Disruptions to the normal course of life precipitate the question, “what is God up to?” Human’s have an instinct to know in order to have confidence. But there are dangers in over-interpreting God’s providences. God’s decrees are too great and marvellous for us to comprehend fully, and we are arrogant to think that we can know everything God is working for his glory (Psalm 131:1). Mystery is a part of reality that we need to learn to accept as creatures. But even though we lack total knowledge of God’s purposes, we are not devoid of true knowledge of his will. With viral and economic pandemics sweeping the globe and an uncertain earthly future before us, Christians can and should simultaneously exercise epistemic humility about what we “think” God is doing and how everything will pan out and confidence about what we “know” God is doing based on divine revelation given to us.
In 1 Corinthians 3:9, Paul refers to the church as “God’s field” (1 Cor. 3:9). If we piece this metaphor together with some of the other “field” texts in the Bible, I believe that we can confidently conclude that there are at least four particular works that God is doing in his field, the Church, in seasons of calm or calamity.
I will summarize each of these in separate articles.
God is Cultivating His Field
The most recognizable agrarian metaphors in the Bible is “you reap what you sow” (Gal. 6:7). But there is an equally important and logically prior field activity that relates to how God tends to his church. It is the work of cultivation.
“Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among the thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the LORD; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.” (Jeremiah 4:3-4)
The most obvious principle embedded here is that the plow disrupts and converts unproductive, sun-baked, weed-smothered soil into fertile furrows ready to receive the seed sown. Less obvious is the fact that this image of “breaking up the fallow ground” symbolizes one of the most foundational aspects of God’s redemptive actions: His gracious, sovereign, and effectual work to disrupt and convert hardened sinners to faith in Christ.
I say this because the parallel command to “break up your fallow ground” is “circumcise yourselves to the Lord”. The Apostle Paul picks up this important theological concept and clarifies for us that “heart circumcision” relates to the work of the Holy Spirit in regenerating and converting sinners to trust in and devotion to Christ (Rom 2:29; Phil 3:3; Col 2:11). God wasn’t commanding Israel to reform her farming practices; he was calling the nation to be converted from their idolatry to sincere and exclusive covenant trust and devotion to him.
The Gospel Plow of Sovereign Grace
One of the main truths that is unveiled to us in the Old Testament is that there is a universal human inability to fulfill God’s demands to “break up your fallow ground” or “circumcise our hearts”. Israel’s failure to devote themselves to God proves that no person is able to convert themselves from fallow soil to fertile furrow, regardless of how many external blessings are bestowed on them. Until and unless God acts by His Holy Spirit to disrupt and convert sinners into good soil with his powerful gospel plow, no one will “hear the word and accept it and bear fruit” (Mark 4:20).
We need someone else to put their hand to the plow for us and “break up our fallow ground”. This is a picture then of what God does to every person he saves from his wrath. Conversion from bad to good soil – from Christ rejecting to Christ receiving – is not ultimately an action that we take on our own initiative or by our own strength. God disrupts and converts us, by his own free choice and gracious calling, to change from fallow soil to fertile furrows who gladly receive Christ and his Word in faith. In theological terms, regeneration (ie. breaking up the fallow ground) is the logically prior and ultimate cause of any positive human response to Christ and his Word. For this reason, it is proper to maintain that God converts us to believe in Christ and not the other way around.
Without a doubt, these are strange and uncertain times. This pandemic has proven once again the futility and foolishness of trusting in earthly commodities to stabilize our lives, whether that be our health, finances, work, the economy, governments, media, etc. But no virus or economic depression can stop the sharp edge of the gospel plow of sovereign grace.
Take courage, friends. In the midst of all the instability we are facing, we know that God is continuing to expand the borders of his field, graciously breaking up the fallow ground and converting men and women into fertile furrows who are ready and willing to receive his Word.
Keep your hand to the plow!