YOU WERE GRAFTED!
It all emerged from eternal life,
My hope, my freedom, from worldly strife,
How favored am I to be given this liberation,
Someone who is unworthy to get this salvation.
Oh! I have gotten so much grace,
To run and finish the race
What I have is immeasurable,
And its maintenance entails being stable,
I pray for the ability of being fit for the new birth,
For I do not want to get back into the dirt.
“Now
if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were
grafted in among them and participated in the richness of the olive root, do
not boast over the branches. But if you boast, remember that you do not support
the root, but the root supports you. Then you will say, ‘The branches were
broken off so that I could be grafted in.’ Granted! They were broken off
because of their unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but
fear! For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare
you. (Romans 1117-21)”
In
agriculture, the process whereby a shoot or twig is
inserted into a slit on the trunk or stem of a living plant which it doesn’t
naturally belong, from which it receives sap and nutrient, is known as grafting.
The shoot or twig inserted into the stem of a living plant is taken from a
different plant of another type, probably a dying plant. This is done most
times in cross breeding. The shoot then gets nutrient from the new plant which
it is attached to aid its own growth.
Just as it is
in agricultural grafting, we have the kingdom grafting, and this is an entire
type of breeding. It does not cross breed or mix nutrients, it changes the
nature of the new shoot and gives it its own nature. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all
things are become new. (2Cor 517)” Having
taken a new stem, the shoot here takes on a new nature, putting away the old
self and is being transformed to the likeness of its new stem.
Salvation is a
function of grace and love. “But we
believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even
as they. (Acts 1511)”
For no one deserved it, but as a function of the grace of God
through Jesus Christ, we have been gracefully grafted into the kingdom of God.
We didn’t choose Him to be ours, He chose us to be His. “Ye have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and
that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my
name, he may give it you. (John 1516)”
It was all a
function of His grace, a function of His unfailing, unconditional love for us
so as not to perish. “For God so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten son. (John 316)” This reveals that, if God
were to consider our unrighteousness, our unfaithfulness and sins, then He
wouldn’t have given up His so precious Son as atonement for our sins, to pay
the final price, to make the ultimate sacrifice.
“For
God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become
the righteousness of God. (2Cor 521)” Jesus bought and
redeemed us with a great price of his own blood. “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is
every one that hangeth on a tree. (Gal 313)”
[2]Knowing this, it is quite alarming seeing Christians who have been given
a new life, who have been connected to an unlimited source of nutrient for
being fruitful in the kingdom of God, who have been redeemed from the powers
and laws of sin, who through grace have been made joint heirs with Christ Jesus
and are seated with Him by the right hand of God, engaging in activities that
do not glorify the proclaimed faith. Have you forgotten that you were favoured?
Talking about grace, grace is an unmerited, undeserved, unearned favour. How
then would you, being favoured, misuse, take for granted the goodly gesture
extended to you through grace. Do you not want the grace of God over you to come
to fruition? Let me tell you something, God is not mocked! He is not mocked
because you do these things to your own detriment. For God having favoured you
has His eyes too Holy to behold sin, and He has keen dislike to
unrighteousness. ”For the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth
in unrighteousness. (Rom.118)”
He that died for us had no sin in Him, no fault was
found in Him, yet He took up rags upon Himself, so that we might have nice
clothes to put on. He gave himself up to
the scorn, and to be laughed at, so that we might have great joy in Him. He
disqualified Himself so that we could be qualified. He took up the curse so we
might have eternal blessing, yet the only way you can appreciate all these is
to give yourself to sin and unrighteousness. Take for instance, how would you
feel, if you being a father have spent so much on your child for him to have a
good life, and at the end the child channels all your care into being a miscreant?
Oh yes! That is the way it is with our heavenly father when He sees us ignoring
the truth to face the lie that appears to us to be true. The way of
unrighteousness is the way to doom. “For there is a way that seems right unto a
man but the end thereof is destruction” The devil will not present
spoilt bread to you in a transparent package. What the deceiver does is to put
a bad thing in a well designed package to lure you into picking it over a less
glamorous package that has a great content.
Even as deep as He loves us He doesn’t want us to channel His love and the grace
which he showered upon us into unrighteousness, and He says to us not to
receive his grace in vain and not to ignore His unlimited grace. “As
God’s partners, we beg you not to toss aside this marvelous message of God’s
great kindness. (2Cor61)”
Do not forget
that you were granted. Do not be unaware that where you are now, some people
were there, and because they failed to believe, they were replaced. Do not get
it to your head that you are irreplaceable. Let it be known to you that you
were, through grace, allowed to share and tap into the pleasures and treasures
of the kingdom of God. “Granted! They were broken off because of
their unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but fear! For if
God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you. (Romans
1120-21)”
The believers’ road is
not a joke, it is matter of life and death, and one must not by any means give
in to any form of sin. Repent today and rededicate your life to the Lord. Come
back to the presence of the almighty God and forsake every ungodly act that you
are involved in that could fall you off from His back. If you are struggling
with any particular sin, I just want you to know that you can’t fight it on
your own; you can’t try to stop doing it on your own. Just give it all up,
leave it all to God’s hands, and ask the Holy Spirit to cleanse you of all
unrighteousness, because if you don’t, it will destroy you. No sin (there is no
little sin) has a good motive. Every sin is aimed at destroying the life of a
believer. “And then
everyone who calls on the name of
the Lord will be saved. (Acts221)” Call on the name
of the Lord and you shall be delivered from every form of habit that wants to
destroy your life.
REPENT
NOW. GOD BLESS
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