Rootstock is defined as “part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new above-ground growth can be produced. It could also be described as a stem with a well-developed root system, to which a bud from another plant is grafted.”
Walking out my back door, I reached down to remove what looked like a piece of pink paper caught on the thorns of a dead rosebush. My beautiful red rose had appeared dead in the fall, but the bush now displayed a bright pink rose, just beginning to open.
I am no authority on roses, but I know that sometimes one rose is grafted onto the rootstock of another. While the grafted red rose appeared to have died, the rootstock survived the winter. The true nature of the rose was now coming out. Much to my surprise, within a few weeks, a red rose opened up. Red and pink roses now bloomed on the same bush. However, neither looked as healthy as they should.
Rootstock or New Creation, Sometimes It’s Hard to Tell
“For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” Romans 7:14-15
When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we are given a new nature. The Spirit of 
Christ comes to live within us. The problem arises when our old nature, our sinful nature, rears its ugly head. Deep inside me, my true rootstock hides, now and then showing its true colors. Those things I thought were surrendered to His control, the inner self I thought was hidden, open up, taking me by surprise.
We all have that hidden rootstock. It may even look acceptable to the world, like my rose. However, it reveals what I truly am, a sinner saved by grace, still bearing in my body the sin nature that requires the touch of the Master’s hand.
Rootstock Can Be Stubborn
As Christians, we are all works in progress. Those two natures living side by side will never be as healthy or beautiful as they would be if only one existed without the other to sap its strength and beauty. We understand this better when we read Romans 7 in context:
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Changing from the old creation to the new requires the work of the Master Gardener. Our loving God knows we cannot live in our new nature without help. Only He can make the necessary changes. Romans 8:1-2 tells us: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”Our blessed Lord and Savior works within us to present us as a clean, spotless, and perfect work before the Father.
Surrendering our Rootstock to Become a New Creation
What sinful thoughts and desires do you struggle to hide from the world? What do you fear popping out and revealing that you aren’t all you seem to be?
Offer all of your sinful rootstock to the Lord, asking Him to change you and make you what he wants you to be. He will replace it with His beautiful, thriving new creation, able to serve Him and bless others, offering His love to a hurting world.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
