We Reap What We Sow: A Meditation on Galatians 6 for the 4th Sunday after Pentecost

Be not deceived; God is not mocked:

for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption;

but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

And let us not be weary in well doing:

for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men,

especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

 

St. Paul’s concluding thoughts at the end of his letter to the church in Galatia cannot be taken apart from his opening and main themes throughout the epistle, and thus we know that he is not encouraging anyone to save themselves by their works.  Justification before God is always and only by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, and Paul is clear that anyone who thinks that they may justify themselves by returning to the Law of Moses, is cut off from the saving grace of Jesus.  When Paul says that all people will reap what they sow—either from works of unbelief to gratify fleshly lust, or from works of faith in harmony with the Word and Spirit of Jesus—he means that our life in Christ is not just an abstract concept, but a living reality.  True and saving faith is always found producing the good works of the Spirit which conform to the Word of God, while unbelief is always found producing selfish works which rebel against the Word of God.  A life in this world lived in the Word and Spirit of God is a life that endures beyond physical death into eternal hope and glory, while a life spent living to one’s self will find in death a door to eternal suffering and judgment.  In this, St. Paul and St. James would agree—the presumption of faith without good works is a dead thing that saves no one.

 

This is a particularly poignant message for the church to remember, and for the world to hear.  Our age is awash in selfish ambition, and each decade over the last century has seen advances in science, technology, industry, entertainment, and politics that revolve around self-gratification.  Our science and technology feed our insatiable desire for comfort and avoidance of the consequences of our lifestyles; our industry revolves around self-interest, and our entertainment is an exercise in distraction, debauchery, and escapism; our politics cater to narratives of personal grievance and to pursuits of power for one person or group over another.  As the fear of God has diminished in the public sphere, it has been replaced with man as the measure of all things, bringing to full flower a rotten ideology in which makes of each person their own god, biting and devouring one another in their insatiable appetites.  We ought not flinch in our thinking regarding such things, as it is an inescapable Law of both God and Nature that individuals and societies will reap what they sow.  God is not mocked, and those who reject Him do so at their own peril, trading His grace for His judgment.  If man makes himself the measure of all things, he will find himself falling woefully short of the goodness, righteousness, glory, and virtue of his Creator.  In this the fruit of a rotten tree becomes indicative of the fate of the tree, left in the end with nothing but fire to consume it from the earth.

 

Yet there is a better path.  While fallen man cannot by his own power, resources, or wit manage to save himself, it is God who comes to seek and to save man.  This is the good news of the Gospel which St. Paul elsewhere articulated, that while we were yet sinners—while still trying to make ourselves into twisted versions of impotent gods, satisfying our own lusts, and earning nothing but wrath from our Creator—Christ Jesus died for us.  Jesus did not give His life as a ransom for a world that did not need saving, but in selfless love gave His life for a world which could be saved no other way.  The Gospel is not exclusionary because Christians think they are better than everyone else, but because any biblically faithful Christian knows that apart from Jesus there is no hope in the world at all.  Only the Word and Spirit of Jesus offer true forgiveness, life, and salvation which raise us up into new creations.  It is this Word and Spirit which gives us a new birth, a new nature, in harmony with our Eternal God and King.  This is a life which reflects the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Only Begotten Son of God, full of grace and truth, marked with faith in His Word and repentance for our failures.  The life of the Spirit differs as much from the life of the flesh as day differs from night, but it is a difference which originates from a reborn heart and mind.

 

In this way we remember of ourselves that it is not the fruit which bears the tree, but the tree which bears the fruit:  we are either born from above by the Spirit of the living God through faith, or we are dead in our trespasses and sins through rebellion.  The fruit of our works will provide the seeds of what we plant in this world, and those seeds will either grow up to a bountiful harvest of goodness and righteousness, or into a poisonous, ruinous yield.  Either way, the harvest of our works is related back to the nature of the fruit, which is tied to the nature of the tree… which is either rooted in Jesus, or something else.  We will reap what we sow, whether it is born of faith and grace, or unbelief and judgment, leaving the faithful to give all glory to God for the good He has graciously worked through them, and the self-idolatrous to concede the glory of God even as He judges them in righteousness according to the quality of their works.  This is why the Christian ought to focus less on the harvest of their works, the quality of their fruit, or the judgment which is coming upon the wicked, because what really matters is whether or not each person has been reborn in Jesus as a new creation, alive and sustained by grace through faith.  With our eyes on Jesus, our ears hearing His Word, our hearts and minds trusting and believing in Him, He will continue to reform us into His image, and to bring forth through us those works of faith which are pleasing to Him.

 

Here rests the Christian in the blessing and grace of Jesus’ Vicarious Atonement for the sins of the world, in His power working through the faithful that they might have new life in His Name, and that at the end of time a harvest will be reaped according to that same unconquerable grace.  The Christian does not seek to justify himself by his works, but knows that God will work through him by grace through faith to produce the good works ordained for him from before the foundation of the world.  And where the Christian finds fault in himself and his works, where unbelief brings forth rebellion and sin, there the Christian falls down in faith and repentance, seeking the promise of forgiveness found only in Jesus’ most holy blood, shed for him.  And there, as always, the Gospel of Jesus reclaims and enlivens every soul which puts their trust in Him, that they might rise up in service once again, and unto ages of ages without end.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.