No Root, Still Purged
The rocky ground in the parable of the sower is a real believer who did not grow roots and fell in his walk: barren, but not lost.
Four other clusters build on this: The Reward Is Not the Gift, Born of Incorruptible Seed, Every Mouth Stopped and The Will of the Father Is to Believe.
Scripture shows this in five steps:
- Luke 8:13, backed by Matthew 13:20-21 and Mark 4:16-17
- 2 Peter 1:5-7
- 2 Peter 1:8
- 2 Peter 1:9
- 2 Peter 1:10
Underneath it all lies Colossians 2:6-7.
In the parable of the sower, some seed falls on rocky ground. It springs up, then withers. Many people say this is someone who was never really saved. But Peter describes the same kind of person, and he says something about him that changes everything: he “was purged from his old sins.”
Luke 8:13
“They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.”
Luke 8:13
Jesus says two things here. First, these people believe. They “receive the word with joy,” and they “for a while believe.” The seed really sprang up. There was life, not a painted plant. Second, what is missing is root. Matthew puts it this way: “yet hath he not root in himself” (Matthew 13:21). The seed was good. The ground had no depth.
So what is the root? If I read this verse alone, I might say “no root” means “no real faith.” But Peter tells us what root is.
2 Peter 1:5-7
“And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.”
2 Peter 1:5-7
“Add to your faith.” You can only add to something you already have. The faith comes first. The root is what is built on top of it: goodness, knowledge, self control, patience, godliness, kindness, love. The rocky ground had the faith. It did not have the building.
Matthew said the man had no root “in himself.” Peter says, “if these things be in you.” When the sun gets hot, a believer needs something inside to hold on with. Peter says: put it there.
2 Peter 1:8
“For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
2 Peter 1:8
In the parable, only the good ground bears fruit. The rocky ground is barren. Peter draws the same line, barren or fruitful. And he puts the believer on the fruitful side by growing, not by being saved all over again. Being barren is something a saved person can fall into, and be called out of.
2 Peter 1:9
“But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.”
2 Peter 1:9
This is the verse that settles it. Peter is talking about the man without root, the one who lacks these things. He says he is blind. He cannot see far. And he “hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.”
Peter does not say this man thought he was cleansed. He does not say he seemed to be cleansed. He says he was. Only the saved are cleansed from their sins. So the man who falls is a real believer, cleansed, who has gone blind and forgotten. He is not a fake who was found out.
I know this man. I have been him: saved, and then so busy or so tempted that I forgot what God had done for me.
2 Peter 1:10
“Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things ye shall never fall.”
2 Peter 1:10
Here is the other side. The rocky ground falls away when temptation comes. The believer who adds these things “shall never fall.” Same road, opposite end, and the difference is the root. To “make your calling and election sure” does not mean to check whether I am saved. It means to make my walk firm. Peter has just said we are called “to glory and virtue” (2 Peter 1:3).
Colossians 2:6-7
“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him; rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.”
Colossians 2:6-7
Paul uses the same picture. Who is to be “rooted”? Those who have already “received Christ Jesus the Lord.” Being rooted is not how I receive Christ. It is how I walk after I have received Him. And “stablished in the faith” is what Peter means by making it sure, so that I never fall.
What this means
The rocky ground is a saved believer who did not put down roots and fell in his walk. Barren, but not lost. The seed that sprang up was real life. What it lacked was depth, not birth. “No root” means no growth. It does not mean no faith. And Peter says the one who fell “was purged from his old sins.”
So I do not need to dig up my faith to see if it is real. I need to build on it.
Connected chains
This cluster goes hand in hand with Thorns and Thistles, the Cursed Fruit, Lost and Found: One Key for Luke 15, The One Work Is to Believe and Perfected Forever.