Root systems can be complex. What’s even more intriguing is the process of grafting. You prepare a tree for a branch from another tree to produce better results. In my post about the ambassadorship of a Christian, I touched on the high calling we have as children of God, but I want to take it even further in this post. We aren’t in the driver’s seat, charging forward, looking for practical ways to apply our identity in Christ. Instead, let’s look beneath the surface at how we become ambassadors and the true power and grace behind it. 

If you haven’t read it, please do so, but in the last post, I mentioned 2 Corinthians 5:18 – 20 and the ministry of reconciliation.

Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.

2 Corinthians 5:18-20 (NKJV)

The Greek word for reconciliation is katallagē; it means restoration of the favor of God. Jesus came to reconcile us with the Father (2 Corinthians 5:18-21; Romans 5:10-11). His mission was to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10, Matthew 18:11). What classifies the lost? Is it someone we disagree with? Someone who doesn’t believe the same thing doctrinally? Jesus came to save (sōzō) the lost (apollymi). He wanted to rescue those who were heading for destruction. Jesus speaks of this destruction in Matthew 10:28.

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Matthew 10:28

Hell isn’t the fiery cavern or simple rendering we usually picture. Instead, this Greek word for hell, geenna, refers to the valley of fire in the Old Testament prophecies. The other highlighted word, destroy, is the same Greek word for lost in Luke 19:10 and Matthew 18:11 – apollymi. Jesus is warning those headed for destruction that there is a real threat called geenna – the valley of fire that destroys the soul and body. There is more to unpack on that alone, but it’s not where this discussion is headed. Jesus wishes to save the lost, but how? How does He save those headed for that destruction?

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Romans 5:8-10

Christ had to die for us so that we may become justified by His blood and saved from the wrath. We were walking toward destruction, and Jesus picked us up, turned us around, and declared us righteous. That is essentially the meaning of justification. But there’s only one dilemma: how can we, being declared righteous through faith in Christ, still fall to sin? After all, aren’t we supposed to be pure, holy, sinless, etc.?

Digging Deeper

Jesus did a little more than die and restore us to Eden spiritually (as mentioned in Eden Restored). He even did more than “save” us for a cleaner conscience (if that’s even a thing). Jesus died to do more than pay our penalty and redeem us with His blood as atonement.

He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. (NKJV)

The one who practices sin [separating himself from God, and offending Him by acts of disobedience, indifference, or rebellion] is of the devil [and takes his inner character and moral values from him, not God]; for the devil has sinned and violated God’s law from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. (AMP)

1 John 3:8

For those tracking with me through the Greek, destroy in this verse doesn’t mean destruction. Instead, it’s the Gr. word lyō, which means to loose, unbound. He came to set us free from the works of the devil.

There are so many words in the Christian culture that we don’t understand immediately. You may have heard the term “Christianese,” and this is a perfect example. So what are the “works of the devil.” Good question. Hebrews 2:14 merely echoes 1 John 3:8, but it leads us to an interesting point in our discussion.

Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham.

Hebrews 2:14-16

We discussed Jesus being the second Adam in Eden Restored, and we know Abraham, the father of many nations, is a descendant of Adam. Through Adam, we all die; in Christ, we are all made alive. Just as Abraham was a friend of God and a man of faith, his offspring are not just biological but those who are spiritually grafted (Romans 11). But how do we become grafted into the Vine and Root of Jesse (John 15; Romans 15:12)? What are the works of the devil?

Abraham had received a promise of a heavenly city (Hebrews 11:16), just as many others did in the Old Testament. They clung to the hope of a coming Kingdom, His Kingdom. John the Baptist preached its coming, and Jesus declared its arrival. Through Him, we are citizens of that heavenly Kingdom. When we accept Him as Lord and Savior, we become new creatures. We begin to live the complexity of being spiritually born again yet physically still in this world. We still deal with our flesh and sin as we try to walk in the new life Jesus brings.

How can it be that we suffer from this constant pull from our flesh, yet we are still saved and sanctified by His blood? After all, aren’t Christians supposed to be perfect? No? Then why do we hide our raw and honest selves? Why do we lack the vulnerability? Perhaps it’s because we still feel shame or assume Jesus doesn’t want “weak” followers. Yet, we are human, are we not? We are, by definition, weak in the flesh. It may shock you to read, but Jesus never destroyed the flesh when He died, not even sin.

released

The Gr. word hamartōlos means sinner, someone who is devoted to sin. We are born with the option to choose from right or wrong, but we are conditioned to choose sin and death because of the curse brought through Adam. After a while, it becomes nature; the debt starts piling up, and you can’t change it. Sin, hamartanō, means to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honor. So, through our continual choice to stray from the truth, we start heading for destruction and get lost. Jesus starts looking, searching for us as a shepherd for his lost sheep. Except, He did more than find and save you. Jesus broke the power and hold that darkness had on you. He broke the entitlement that the enemy had on your life by destroying the works of the devil. He took the power that sin held over your life and broke it. Just as Aslan did for Edmund in Chronicles of Narnia, so does Jesus for us.

Jesus has broken the chains and said, “Neither do I condemn you” (John 8:11). He came to find you in your darkest moment, embrace you, and offer you life eternal and abundant. He died so that you would be free and no longer bound to the curse of death, the power of sin, and the work of the devil. He came to pick you up onto His shoulders and take you home to rejoice over another beautiful soul rescued from the apollymi, destruction. The only thing left for Him to conquer is death itself. We are human and will die, but it doesn’t end there. Just as Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to His rightful place as King, so will we die and be raised with Him incorruptible and no longer bound to flesh.

Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.

But for now, we will still struggle with sin and the flesh because we are humans and imagers (representers) of God, who has given us free will. However, we are given the victory and have become overcomers. The power of sin no longer binds us in chains. We can still choose it, but He has taken away that invisible string tying us to it. We become grafted into the root of Jesus. Our wild nature slowly gets propagated and prepared for better fruit.

1 Corinthians 15:24-26 (NKJV)

For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

Romans 11:16-18

Our old ways of thinking become slowly adapted to the mindset of Christ. Our “wildness” becomes replaced by the goodness of the new tree. As we abide in the Vine, we become more connected. From that, more fruit is produced. This is where ambassadorship comes in. We become grafted in, freed of the bondage of the dying tree with rotten, bitter produce, and become reborn into a better tree with pure fruit.

When we abide in the Vine, we as a branch receive that nutrient-rich connection and produce fruit, proving our connection to the tree. We are called to represent the tree, the very root to which we are connected. Do not be ashamed of the past, for Christ has broken you free from those chains. He has loosed you from the works of the devil and the hold they had on your life. He has healed your broken and bruised life. He is not ashamed to take you to Himself as a tree does a branch. You are His. The fruit of the Spirit is something you really can walk in. The more you surrender to the vine, the more fruit is produced.

The works of the flesh are not your story. Jesus has come to give you life that you may have it abundantly. Don’t live in the broken past. You are no longer a wild olive branch. You are part of the pure and cultivated root. So grow in Him, and He will show you beautiful things. You are a new creature in Christ – the old wineskin doesn’t fit you. You have been made for new wine.

I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Galatians 5:16-26 (NKJV)

“No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the [fermenting] wine will [expand and] burst the skins, and the wine is lost as well as the wineskins. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”

Mark 2:22 (AMP)

Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life].

2 Corinthians 5:17