12 Fruit of the Spirit: Summary

Krisan Marotta: Welcome back to the Wednesday in the Word podcast. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. Today is the 12th and final talk in my series on the fruit of the Spirit. Thanks so much for sticking with me to the end. In this series, we have been searching for Paul's understanding of the concepts of the nouns on the list and the fruit of the spirit from Galatians 5. We have been exploring various passages in Scripture to learn what the Bible says about these concepts and therefore to try to recover what Paul was thinking when he wrote the list. I have argued that the items on this list are not feelings. Rather, they are a lifestyle that results from a profound shift in worldview. As the Spirit of God teaches us truth, our perspective changes, and that changes how we choose to act, respond, and treat each other. I have also argued that these qualities are not optional additions or bonus extras that help you become a nice person or a better disciple of Jesus, nor are they something that you should pursue in order to grow in spiritual maturity. They are not the cause of spiritual maturity, rather, they result from spiritual maturity. The Spirit teaches us truth, that truth changes our worldview, and that worldview changes our lifestyle, producing these kinds of results. I've argued that worldview is something that we think with, not something we think about. Your worldview is like putting on a pair of contact lenses. You may forget you have them on, but they shape how you see the world. When we put on the contact lenses of the gospel worldview, we live differently and we pursue different goals. As we face the choices that life throws at us, we reveal our fundamental beliefs. We won't be obedient consistently and perfectly in all situations, but the kind of people we want to be and the goals we chase will become obvious because we will reveal our willingness to follow and love God through the choices we make. I've argued that the fruit of the Spirit are the inevitable result of that worldview change of coming to faith. When we come to believe the gospel, these qualities follow. They become the very things we pursue and want out of life. Let me give you an analogy to try to explain this connection a little better. I wish I'd thought of this analogy sooner. I would have included it earlier in the podcast series, but it came in response to a listener question. Imagine that you were in the latest Marvel superhero action-adventure movie. The evil aliens have planted a bomb in New York City that is about to explode and destroy the entire planet. The clock is ticking, and you have to figure out which wire to cut to diffuse the bomb. All of a sudden, your sidekick whips out a booklet from his pocket and says, Let's read the instruction manual. Even though he can't read Alien, like most instruction manuals, it's all in pictures, and there is a big color picture with scissors cutting the red wire. Great, you have the instructions, you have the right knowledge, you know that the red wire is the one to cut, and as the clock ticks down to zero, you cut it, saving the planet. Some people view the gospel like that instruction manual for the bomb. It gives us the knowledge we need to follow to live a good Christian life. The instructions are things like believe in Jesus, confess your sins, join a church, pray, be kind, and pursue the fruit of the Spirit. And we just have to follow the instructions. You can probably guess that I do not think that is the best analogy to explain this connection between worldview and salvation. I don't think it works like that at all. Let me give you a better analogy. This time we are in a fantasy movie. In this movie, a prince falls in love with a beautiful princess, but alas, she is enchanted. Her fairy godmother tells him to break the enchantment and win her heart. He must pass three trials. First, he must bring back a jewel guarded by a fierce dragon. Second, he must trek through the desert and solve the riddle of the Sphinx. And third, he must climb the highest mountain and convince the prophet who lives there that he the prince is the wisest man of all. In one sense, the prince has all the knowledge that he needs. He knows the three tasks he must accomplish to win his love and free her and live happily ever after. But if you stop and think about it, he doesn't know how to accomplish those three tasks. The instructions by themselves don't teach him how to solve each problem. For those instructions to do him any good, he must be a certain kind of person. First of all, only a prince who is truly and deeply committed to the princess will attempt to follow these instructions at all. If he cares more about himself than her, he's not going to go anywhere near any dragons. Not only that, he has to be the right kind of person to find these instructions helpful. It's not just a matter of cut the red wire. He has to be the kind of person who has a certain level of bravery, courage, wisdom, and resourcefulness if he's going to have any hope of succeeding. How did the prince lure the jewel away from the dragon? Well, unlike everyone else who charged in with their swords and got burned to a crisp, the prince showed kindness to the dragon. He offered to trade one of the treasures of his kingdom. The dragon was willing to voluntarily give him the jewel and trade. How did he solve the riddle of the Sphinx? Well, thanks to his superior homeschooling education, he was smarter than everyone else who tried it. He didn't give up, he didn't jump to quick conclusions. Instead, he spent months doing research until he finally found the answer. How did he prove himself to be the wisest man of all? Well, he had read Socrates and he admitted he didn't know all the answers. The instructions on how to free the princes were only useful because the prince was the kind of person who was dedicated, kind, clever, and humble. The instructions provided an opportunity for the prince to reveal his character. They weren't instructions on how to become a dedicated, kind, clever, and humble person. The instructions created a set of circumstances in which the prince could demonstrate he was a dedicated, kind, clever, and humble person. In short, they were an invitation to discover what kind of person he was as he sought to follow them. I would argue that understanding the gospel is closer to the prince analogy than to the red wire analogy. The gospel is the kind of message that will only do you good if you are the kind of person who is willing to believe it. The gospel is great news only if God in His mercy and grace has given you the eyes to see it and the ears to hear it. The gospel is a message about who God is, about who we are, about sin, mercy, and eternal life. To embrace it, we must be people who are willing to recognize the lies we tell ourselves, turn away from those lies, and embrace the truth. In other words, we must be people of faith. By nature, all of us are rebels and sinners who mock and scoff and reject the gospel. Left to ourselves, we are trapped in our sins and we will reject the gospel every time we hear it. But God in His mercy changes us so that we become the kind of people who repent of our sins, long for the truth of the gospel, and humbly