Ezek 36:33-36 “Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited. Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it.”
The Christian is good soil of which the Lord God has tilled and turned what was once a wasteland into a bountiful garden like unto Eden. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself teaches this in His parable about the good soil in Matthew 11, Mark 4, and Luke 8; and there is a very strong affirmation of this in Hebrews chapter 6:7,8,”For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.” What does this mean?
In short, it means what our verse in Ezekiel 36 prophesies, that God has cleansed our poisoned soil with the lime of the Law and the nourishment of the blood of His dear Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. He has made a place for us to live, as the apostle puts it in Romans 6, “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”(verse 5 and 6)
We, before our conversion, were a wasteland, desolate, full of noxious and poisonous weeds; a land that produced bad crop after bad crop, crops of sin; full of desires and selfishness, we produced no good thing, we were entirely unproductive; engaged in serving our own desires as an end in their selves.
But, man was not originally made in this way. Man was made to worship God, and happiness and prosperity were the results of living a life worthy of praise from our heavenly Father. However, man in sin has now made happiness and self satisfaction the ends to themselves. And this is what has produced crop after crop of fruitless waste and created a wilderness where jackals, hyenas, and carrion foul patrol for the stench of rot and death.
Thank God for tilling the soil and draining the land of all of its poison; for washing our sins in the blood of Christ and clothing us in His righteousness. Thank God for the Law of the commandments and the conviction that has come to every one of His dear children through the work of the Holy Ghost upon our consciences. And, thank God for the bountiful harvest of fruit that we may now have by being planted in Christ and bearing the fruit of the Spirit. Fruit that we ought to share with all who ask of us, “What is this joy and hope which dwells in you?”. It is the Lord Jesus Christ, He is our joy, He is the vine by which we, as branches, can only live and bear this wonderful nourishing fruit. “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”(John 15:5) And, the Holy Spirit is that sap, that life blood that flows between us and our precious Saviour.
What a glorious realization it is for an unconscious seed, to wake up one day as a sprout growing in God’s glorious Eden. To be nurtured, cared for, watered and fed, all without the fear of weeds choking us out, or a tall and mighty tree starving us of the life giving rays of our God.
Scripture Alone 