Receive the Engrafted Word

The entire way of salvation is in here in this verse. James gave an injunction.  He said “receive the engrafted word.”  Think about it.

James 1:21 “Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.”

“Receive the engrafted word” is coming from the Spirit of God. This is something we have never been able to accomplish. This tells us how have it is done, not how to do it. If you know you’re saved, it was by the Word of God. Receiving it met our need.

This tells us what we can and cannot do. What we can’t do, God easily does.  To understand is to see the engrafting of the word. If doing so saves the soul, it can make anything possible. We can’t renew it. We can’t make it better. The Word we have in our hands today is the soul’s only answer.

The body is the most obvious part of us. When we look at each other we really see an eternal soul. We are different than an animal; it has no soul. We are a conscious entity, a person with hidden parts.  The completeness will be known when we lay this body down. Our eyes will close, but the eyes of the soul live forever. To a certain extent we can take care of our body, but we cannot help the soul at all. We can’t fix it. The soul’s need is to be saved. It is the prime need. The soul is exceeding sinful. We came into the world as a fallen soul. The longer we refuse to deal with sin, the more wicked it is.  I can wash my hands, but I cannot scrub my soul.  It has to receive the engrafted word. Nothing is emptier than feeling lost, and there is no greater joy than being found.

Our body won’t live forever. All activity ceases, the heart, the lungs. A soul does not cease to exist. A lost soul is dying the second death. This is a separation from all hope. If you’re unsaved right now, your soul will go to the eternal place of retribution—hell. It’s not God’s fault there is a hell. Man’s sin caused the fall. It takes the engrafted word to save us.  It’s not of this earth; it is from above.

The words of the Bible are not just words on a page. They are engrafted. Assaults on the Bible are not new. The devil has always done this. However, these words are different. They are infallible. Hebrews says the world was created by the word of His power. Jesus spoke to the storm, and it ceased. The paralyzed got up when he spoke. There is something in the word of God. The written word has the same power as the spoken. In John, Jesus said His words are spirit and life. We can hear God speaking with the same potency that the Mary’s virgin womb heard it. It has the same potency of the words “it is finished” from the cross. The ground shook. The dead were raised. One word spoken at the tomb was powerful-“Mary.” Amid all the problems of the soul, of life, the word of God has the same potency as spoken then.

The word is able to save and deliver our soul. It does what is impossible.  There is nothing deceiving about it. It’s engrafted with truth. If the word says I need it, then I need it. It’s the same Spirit that moved on Elijah, the same that helped Samson kill the Philistines, the same that helped David kill Goliath. It’s the same spirit that came on the day of Pentecost. It’s here today and will lift us up.

How?  Receive it with meekness.  The word says “lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness.” Set aside the ignorance and pride, and the word of God will save.  The word directs us to Him who saves.

So the injunction is to receive the engrafted word for salvation. It is engrafted into our mind to keep us on the right track. It is engrafted into our heart, the seat of all the decisions in life. It helps us to know right and wrong. It sparks the soul in conviction and sparks our faith causing us to open the door of our heart and soul to him.

Engrafting a limb into a tree many not work, but the engrafting of the word into the soul will break the chains of sin and set us free. Verse 21 says to lay it all aside and come with meekness and receive the engrafted word.  It fixes the soul. Are we wiling to be engrafted?