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Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. John 12:24
D.L. MOODY
Take a little black flower seed and sow it; after it has been planted some time, dig it up. If it is whole, you know that it has no life; but if it has begun to decay, you know that life and fruitfulness will follow. There will be a resurrected life; and out of that little black seed will come a beautiful, fragrant flower.
Here is a disgusting grub, crawling along the ground. By and by old age overtakes it, and it begins to spin its own shroud, to make its own sepulchre, and it lies as if in death. Look again and it has shuffled off its shroud, it has burst its sepulchre open, and it comes forth a beautiful butterfly, with different form and habits.
So with our bodies. They die, but God will give us glorified bodies in their stead. This is law of the new creation as well as the old: light after darkness; life after death; fruitfulness and glory after corruption and decay.
ERWIN LUTZER
Moody’s illustration is biblical: When we die, we are like a seed that has fallen into the ground, but shall be raised with an incorruptible body. We are sown in weakness, but raised with strength. There will be both continuity with our present body, but also discontinuity (see 1 Cor. 15:35–49). For we shall have a body “like his glorious body” (Phil. 3:21).
The point Jesus was making in John 12:24 not only applies to our physical death and resurrection, but to our present life. We must die to ourselves. As someone has said, we cannot pray, “thy kingdom come” until we have prayed, “let my kingdom die.” Dying to self-will is the most challenging struggle we will ever have. In our sinfulness, we cling to self-will until our knuckles turn white. There is truth in the statement that we must “let go and let God.”
PRAYER
Father, teach me to die that I might live only unto thee.REFLECTION QUESTIONS
How can self-will hinder your relationship with God?
Are you praying only "Thy kingdom come," or are you also willing to pray, "Let my kingdom die"?