FRUIT TO GOD
[p. 7] FRUIT TO GOD
There is a verse that I think will help to illustrate this, in Galatians 2:20. “I am crucified with Christ, and no longer live, I, but Christ lives in me; but in that I now live in flesh, I live by faith, the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”. It is not that either of these passages brings out what I should call christian privilege, that is much more difficult to unfold than people think and is in contrast to responsibility. If you take chapter 8:4 of this epistle, “That the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh but according to Spirit” Romans 8:4; it does not go beyond our responsibility, it is for man on earth. It is not christian privilege, that is sonship, it is God’s mind about man on earth, the blessing of those who have the Spirit.
I want to show the principle on which we carry out our life here and it does not go beyond what God looks for from man in his path through this world. He did look for it from the very time He had a vineyard, He very rightly looked for fruit from the vine. We find in Scripture both the vine and the fig tree, the former especially in relation to Israel, and the other more man in the flesh. The very fact of there being a vine shows that God looked for fruit, the wood is of no use if it does not bring forth fruit, it is good for nothing but to be burned; they were a nation to bring forth fruit to God and if they failed in that they were useless. The place for fruit-bearing is this earth. There was no true answer to meet God’s eye until Christ came, and took a place as Man. He is as the tree planted by the rivers of water that brought forth His fruit in its season. He was indeed the true vine and as He could say, “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me” John 15:4. Abiding in Him there was fruit for God and from that point there will be fruit for God; even Israel by-and-by will abide in Christ, and so will yield fruit for God. Now God looks for fruit and He has it in the christian. We are familiar with the passage that enumerates the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance Galatians 5:22: amongst these are qualities you will not need in heaven, but seen now in the christian, they are most acceptable to God. There is nothing spoken of as fruit of the Spirit but what God has had in Christ, and we have no more power to bring forth fruit to God than Israel had, only that by Christ we do so, in the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God, Philippians 1:11. This is seen in the Philippians, who, under the constraint of Christ’s love, loved the apostle, and that was the fruit of righteousness. The christian is dead to the law by the body of Christ, is married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that he should bring forth fruit unto God Romans 7:4. Under the law the passions of sin working in their members brought forth fruit unto death. The purport of all I have to say is that we shall bring forth fruit to God only as our hearts are under the influence of the love of Christ, and we are married to Him who can direct the heart of the believer into the will of God. To bring forth fruit to God you must be in the way of God’s will and your soul in the reality of what it is to be near to Him.
We have the two expressions in the word — the love of God and the love of Christ; there are certain specialities in the love of Christ, living in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not live by the law but by the life of Christ. There is one expression in chapter 6 to which I should refer, “for in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God” Romans 6:10. In a previous verse it is stated, “We are buried with him by baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” Romans 6:4, it is a question of walk. The christian down here is made up of life and fruit-bearing. We all have to begin by reckoning ourselves dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord Romans 6:11. This is very defectively understood, a great many christians think they are dead, but you are dead only in the measure in which you have reckoned yourself dead. Scripture unfolds the doctrine, but I do not know any statement that we are dead. I reckon myself dead indeed unto sin and that is the antithesis of being alive unto God. No one who lives to God can live to sin, he must die to sin. The way to it is this, if you want to be free from sin, you must accept death to sin.
I see the grace of the Lord Jesus, personally He was free from death but He settled every question for us by entering into it and thus He opened up the way of life. You cannot have a greater conception of grace than that He on whom death bad no claim should enter into it, that He might draw us into this way of life. He is raised from the dead by the glory of the Father Romans 6:4, and in the life in which He is I accept death. The soul must appropriate the blessed grace seen in the Lord Jesus going down into death to open up for us the way of life. When I see that, I am prepared to reckon myself dead; and that is the account the christian takes of himself down here. Nothing inferior to Christ will suit God, there is a new life, all is in Him. If you trace out in Ephesians, “In Christ Jesus”, you will see it indicates a new order of life and it alone will do for God; everything is on the basis of being in Him. If it is faith, it is faith in Christ Jesus, or life, or grace, or acceptance, or position, every principle [p. 10] which God can accept or appropriate is in Christ Jesus. We accept His death as to deliverance, but it is a wondrous thing that to be for God I must be in His life. If you could have innocent man like Adam in paradise it would not do for God now because it has been completely eclipsed; there has been that down here that answered perfectly to God and was to His eternal satisfaction. God is revealed in all His attributes and the only order He can now accept is what Christ brings in.
If you raise the point, ‘What is going to be my rule of life?’ we know many christians look at ‘the law’ for their rule of life, and many of us here tonight think that we are justified by His death, but that ‘the law’ was still for the rule of life. The only rule of life for the christian is love. I have said sometimes that there is nothing that really affects the heart of man like love. People pray that the word of God may affect the heart; I think it is what the word of God reveals that will affect the heart. “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” Galatians 2:20. I am married to another, joined to another, even to Him that is raised from the dead, that I should bring forth fruit unto God Romans 7:4. That is now entirely outside the order of things here, it being the will of God; mark the expression, “outside the flesh”, Christ is now apart from that entirely and He will direct you to God’s will, and all that is involved in that is not after the flesh, as my business, domestic or family concerns. If you want to know what is the will of God read Romans 12, and there you will learn that you are to present your body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, and the first thing that comes out in answering to this exhortation is that “we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another” Romans 12:5 and you are to exercise the gifts given you with that in view. You do not get anything that is after the flesh, you are [p. 11] married to another that you may bring forth fruit unto God Romans 7:4, and what I may call God’s will, His mind, that in which He has revealed Himself to us, is altogether outside the order of things on this earth. He is not after the flesh, He has died out of that order and we are married to Him that He may be to us the rule of life. And the principle on which the believer brings forth to God is that he is directed by Christ to the will of God, he is so under the love of Christ that he brings forth fruit to God. As in 2 Corinthians 5:14, “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again”. He, in boundless grace, came into death to make for us a way out of it, into life; and He now takes that place as Man God-ward, as well as the place of directing us into the will of God and to be under the constraint of His love. The blessed life that the christian is privileged to live is the life of Christ, I walk in that life and I find myself in company with Christ because He has taken up that life as Man. “In that he liveth, he liveth unto God” Romans 6:10. He has died unto sin and He lives to God, I am called to reckon myself dead unto sin but alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord Romans 6:11. It is only in the path of God’s will that you can bring forth fruit unto God Romans 7:4. What has come in now is Christ and we are joined to Him for that object, the latter part of Romans 7 is to lead up to what is in the next chapter. If there is no power in the believer there would be no fruit to God, so it says, “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death” Romans 8:2 and again, “That the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh but according to Spirit” Romans 8:4. The christian is set in a special relation to Christ that under the constraint of His love he may bring forth fruit to God, those divine [p. 12] principles so perfectly exemplified in Him when here — ‘love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness’ Galatians 5:22.
It is indeed an immense thing to be under the constraint of this love, so as to be not in the path of self-will, but bringing forth fruit to God according to His will, and being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Christ Jesus unto the glory and praise of God.