James 1:21-22

UNION WITH CHRIST

‘The engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls.’

James 1:21

How is the engrafted Word able to save the soul?

I. How does the graft save the tree?

(a) By changing it.

(b) By infusing new life and vigour into it.

(c) By bringing it into subjection to itself.

II. In like manner, the Word saves the soul.

(a) It makes it holy.

(b) Changes its character.

(c) Brings it into vital union with Christ, making it a branch in that heavenly Vine of which God is the Husbandman.

Salvation is, therefore, not merely an escape from penalty, but our being made holy as He is holy.

III. This supplies us with a test by which we may tell the worth of our religious beliefs and feelings. Are we changed by them from what we once were?—do we now love the things we hated in our unregenerate days?—do we hate the things we once loved?

IV. The most successful cases of grafting are those in which the tree subjected to the process is comparatively young and vigorous. When the tree is too old, the benefit wrought is not always attained. The lesson here is obvious.