The Fruitful Life (Fruit of the Spirit - Its Biblical Foundation)

Sources:

1. Jerry Bridges – “The Fruitful Life”

2. J.V. Fesko – “The Fruit of the Spirit”

3. Christopher Wright – “Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit”

Intro: [Jerry Bridges; The Fruitful Life] “Healthy human life is fruitful life. We sense this at a deep level. For instance, the desire for abundance can bring forth a home with children, a bountiful flower garden, a farm flourishing with crops, a job with creative opportunities, a business with steady growth… The very model of fruitfulness is God himself. He created the universe in a magnificent display of His extravagance, then turned to His living creatures and said, “Be fruitful and multiply (Gen. 1:28). There is a generational fruitfulness intended and prompted by God.”

• Fruitfulness flows out of God’s own character and nature, since God possesses in himself abundance of life.
• • God’s Eternity – he has fulness or unbounded life in himself
  • God’s Aseity – he holds his own life and supply life in abundance to all (fountain of life… “Fons Vitae”)
• These is reflected when God creates, likewise, He grants capacity for fruitfulness to creation and purposefully designed it to grow and abound. (read Gen. 1:22 & 28 – creation mandate for both man & animals)
• • be fruitful… hb. ה ָּרָּפ (parah)
  • multiply… hb. ה ָּב ָּר (rabah)
  • fill the earth… hb. א ֵל ָּמ (male)

I. Adam’s Fall and his Fruitlessness

• But Man’s fall to sin & disobedience, incurred not only death and God’s punishment, with it, came also the bareness & unfruitfulness of man.
• Opposite of his maker, he shall now be unproductive, just like death.
• In Gen. 3:16-19… The ground was cursed to rebel against man and produce thorns and thistles instead, while women’s childbirth will be painful and life threatening.
• Even the very institution (i.e. family) which is the seedbed of life and fruitfulness is threatened (Gen. 3:16 “you desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you”)
• Added to this… murder, war, and moral corruption opposed man’s mflourishing. (Gen. 4-6)

II. Fruitlessness Mirrored by Israel

Notice: Man’s fruitless-bareness in Adam is reiterated in and is replicated by Israel. (read Isaiah 5:1-7)

• In Isaiah 5, the prophet likens Israel to a vineyard on the fertile hill. It described God’s activity in planting a vineyard. God tilled the soil, cleared it of stones, and planted the choices of vines
• God built a watchtower, fashioned a wine vat and waited for the crop of grapes to grow so that he could create wine. But the grapes that God planted yielded wild grapes, ones that could not be used to produce wine.
• In fury, God removed the garden walls and allowed the vineyard to be trampled on. God stopped cultivating it and allowed thorns and thistles to grow in place of it… and let the sun scorch it out of existence.

[J.V. Fesko; The Fruit of the Spirit] “Israel was the unfruitful vineyard. The good grapes or the fruit that God desired to see grow was that of justice and righteousness (the fruit of the Spirit). But instead, Israel produced unrighteousness and bloodshed. (Is. 5:7)”

• Then in v. 9-10 & 25-26, the curse of fruitless bareness is repeated by Israel, just as in Adam. Israel, like their forebearers before them who perished in the wilderness of Moab, failed to WALK by the SPIRIT and produce fruits of righteousness pleasing to God.
• But in the bleak of Israel’s fall and curses, God lit-up his promised hope – the coming of the Fruitful Servant & the Out-pouring of his Spirit who will restore the fruitful life God desires for man. (read Isa. 11:1-5).

III. The Fruitful Servant of God

Notice: The fruitful servant (the Branch out of the Stump of Jesse) will bear fruit, and he will be anointed with the Spirit of God.

• He will be filled with wisdom, knowledge, and he will yield the fruit of righteousness that Adam and even Israel failed to produce…
• Even wearing righteousness & faithfulness (a fruit of the Spirit) around his waist like a belt.
• This fruitful abundance in the coming of the Faithful Servant is reiterated in…

Is. 4:2 “In that day the Branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the Fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel.”

• Ezekiel 17:22-24 “Thus says the Lord God: “I myself will take a sprig (branch-shoot) from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out. I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain (Psalm 2:6 language). 23 On the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bear branches and produce Fruit and become a noble cedar. And under it will dwell every kind of bird; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest. (Matt. 13 language) 24 And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord; I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish (hb. parach). I am the Lord; I have spoken, I will do it.
• Is. 27:6 “In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit. (hb. parah)” (now his fruitfulness extends to the Nations not only to Israel)
• [J.V. Fesko; Fruit of the Spirit] “The fruit of which Isaiah writes is not literal — Isaiah is not referring to bananas and mangos! Rather, he is referring to the fruit of righteousness and justice. And this fruit, or righteousness, would fill the whole earth! No longer would God confine righteousness to Israel alone but would see that his faithful Servant would spread this fruit throughout the entire creation.”

