36. Fruit unto Holiness
Romans 6:22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
The promise resulting from freedom from sin and service to God is fruit unto holiness; the end of that fruit is everlasting life. Several steps are involved in this process, not necessarily in chronological order. The first step is being made free from sin. This happened when Christ died for us for the forgiveness of sins; now we are freed from sin leaving a cleansed vessel for the Holy Spirit to dwell in. This allows the second step: we have become servants to God; serving God in practice means serving people, laying down our own desires and selfish interests to actually love and serve others. This then is the third step: having your fruit unto holiness. The fruit shows itself in the fruit of the Spirit, which is the character and behavior of God Himself. Fruit is the natural outgrowth of Christ living God’s life in us. It looks like God, who is holy; holiness is the pure outworking of self-giving and unconditional love, the inherent character of God the Creator and Owner and Lover of all things. The last step and the end result is everlasting life; eternal life is the very life of God; it is God’s life within us, which we have by faith. Having eternal life is the purpose and final result of all of God’s initiated activity on our behalf and for our good. This is the Gospel. When this Gospel is believed these steps are followed and we bear fruit.
According to Jesus’ words in John 15, “bearing fruit” is the purpose of our life, the purpose of our creation, the purpose of our redemption; this purpose is begun, continued and finished by God, without any contribution by us whatsoever. God does it all: that is the Gospel. The Gospel fulfills this promise, brings about this result, and accomplishes the purpose of our existence. We do not add to it or make it happen. Fruit happens; that’s a promise.