Enjoy Life, Enjoy God
FRUIT
September 9, 2009
Being in Christ, changes just about everything. Paul tries to teach us so.
So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.
- Romans 7:4 TNIV
The growing chain of logic continues. When a person dies, the relationship to the law, for example, changes. Christians have died to self, and are now alive to Jesus Christ. So our relationship to the law changes. It looks a bit like this:
DIED: changes our relationship to God
ALIVE: We are now alive to Jesus Christ--no condemnation
FRUIT: Because we are alive, we are now free to bear fruit
GOD: Yet note the fruit is "for God." We have been rescued, forgiven, redeemed for God in Jesus Christ. This is not about finding oneself spiritually, or self-fulfillment. The fruit is for God.
Hard issue! How's the fruit coming in our lives?
Joyfully,
Dale Patterson