If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say unto
this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea, and it
should obey you.
Lk17:6 Lk17:10 Sycamine trees have very deep roots and it takes more than keeping the law to uproot them. Where in Mark chapter eleven Jesus talks about removing mountains, other people's problems, in Luke the sycamine tree represents our problems, the deep roots that the devil has in our lives. To live our lives in earnest to keep the commandments, no matter how hard we try and what we do, is still being under the law (you have only done your duty) and will not uproot the inroads the devil has made in our lives. Luke is a physician and he is giving us a prescription to health, physical, mental, and spiritual. Unless we learn to live by faith, we will never be healthy. We must learn how to be led of the Spirit in order not to be under the law. In order to live by faith, we must break free from religion, rules and regulations, punishments and rewards, and enter into a spiritual life. We do this by yielding to the Spirit and obeying the inner witness of God. That grain of faith will produce the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear: then put in the sickle for the harvest has come. (Mk4:28-29 paraphrased) Faith produces fruit. The law does not. The law is not of faith, therefore, it is incapable of uprooting sycamine trees and the deep roots that the devil has in our lives. Jesus is saying nothing more than this: learn to live by faith and you will come to a place of freedom, health, and victory. Stay under the law and you will never be free. You will never be whole. You will never reap a harvest, in this world or the world to come. “The just shall live by faith.” (Rom1:17,Gal3:11,Heb10:38,Hab2:4) Live under the law and you will die in your sin. Live by faith and the possibilities are endless. Amen |