In the parable of the sower, Jesus said, "The seed is the word of God" (Luke 8:11). In this parable, Jesus was teaching some essentials of the kingdom of God, and they could be illustrated with no greater force than with the elementary lesson of seed sown and its results. God's order has always been harvest after seed sowing; and seed produces after its kind (Gen. 1:12; Gal. 6:6-10). This rule of God does not change. Corn seed produces corn; wheat seed produces wheat. This unvarying rule was understood by the people of Jesus' day, He could, therefore, apply it in his teaching the disciples about a harvest of souls the kingdom of God.

The great commission given by Jesus stresses this same fact (Matt. 28:18-20; Mk. 16:15, 16). Every case of conversion in the book of Acts also shows the necessity of the seed (word of God) being sown in the hearts of people before their conversion to Christ. Some have the idea that Christians are made without the gospel being preached, but such is not true. The power to deliver sinners from darkness is the gospel (Col. 1:13; Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 1:21). You cannot make Christians without sowing the seed! Jesus further said, "Come . . , learn of me" (Matt. 11:28-30). The same is taught in John 6:4345. God does not operate directly upon sinners in converting them; but rather, He uses His word-the seed-in the accomplishing of it.

The seed produces after its kind! The word of God only is the medium used by God to make Christians. No other cause will effect such an accomplishment. The words of men have never been able to make saints out of sinners. The doctrines of men in Jesus' day only made the religion of men vain. It can do no better today. The disciplines, manuals, articles of faith, confessions, and catechisms, have men as their authors and do not have within them the power to unerringly guide one soul out of darkness and lead that one to the Lamb of God! The word of God and only the word of God makes Christians. The word of God will make only a Christian-and there are no kinds of Christians-no human adjectives attached to the noun Christian either! Are you what you are because of the word of God and only the word of God?

Truth Magazine XXII: 38, p. 619
September 28, 1978