Fruit As Union with Christ

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love...” - Galatians 5:22

In the first part of this series, I explored the context of Galatians 5. Specifically, the way in which God’s grace brings human flourishing in contrast to the flesh bringing death and destruction. The one who will “inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:21) will also be one who bears forth evidence of God’s grace. By virtue of the believer’s union with Christ the flesh stands “crucified… with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5:24). This, then, sees an indelible work begun in the Christian heart that will undoubtedly culminate in a new nature taking root. As we identified the tree, so now we must look to the branches. That is to say, the specific fruits of grace expressed in the believer’s life. This entry will show how spiritual fruits originate from our union with Christ.

Many commentators point out that the fruit of the Spirit can be divided into three triads:

1. Love, joy, peace

2. Patience, kindness, goodness

3. faithfulness, gentleness, self-control..

In contrast to the disordered “deeds of the flesh,” the fruit of the Spirit take a form reminiscent of the very threefold Godhead who, operating by the person of the Holy Spirit, grants this torrential outflow to the Christian. “The other list is a jangle,” writes R.C.H. Lenski, “this one a sweet harmony.”1 God’s abiding presence in the believer as the temple of God carries with it an expectation for holiness (1 Cor. 3:16; 2 Cor. 6:16). Just as the temple of God had specific order in its function and worship, so too the Christian’s life, as the temple of God, operates according to a new order. This “temple” theme relates directly to the concept of spiritual fruit, and in turn creation as a whole.

In the book of Genesis, God placed Adam in the garden “to work it and keep it” (Gen. 2:5). Man abided in the constant presence of God as the steward of the land He created. God even fashioned “an help meet for him” (KJV) or “a helper fit for him” (ESV, Gen. 2:18) to carry out the task bestowed on him. The text seems to indicate that man’s role in the garden involved expanding the boundaries which, in the pre-fallen world, remained untouched (Gen. 2:5). The Creator tasked mankind to exercise dominion over creation in the form of cultivation and care for green things and all animal-kind. He tended the field and named the beasts. Everything, by God’s command, was given its proper place. In short, Adam functioned as a proxy for God’s will for both man and creation. He, as the father of mankind, functioned as covenant head for all mankind.

Of course, things did not continue in the state God created them. Adam abdicated his role as a familial head and allowed his spouse to take and eat of the forbidden tree. Rather than exercising his authority over God’s created order, Genesis tells us it was a serpent, an animal, a “beast of the field,” who tempted our first parents in the garden (Genesis 3:1). What’s more, Adam engaged in a form of idolatry. The serpent - that is, Satan - names Adam, pretending to grant Adam the potential for a new role in the created order, saying, “you will be like God.” Thus, Adam and Eve believed the first heresy, culminating in that dreadful meal: “she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate” (Genesis 3:6). In this way all mankind fell into sin. J.V. Fesko notes, “The first Adam was placed in the world to rule over it, to extend God’s image throughout the world, and to extend the gardentemple throughout the world. Adam failed—he rebelled against God and surrendered his reign to the powers of Satan, sin, and death”2 Such was the shame of their sin, when Adam and Eve recognize the sound of God walking in the garden, they hide themselves, seeking to cover themselves from the face of God (Genesis 3:8-10).

Much more could be said - and certainly has been said - about the cause and effects of Adam’s fall. Job describes him as hiding iniquity in his bosom (Job 31:33). Hosea, speaking for God, equates rebellious Judah to Adam as transgressors of the covenant, for both “dealt faithlessly with me” (Hos. 6:7). At its core man’s fall into sin constituted a betrayal of the priestly office given to Adam at creation. God cursed Adam and Even - and by extension, their descendants - to labor through much pain; to “work the ground from which he was taken” (Genesis 3:16-19, 23). In addition, Paul explains that death, beginning with Adam, spread throughout all men. Sin rules over men from Adam to Moses, and onward, until the True Adam appeared (Romans 5:12-14). Job longed for an arbiter between him and God (Job 9:33). Ezekiel told of a forgiveness for wicked men who repent, granted life “because of his righteousness which he has practiced” (Ezekiel 18:21-22). Yet, the psalmist lamented, “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand” (Ps. 130:3).

