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Enjoy Life, Enjoy God


Dale Patterson

BEAR FRUIT

September 30, 2011

Ever spend a night in jail? Not much good happens in jail, not a very productive place, not the context to do something with one's life.

 

So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to one another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.
--Romans 7:4 TNIV

Remember, Paul's going somewhere as he unfolds his message in the Letter to the Romans. Many of the people who hear his words see their religion as a law--keeping of rules and traditions, or breaking those laws and traditions. Paul says, there is no life, no joy, no freedom in the law, it's like being in jail. But death has happened. He tells Christians that they have died to the law. And if we have died, they don't keep dead people in jail! Not only are we dead to the law, we have been born again to life in Christ. Get out of jail and live.

Now, the law behind us and it's obligations, we are free to live, out of the jail cell, and free to make a difference--to bear fruit. So what can we do with that freedom today? How can our lives bear fruit in the life with which Christ graced us.

Joyfully,

Dale Patterson