It means this. Christian life, spiritual life, life in the soul is not automatic. It isn't inherent in everybody. It isn't in us from birth. We may reach fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, forty, or sixty without conversion; it has not happened. We haven't got life, spiritual life in the soul. We are not in touch with the Lord. We have no power of God in us, no blessing, no new nature, no new heart. We are spiritually dead. Spiritual life has to be put within us. It has to come to us through the message of the gospel, and the Holy Spirit to give us understanding.
So with the bread, the woman had to put it there and knead it in and mix it in. Otherwise, it would never have been leavened. It would never have risen. It would never have done all the things that it is supposed to do. It is the same lesson as the previous parable. ‘You scribes and Pharisees’, we can imagine the Lord saying, ‘are not children of God. This life of God is not in you. You have never repented. You have never believed. You have never asked for a new life. It has got to be put there. Not only so, but it is an inner secret working. God changes us from within. We don't change ourselves. We don't say, ‘I would like to be a Christian. I am going to worship; I am going to read the Scriptures because you have to do that. By virtue of doing those things, and all my study and all my efforts, I shall make myself a Christian.’ No, this new life must be put within us and it must change us totally from within and make us new people. That is how God works. In conversion God works from the inside out, by the invisible, powerful working of the Holy Spirit.
You see, another picture from this little parable. That leaven had to go throughout the whole lump, and it did. It affected the whole mass of dough. It’s effect spread and spread until the whole lump was changed. That is a wonderful picture of Christian conversion. When we are converted, we are not partly changed, we are totally changed. It's not that we come to Christ and we say, ‘Oh Lord, forgive me my sins. Give me a new life’, and then God in my case gives me a new mind, and we say to another Christian, ‘What did you get?’, and he replies, ‘Oh, I got a new heart.’ And you say to another Christian, ‘What did you get?’ ‘Oh, I got a more tender conscience.’ Another one says, ‘Oh, I got some help in my bereavement.’ No, the whole lump is affected. When you or I are converted, the entire person, the entire nature is changed. My mind is changed. So I don't think like I used to think: selfishly, proudly, all for number one, scheming things, inventing excuses. My mind is now renewed: the Lord has changed it. I still have a great battle with sin, but all my mind functions in an entirely different way. That is true of every Christian. The heart is changed too, the affections, the emotions. I want the things of God. I love the Lord, and I love his interests. My will is changed. Before conversion, my will and my mind seem to work in an unconnected way. Sometimes my mind used to say, ‘I want to do this’, but my will said, ‘No, you’re not doing that. You're doing this’, and I wasn't in control. My will would go its own way. Now my mind and will work together.
How did it happen? Did somebody touch him? Did he go through some sort of human dry-cleaning process? No, it was change from within. God worked in his heart, like the seed in the ground, like the leaven in the whole lump of dough. God worked instantly, wonderfully, deeply changing and transforming the person.
The fermentation process of the yeast – what a picture of the power of God working in a life it is! What was flat becomes risen and living. It's a certain process. You don't mix in the sour dough and say, I hope that works. It is going to ferment and affect the whole lump, inevitably. When we cry out to God and we repent of our sin and we ask him to change our lives, God, by his Spirit, deals with us and says, ‘Be changed, be transformed, be a new person.’ We will definitely be affected. The dead person becomes a living person spiritually. What a wonderful picture this is of how we come into the kingdom of God. What a wonderful picture of the gospel. We do nothing except cry out, and believe in the Lord and ask and long for his blessing. That's all. The only hard part in receiving the message of the gospel and turning to Christ is that sometimes we have a battle with our own hearts. Sometimes half of us says, ‘Oh Lord, I want to be changed; I want to be forgiven; I want to be converted’, and the other half is shouting, ‘No, I don't. Leave me alone. I want my pride. I want my sinful pleasures. I want my old life.’ That's the only battle that sometimes we have. We must wrest ourselves away from all those things we love, and realise the danger we are in, if we do not seek the mercy of the Lord. Come to him and thrown yourself upon his mercy, and ask him saying, ‘Lord, forgive me. Lord, give me that powerful new life. Work within me. Make me thy child. Bring me to know thee and to feel thee and to walk with thee.’