Once again, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faith[fullness], 23gentleness and self-control.
Against such things there is no law.
First of all, this presentation of “fruit” led me back to
John 15 and Jesus’ familiar words, “I am the vine, you are the branches, he
that abides in Me, the same brings forth much fruit” (15:5). As I read that
entire section again, I realized that, in a sense, Galatians 5 is a fulfillment
of John 14-16, “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter,
that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth … for He dwelleth
with you and shall be in you … When He, the Spirit of truth is come …” (14:16-17;15:26;
16:7,13). As we’ve studied earlier, the enormous difference between the Old and
New Testaments is this prophesied indwelling Holy Spirit. Under the Spirit’s
“tutelage” through the Law, some men like David or Daniel or Samuel could
attain to significant levels of spiritual maturity. But the potential was
nothing like what is available to us, to us as believers during the church age,
when the Holy Spirit actually takes up residence in our very hearts. The
passage before us tells us not what the Law requires of us but rather the fruit
which will result when we embrace the Holy Spirit’s presence and guidance. I
suppose the disciples couldn’t understand what Jesus meant when He said, “If
you abide in Me and I in you, you will bring forth much fruit.” I can imagine
them pondering the question, “How can I make Jesus ‘abide’ in me?” and really
coming up with no idea of what it might mean. Then came the Day of Pentecost
and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into their hearts. Suddenly the “If I
abide in you” was taken care of! The challenge now is for us to respond by
“abiding in Him;” and the more we do, the more “fruit” we’ll bear. The more we
allow the indwelling Holy Spirit to mold who we are, the more love and joy and
peace we’ll know. If anyone stumbles across this post, I would highly recommend
you go back and read all the way through John 14, 15, and 16. I think it is
infinitely more meaningful in light of Galatians 5! What Jesus was describing,
and which the disciples probably weren’t even capable of understanding (at the
time), was this entirely new relationship, not driven by Law but by the
indwelling Spirit. Understanding that, to me makes John 14 --16 an entirely
more insightful read.
To me, it also makes it even clearer that the way of the
Spirit, of grace, of New Covenant living, is far, far better than the way of
legalism, of rule-keeping, of the law-tutelage of the Old Testament. It has
always puzzled me to see what a bunch of bungling blockheads the disciples were
in the Gospels, then how totally changed they were after Pentecost. Jesus had
told them in John 16:7, “It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go
not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send
Him unto you.” It grieved them deeply to “lose” Jesus, yet His very death and
departure meant that the way was provided, the way of grace, the way of
blood-bought forgiveness and the indwelling Holy Spirit.
It seemed like they barely understood anything He said to
them, but in John 16:12,13, he had said, “I have yet many things to say unto
you, but you cannot bear them now. Nevertheless, when He, the Spirit of truth
is come, He will guide you into all truth …”
I guess where this gets practical is that pretty much my
whole Christian life, I have felt way too much like the disciples – a bungling
blockhead who can barely “get it right.” I believe now that much of that was
because I was trying to live out my faith just like them, basically trying to “do
it on my own” with the Holy Spirit as a sort of distant “helper”. I was living
like the Holy Spirit was “with me” but not embracing the enormity of His
presence “in me.” That is the way of legalism – here are the rules, now keep
them. Even if we say, “Here are Biblical principles, now do it,” we are still
being OT legalists unless we embrace grace and the Holy Spirit’s presence and
power. It is not a simple cold, “Do this and live.” It is something more like, “By
grace you are alive, now do this!” That may seem a subtle difference to some
but I think it is altogether the difference between the Law’s tutelage and the fullness
of grace. And the way of grace doesn’t simply make me a good “rule-keeper” (and
hence a proud, cruel, judgmental Pharisee), it transforms my very being into a
person of love and joy and peace. It truly changes me from the inside-out. That
is what happened to the disciples and it is what God wants to happen to us.
I still don’t know if I have grasped but a tiny corner of
this truth but I do see it is there. I think I do see my mistake and vaguely
how to live out grace not law. We are living the fulfillment of John 14-16. May
God grant me the grace to in fact live it out.
I still need to jot down some thoughts about the nine fruits
themselves. I will try to do that in my next post.
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