Fruit for Death, Fruit for God…
Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.
For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.
But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
-Romans 7:4-6
Before we knew Jesus, we had no control over our sinful passions and desires. It was like a parasite eating us alive from the inside to bring forth death.
No matter how hard we tried we simply could not overcome it.
This is every painful pattern, consequence of trauma, addiction, self-sabotage, binge eating, toxic relationships dynamics, dark thoughts you name it.
But now in Christ we have the power to bear fruit for God.
In Christ we have died to death and now bring forth life in Him.
What is at work in us now is the life of the Spirit.
We are carried along by the Spirit into a new and living way: “We serve in the new way of the Spirit”
Romans 8:10-11
But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Where before our very bodies were being eaten alive from the inside by the curse of sin, now our very bodies are made alive by the living breath of God Himself through the Spirit.
Now what is at work in your body is not the parasitic inescapable nature of sin, but the new, implanted righteousness and peace of the Spirit of the Living God. Gods breath in your lungs, the light of Christ in your eyes, the remedy for your bones and your heart.
In this, and only in this, by way of the Spirit do you have power to overcome all things.
In Christ there is no hopelessness, there is no despair. In Christ the body broken by grief and fear and terror and trauma finds rest. In Christ we bear fruit for God! In Christ we serve the way of the Living Spirit of freedom.
Even the darkest. Even the most twisted thing. The most sad and terrifying thing…
In Christ it is illuminated and under Jesus it is used for good - to bear fruit for God.
If you have received Christ you belong to Him. You are in Him.
So remain! Remain in Him!
Romans 8:15-17
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, “Abba! Father” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God
And if children, then heirs - heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Remain in him - do not fall back into the slavery of fear.
Let your heart cry out Abba Father like a newborn baby in the presence of the Living God and feel his breath in you again.
Remember your status in the Kingdom as an heir with Christ.
Yes, you are human, but a new kind of human.
Your brokenness is no longer futile. It is the opening for the light of the Saviour!
You are a new creation, and when you cry out to God you receive from Him things the angels long to look upon.
Much Love in the Spirit,
Shyla