NO SPRING FOR A DEAD
TREE
It has been my privilege to travel in many countries, to see much wonderful scenery, and to stand in awe at the amazing handiwork of God in creation. I have been impressed and challenged again and again, but nothing ever moves me so much as to be in the English countryside in the springtime.
I am always fascinated by the quiet emergence of the new life from the cold deadness of the fading winter. In every area of plant life, of bird and animal life, the countryside stirs itself and becomes gloriously involved in the miracle of springtime.
Against a new backdrop of tree scenery the tiny actors play their parts in God's annual masterpiece, accompanied by the sounds of newly-tuned songs.
Spring is a blessed and happy time for trees. Once more they can develop their full leafy personality. But this is not so for all trees — there is no spring for a dead tree!
When I lived in the country I would watch many a copse or rolling wood when the magic months came. I would see bare and empty trees emerging from the nakedness of winter, glowing green to change the whole countryside.
But, when I looked deeper into the woods, I would see trees that showed no response to increasing sunshine and the call of the new time. They had no capacity to emerge because they were dead — and there is no spring for a dead tree!
So it is in the realm of the human heart. The God of creation is the God of redemption, and God's salvation begins with being born again, as Jesus said in John 3:3. Being born again is receiving a new quality of life. The first birth brings physical life and mental ability, but it also includes what Ephesians 2:1 calls being "dead in sins" — spiritually dead.
This is why Jesus said in John 10:10: "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." His inclusive work was to bring spiritual life to the human spirit, on the basis of forgiveness of sins. Romans 8:16 says: "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." (ASV).
God's salvation is thus the springtime of the soul. There is a new quality of life at work within the human heart and life of the believer. The brown withered leaves of the old dead life fall off under the expulsive power of a new resurgence of the spiritual dynamic.
Heaven above is softer blue,
Earth around is sweeter green,
Something lives in every hue
Christless eyes have never seen.
But, remember, just as there is no spring for a dead tree — so there is no spiritual spring for the soul without this newness of Christ indwelling through His Holy Spirit.
You can care for a dead tree, prune it, fertilize it, transplant it — but you cannot bring spring to its empty deadness.
Likewise, you can bring new practices to the soul without Christ, involving education, new techniques of worship, even moving to a new church or denomination — but without the glorious experience of receiving Christ into the heart and life, the only result is a new type of deadness.
Yes, springtime is tremendous, but no tree is ever satisfied by springtime alone. The same resurgence of life that brings the spring goes on to bring the fullness of summer, and the complete satisfaction of a fruitful autumn. Only when the wheel has turned full circle is the tree satisfied. Then it can rest with the quiet assurance of "mission accomplished."
In just the same way, being born again is not, of itself, the aim of spiritual experience. This is but the springtime of the soul. For full satisfaction there must be the going on to summer and autumn. Just as in the case of the tree-the same life that brought the spring must bring the summer and the harvest.
This is where so many Christians miss the supreme glory of the outworking of the indwelling Christ. We come as sinners to the cross. We receive Christ into our hearts and lives. We are born again and move into the thrilling wonder of sins forgiven and a home in heaven. Then, we do one of two things. We settle down to enjoy our springtime, believing that spring is the final act. Or we set about organizing our own summer and producing our own autumn, under the mistaken impression that we are responsible for the results.
Trees do not operate that way and neither does God. The same Life that brings the spring to the soul guarantees the harvest-and that Life is Christ indwelling us through His Holy Spirit.
The purpose of this book is to consider this whole process more thoroughly. We will consider how your springtime can go on to summer and then to a fruitful harvest. We will learn how, instead of displaying only a crop of leaves, the flowers of Christian character may be seen, followed by the fruits of Christian service. This will be, indeed, living the Christ-filled life.
