowing and reaping incompetent, immaterial, and irrelevant, why did Paul write as he did?
One of two conditions must be true: either Paul was addressing unsaved people in Galatia, or else we do not understand Divine grace.
As to the first condition, it is not intellectually sound to maintain that Paul had switched from his numerous exhortations to the believers in Galatia and then warned unsaved people about sowing to their sinful nature. In addition, it would not be possible for unsaved people to sow to please the Holy Spirit in that they did not possess the Holy Spirit.
So we are assured that the apostle was addressing the believers.
This leaves us with the only other possibility: we do not understand Divine grace.
To be continued.