Section 2
life might be released from within Him. The point here is that the Lord lived a life under death to Himself and that this kind of living is related to the process of resurrection.
As an illustration of the fact that resurrection begins with death, let us consider once again the Lord's word concerning Himself as a grain of wheat: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12:24). When a grain of wheat is sown into the earth, it dies there. But while it is dying, it is also growing. The strange thing is this: if the grain of wheat does not die, it will not grow. Suppose a grain of wheat is placed on a table and left there. That grain of wheat will not die, and also it will not grow. In order for a grain of wheat to grow, it must be put in the ground to die. It grows by the way of dying. Without dying, a grain of wheat will never grow.
Now we need to see that the resurrection of a grain of wheat does not begin when the wheat sprouts out from the soil. When a grain of wheat sprouts in this way, someone may say, "Look! We can see the resurrection of the grain of wheat." It is not wrong to say that the sprout ing of a wheat grain is a matter of resurrection.