The World and the Word

                                                       The Wheat and the Chaff

In Jesus' parable of the sower, He illustrated the different kinds of living spirits that hear God's Word and how they respond. The first kind of person that Jesus mentioned has such a weak spirit that they will ignore God's Word when they hear it. These kinds of people often become very cruel and evil in the way they lead their lives. Most of these people will go to Hell when they die, but God will recover and recreate even their weak spirits because the goodness that God put into them when He created them will emerge in their lives as some acts of kindness. The Devil will fail to annul their good spirits which belong to God. Matthew 13:18-19; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 22:11-12. The Devil will never succeed in utterly destroying anything which God has created and loves. God will recover and recreate it all. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Romans 11:36; Romans 8:18-23; Revelation 21:5.

The second kind of person that Jesus mentioned hears the Word but only temporarily receives it. They step to the threshold of grace, but they do not enter. In order to be eternally saved by grace, one must repent of one's sins and faithfully commit one's life to Christ. They must invite the Spirit of Christ into their lives to completely change their souls and spirits so that they will desire to lead righteous lives.  Some people hear God's Word and initially believe it, but they fail to commit their lives to Christ and invite Him into their hearts. Then, when someone belittles them, they withdraw from true faith, and they do not get saved by grace. The Apostle Paul described this same type of person in Hebrews 6:4-6. Romans 10:9-11; Luke 9:26; Matthew 13:20-21.

The third type of person that Jesus mentioned hears the Word, truly repents of their sins and receives Christ as their Savior, but their growth as a believer becomes stunted because they become entangled with the sinful affairs of the world. They produce few good works, and yet they are saved by grace. The Bible (KJB) clearly teaches in II Peter 2:7-9 that God saved Lot from His destruction of Sodom because he was righteous, meaning he was saved by grace. Had Lot been an ordinary sinner, God would have destroyed him like He did his wife. Some Christians believe that if a believer saved by grace produces no Christian good works, then that person cannot be saved. But the Bible does not teach that. Every believer becomes saved by grace solely through repentance and faith in Christ apart from any good works. Romans 4:1-25; Titus 3:4-7. Salvation by grace belongs solely to the sovereign will of God which no one should ever question. Romans 9:18; Matthew 21:31-32; Matthew 13:22.

The fourth type of person that Jesus mentioned hears and believes God's Word, commits their life to Christ, and produces Christian good works for the glory of God. Jesus taught that these saved believers receive the Word into "good ground," meaning the good image of God that He put into them. Jesus' use of this phrase proves that these types of believers already possessed strong souls and spirits given to them by God that were able to hear and believe the gospel. Believers saved by grace who produce good works for the glory of God will receive great rewards in Heaven. Matthew 13:23; Romans 9:20-21; Luke 6:35.

The doctrine of the depravity of man means that the Devil has injected evil into the inner beings of every human which causes them to sin and prevents them from ever making themselves good enough to be saved. This condition makes all human souls and spirits subject to eternal death. Only Christ can save all humans from their sins and eternal deaths because He took all their sins and eternal deaths on Himself on the cross so that He could purge all evil from all humans. If humans were totally evil, then they could never repent and believe in Christ because there would be absolutely nothing within them that could cause them to do anything that is good like repent and believe. All humans must have some measure of "good ground," which is the image of God within them, so that they will be able to repent and believe. Eventually, all humans will choose to repent and believe. Romans 5:12; II Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 2:9; I Timothy 4:10; John 12:47-48; Revelation 5:11-14.