IV. The Spirit of Fruitfulness

Notice: As Christ will have the Spirit of God rest upon him and himself produce Fruits of Righteousness that pleases the Father (Is. 11:2, Matt. 3:17). He will also send the Spirit of righteousness and will cause the whole earth to sprout with fruit

• Joel 2:28… “in those days I will pour out my Spirit on all people”
• John. 16:7… “but if I go, I will send the Advocate/Spirit to you”
• Acts 2:33… "Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear."

Point: The Servant of Yahweh is not solely responsible for this restored fruitfulness. By emphasizing the imagery of God’s vineyard, Isaiah demonstrates the Spirit's vital role in this restoration:

• Isa. 32:14-17… “For the palace is forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens for ever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks; until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness (is) quietness and trust forever”
• Isa. 45:8… “Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout; I the Lord have created it.”

[J.V. Fesko] “notice that the shoot from the root of Jesse would ‘bear fruit’. This servant would be anointed with the Holy Spirit and he would be filled with wisdom and knowledge, and would judge with righteousness – a fruit of the Spirit. But not only would he yield the righteousness that Israel failed to produce, but he would also wear faithfulness – another fruit of the Spirit – around his waist like a belt… Then God would open up the windows of heaven and send forth the rain to water the earth so that it could yield fruit; but the rain is symbolic language for the Holy Spirit and his work. — Note here the connection between bearing fruit and the presence of the Spirit.”

An Eschatological Fulfillment: In the coming of Christ and the abundant outpouring of the Spirit, the fruitfulness desired by God in creation is restored and realized. Spiritual barrenness will no longer plague the earth, and the drought of sin and unfruitfulness will be flooded with an abundance of gospel virtues and Christ-like obedience!

V. The Galatian Foolishness

• Wonderfully, Apostle Paul when dealing with the counterfeit fruits of righteousness by the Judaizers, noted that the obedience God desires are found only in Christ, through the Gospel.
• Heresy: of Covenantal Nomism… Christ is not enough to be a "true" Christian and a child of Abraham… a Gentile convert also had to submit to the Mosaic Law—specifically marked by circumcision, dietary restrictions, and keeping Jewish sacred feasts.
• Read Gal. 5:16-23 - note the terms:
• • “Walk in the Spirit / Led by the Spirit”… (v. 16 & 18 contrast to Covenant Israel in the Wilderness)
  • “Fruit of the Spirit”… (contrast to Adam’s creation mandate to be fruitful but failed)
  • “Works of the Flesh” (v. 19 – In Adam) vs. “Fruit of the Spirit” (v. 22 – In Christ)

Note: These terms that Paul used are not neutral phrasings but are rooted in Biblical CREATION and COVENANT Concepts of fruitfulness desired and designed by God.

Point: Galatian foolishness is not only striving to be justified by the law but striving to bear fruits of righteousness by Mosaic-Ceremonial-Law keeping, which clearly even Israel, with it, was never able to produce.

• Clearly, the Fruitful Life that pleases God is only generated by Christ, and in our Union with him through faith. (gospel-induced righteousness… read John 15:5)
• The Galatians were not only trying to be justified by Mosaic-Ceremonial Keeping, but also, they are trying to produce the fruitful life of righteousness through this barren and desolate means.

Point: Only in Union by Faith w/ God’s Fruitful Servant and as his Spirit abide in us, man is able to produce this Eschatological Fruit of Righteousness and live an abundant life pleasing to God.

• These Spiritual fruits and Spiritual produce flowing out of the believer’s life is God’s long-awaited fruitfulness that pleases him.
• This is the reason Paul called it “Fruit of the Spirit” as Paul deals with the Galatian Heresy, in contrast to the “Works of the Flesh” in Adam.
• [J.V. Fesko] “How many of us have desired to do great and mighty things for the Lord with our lives? Yet, in our quest to do these great things, we neglect what Paul has written here. We think patience or gentleness are small and insignificant things. Does it really make a difference if I show my children, my neighbor, my co-worker, my spouse, or my extended family some patience? If we learn to see patience as the long- promised eschatological outpouring of the Spirit, that which fills the earth with the fruit of righteousness to the glory of God, how then might we answer that question?”

LESSONS:

1. The Fruit of the Spirit militates against Moralism.

• • It is ultimately the fruit produced by the Gospel. (Is. 53:11 "He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.")
  • Prov. 15:8 "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight."
  • Our good works and virtues become evangelical obedience… [see 1689 LBCF 16.2 “fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith”]

2. The Fruit of the Spirit militates against Licentiousness and Legalism.

• • The Spirit's fruit is grounded in the Gospel's double cure to sin’s double curse.

Double Curse – Condemnation & Corruption

Double Cure – Justification & Sanctification

• • The FoS being grounded in the Gospel, first cures our condemnation before God, focusing not only on human corruption. (vs. Legalism)
  • The FoS frees us to truly Love God and Love others by changing our hearts. (vs. Licentiousness)