THE GRASS WITHERETH

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. (1 Pet 1: 24, 25)

Our opening scripture presents a truth about the natural life that I believe is often neglected. This truth is that the natural life, which is the flesh, is a life of decay. It is a life in decline which has it’s ultimate in death. Anyone who has attended a funeral before should know that like grass, the natural life does not last. Anyone who puts his trust in the natural life will soon find out that it is frail and fleeting and as such cannot be trusted unlike the eternal word of God which lives and abides forever.
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The Bible teaches us that the existence of the natural man is just like the existence of the grass in the field and so shows us that the state of the natural man is tragically temporal. In fact it is so temporal that it is shocking. It is nothing but a mirage. Today he is, tomorrow he is not. One moment, he is here and the next moment we cannot find him because he is gone and his glory has faded away. When the Bible uses the word flesh, it talks of the man who has not God or the fallen man who is alienated from God. So we understand that the natural man who has not God is actually a man in a state of deterioration, alienated from the life of God. He lives only for death. In fact the longer he lives, the lesser the days that he has left to live. He is subject to the corruption that is in this world. He is subject to the uncertainties this fallen physical world presents. Today he is up and tomorrow he is down. Today he is well and tomorrow he is dying of a disease. He is utterly frail and helpless.

It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life (Joh 6:63).
 
Concerning the flesh, Jesus said, the flesh profiteth nothing, it is the spirit that quickeneth. That is very remarkable. We have already seen that the flesh is unreliable and unprofitable. Beloved, God wants you to also understand that indeed the spirit is the life-giver; the flesh is of no value (Joh 6:63 BBE). In other words, the word of God, which is spiritual is far superior to the testimony of the flesh which is physical. Because some do not know this truth, they rather question our ways. When I say ‘our’, I mean the spiritual Christian whose mind is renewed in knowledge after the truth. They question why we confess the things that we confess. They question why we say our lives are forward and upward. They do so because they are after the flesh and cannot help but notice their weak and fragile states. In this condition they are unable to understand why another’s life can be different.

Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him:With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah. (2Chr.32:7,8).
 
In Scripture, arm refers to the strength or means by which a task is accomplished. Arm of flesh therefore means the strength which the natural fallen man (flesh) supplies. This strength comes from the understanding the man possesses which forms his wisdom. Every activity is fashioned after a certain wisdom. The arm of flesh therefore is fashioned after the wisdom which the flesh supplies. This wisdom is obtained through the natural senses. The king of Assyria had prepared himself according to the wisdom afforded him through his senses. He was going to battle from his own gathered strength. But Hezekiah had a different wisdom supplied by his faith. This wisdom was that Jehovah, the Self-Existent God, The I AM, was with them to help them and fight their battle for them.
 
He asked them to be strong and courageous, not to be afraid nor dismayed. He knew that what the opponent had on his side was the ever-withering arm of flesh. He knew that the strength of the flesh is as grass. He knew that the present Lord brings the upper hand.

It is the way of faith that puts a man above the frailties of the flesh. The believer has therefore been born again with a life superior to the frail flesh. It is the God-life. The believer therefore is not ‘flesh’. He is one spirit with the Lord.

But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit (1Co 6:17).
 
He does not have a fading glory. He has the glory of the Lord. He is not weak. He has the strength of the Lord. He is not subject to sickness. He has the Lord as his health. He is not subject to sin. He has the Lord as his righteousness.

He lives this kind of life by faith in the Christ. The sad story is that even with this superior life many believers tend to subject themselves to a life after the flesh. They live after the senses like natural men thereby subjecting themselves to the corruption and decay of this fallen world.

They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course. I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes (Ps 82:5) .
 
Believers are dying like ordinary men because they have not known or received the knowledge that they are not after the flesh, that they have received a superior life: a life which they must live by faith and not by sensory perception. This faith is through revelation supplied by the word of God which endureth forever.

Beloved I submit to you that you can build a formidable life through faith supplied by revelation from the word of God. You can through the word manifest that which is your spiritual reality in this world. And because this life is produced from the more enduring word, it will prove superior to the withering and deterioration in the world.

You see, your life must be founded on faith in the word of God. That is the only way you can win and have a successful life. That is the only way you can reign in this life.

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock (Mt 7:24).
 
Your life must be founded on what the word says of your identity in Christ. Your wisdom for life must be Christ. It should not be that afforded you through the senses. It should be that which is afforded you through your faith in what the Lord did for you in his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension.
 
Beloved all flesh is as grass but the New Creation is not as grass because he is not ‘flesh’. He is born after God. The glory of man is as the flower that falleth away but the glory of the New Creation is the Lord himself who is eternal. The New Creation life is an unfailing life. It is the superior life. Do not submit to the mediocrity of the flesh by living according to the senses. Found your life on faith in the word that endureth forever. Halleluyah!