Unlike the first Adam, Christ, the better Adam, brought grace abounding to many (Romans 5:15). Adam brought condemnation, but Christ brings justification. One man’s sin brought death to every person. Christ’s life and obedience institute a reign of freely-given righteousness for “those who receive the abundance of grace” (Romans 5:17). The prophet Isaiah foretold of “a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit” (Is. 11:1). The next verse revealed the hallmark of this “shoot,” as one upon whom “the Spirit of the Lord” rested. So too did David describe one who delighted in the law of the Lord as “a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season” (Ps. 1:1-3). So now the bride of Christ, adorned in the righteousness of her husband, stands unashamed and radiant before the glory her beloved (Ps. 34:5; Zec. 3:4; 1 Cor. 15:53-54; Gal. 3:27).

Every page in all the books ever written could not begin to describe the richness contained in the mystery of believers’ union with Christ. For our purposes, understand we who have put on Christ, by the Spirit, show forth the fruit of the vine (John 15:5). As those in whom the Spirit of God now dwells the Christian will continue to bear fruit in keeping with this righteousness. This does not mean the believer will never sin - far from it. What it does mean, is that in spite of our weakness or struggles with sin we have hope that God continues to work in us to conform us after the image of Christ, the true Dwelling Place of God’s presence (Rom. 8:29; 12:2; Eph. 1:23; Col 1:19; 2:9; 1 Pet. 1:14-15). To put it another way: Christ is the True Temple. God’s presence lives in Christians because of our union with Christ by faith (Heb. 4:1-4). Therefore, believers, united together in faith, are the temple of the Living God (1 Cor. 3:16; 2 Cor. 6:16; Ephesians 2:18-22). As the temple of the Living God, Christ bring forth in us the same fruit of righteousness as he himself displayed so perfectly for us. His inheritance becomes our inheritance.

Yet, we cannot discuss the concept of the Temple of God without briefly speaking of Christ as the Great High Priest. The book of Hebrews concentrates upon this theme, building an argument for Christ as the abiding “priest forever” in opposition to the priests under the old covenant (Heb. 7:3, 16-17). Christ entered into the holy of holies of heaven itself on our behalf, sacrificing himself as the spotless Lamb of God, and putting “away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb. 6:19-20; 9:24-28). Our Priest presents himself as the perfect sacrifice, and in turn the people, the “body of Christ,” have perfect atonement for their sin (see Leviticus 4). As the author of Hebrews wrote, “when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Heb. 10:12-14).

The people of God must respond rightly to this sacrifice. Hebrews makes the inevitable response to such grace clear. Christ’s priestly role grants his people the confidence to draw near to God’s presence in full confidence, hearts washed clean just as a body cleansed with water (Heb. 10:21-22). We then learn the duty of God’s people both to God and to one another. Hebrews 10:24 teaches that we must hold fast to our good confession, resting in the faithfulness of God to grant what he promised. Likewise, believers must give great attention to encouraging one another towards (1) love and (2) good works. The author uses the word ἀγάπη, or “agape,” for what the text translates as “love.” The same word for “love” that Paul used in Galatians 5:22. Though context always determines meaning, Hebrews reveals the theological backbone to the fruit of the Spirit.

This brings us to the matter at hand. Paul writes in Galatians 5:21-22 that “the fruit of the Spirit is love...” and so on as a sign of the believer’s inheritance of the kingdom of God. Like the swell of an orchestra, life in the Spirit produces unique harmonies in time with God’s abiding grace, because it has its source in the shared life of Jesus. In other words, love bears itself out as proof of the believer’s communion with Christ and, in turn, the Holy Spirit. One commentator, bridging agape in Hebrews 10 with Galatians 5, shows the connection between love with good works. He writes, “Love is linked particularly with service… since the good works are the direct expression of the love.”3 Calvin goes as far as to say, “all virtues, all proper and well regulated affections, proceed from the Spirit, that is, from the grace of God and the renewed nature which we derive from Christ.”4 Calvin brings out in his short comment the sum and substance of this entire article: The Christian knows love, and lives out love, because they are united to Christ.

In the next entry, we will take a closer look at the kind of love which the Spirit brings forth in us.

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1 R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Paul’s Epistles to the Galatians, to the Ephesians and to the Philippians

(Columbus, O.: Lutheran Book Concern, 1937), 290.

2 J. V. Fesko, Galatians, ed. Jon D. Payne, The Lectio Continua Expository Commentary on the New Testament

(Powder Springs, GA: Tolle Lege Press, 2012), 166–167.

3 Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek

Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press, 1993), 527.

4 John Calvin and William Pringle, Commentaries on the Epistles of