trust in the blood of Jesus. Through the working of God's Spirit, we respond to the gospel and recognize that it's true. We're still sinners, but now we understand that we're sinners. We recognize that we need the grace, mercy, and forgiveness made possible by the cross of Christ. I would argue the gospel doesn't come along and say, cut the red wire and you'll be fine. Rather, God gives us his spirit so that we embrace the truth of the gospel. As the spirit teaches us, the instructions begin to make sense. Life throws us challenges, temptations, trials, and opportunities, and like the prince in my fairy tale, they give us the opportunity to reveal the faith that God has given us. To wrap up this series, I'd like to look at this topic from a different perspective. It seems to me that what informs everything Paul has been saying, what gives structure and meaning to this list of the fruit of the Spirit is this. In Paul's view, to be a spiritual person is to see the truth, embrace the truth, and live like it's true. Now by truth, I mean those fundamental truths that we call the gospel, those truths that involve the fundamental questions about who we are as people, who God is, and what is valuable in this life. In one sense, the work of the Spirit can be described very simply. The Spirit of God opens our eyes, frees our hearts from the clutches of self-centeredness, and gives us the ability to see the bigger picture that we used to reject. That's a simple way of describing what the spirit does, but it's actually a very multifaceted thing because when our worldview changes, all kinds of other things change as well. The fruit of the spirit are one way of describing some of those changes. What I'd like to do as a summary is to review the truths that we have been seeing behind the fruit of the spirit. These are the truths that we have seen are foundational principles of our new gospel worldview that lead to these fruits of the Spirit. Truth number one, the God of the Bible is the God we must deal with. Now I almost left this one out because it seems so obvious, but most of humanity ignores God. It's not that the majority of people are atheists, in fact, most people are theists. When you ask people and take polls about whether you believe in some kind of spiritual being, most people agree. They say some kind of superior being exists, but we lie to ourselves about who that God is. Most of us reject the God who is actually the creator and author of the universe, whose revelations about himself have been collected into the Bible. We prefer to ignore that God and remake him in our image to fit our current worldview. But when we acknowledge that the God who has revealed himself through his prophets, apostles, and his son Jesus Christ is the one and only God, then everything else in our worldview changes. This change starts our willingness to see that God exists. He is the creator of everything, he is good, he is merciful, he has made promises, and those promises make a difference. The fruit of the Spirit is a list of qualities that arise from the change of worldview that happens when we start to come to know the God of the Bible. As we embrace certain truths about him, they leave a mark on our characters. Truth number two, God is the center of the universe, and we his creatures are equal before him. And we have talked about this one a lot. We acknowledge that God created all of us, that we ourselves are not the center of the universe, that God is the center of the universe, and once we make that worldview shift, that makes a huge difference. All of us secretly believe that this whole story is all about us, we're the main characters, and everyone else is the supporting caste. We all start from the premise that my needs are more important than everyone else's, and the most important question in any situation is how does this benefit me? But then the spirit teaches us that's a lie. We admit the reality that our creator gave us each our place in the universe. He is the center of the universe. We are equal before him, we have equal dignity and importance, but I am no more important than you, and you are no more important than me. And that shift from self-centeredness to a humble acceptance of our equality changes a lot. Truth number three, we're sinners. All of us are selfish to the core. Evil has taken hold of our hearts. We are guilty, we put ourselves first, we trample others, we act for our own benefit without caring who we hurt in the process, and we are guilty before God. One day we will face the judgment of God, and he has every right to condemn us. He is not obligated to save us, and there is nothing we can do left to ourselves to earn or buy his favor. Why does God offer anyone mercy? Because he is loving and gracious. God reached out and offered forgiveness out of his loving kindness. He's not being merciful because we deserve it, he's being merciful because he has chosen to be merciful. That truth changes our perspective both about ourselves and others. Once we realize and understand that we need the mercy of God, we start to see our friends, neighbors, and even our enemies in the same light. I begin to realize I have no right to condemn you, to judge you, for I am guilty too. I have no right to expect perfection from you because you are a person who needs the mercy of God just as much as I do. Truth number four, God is actively working for those who trust him. We know that in spite of our sins, God has showed us mercy and forgiveness, but further we know he's working for our good. In addition to overlooking what's wrong with us, he is actively fixing what is wrong with us. And that is an inspiring picture. The more we understand how actively God works for our good, the more it makes sense that we can be generous, compassionate, and forbearing to those around us. We can be forbearing to those who sometimes forfeit our good pleasure because we know ultimately God is going to make everything right. God is in control of our life and our destiny. He is weaving everything that happens into his plan to bring us into his kingdom. So we don't have to demand our share. We don't have to vindicate ourselves. God has it all under control. Understanding that truth frees us to apply the golden rule and treat others as we would wish to be treated. Truth number five, knowing God is working for us gives us a great hope. And that hope is central to the fruit of the Spirit. God has made promises, He's conquering guilt, He's conquering death, He's conquering sin, futility, and sorrow, and fixing all that is corrupt and broken in this world. Now that's a very sober sounding list. Guilt, death, sin, futility, those are not trivial issues, and none of us can solve those kinds of problems. Yet God has promised that he can and will solve them, and that gives us this great hope. We have this solid, eager expectation that we are headed someplace wonderful. Everything we go through in life has a point, everything has a purpose, everything that happens to us is under God's control, and he weaves it into his plan to bring us to this place of eternal life and happiness. Our lives are not careening out of control. God has a plan. Our lives have meaning and purpose, and we are headed to the ultimate happy ending. The more we understand the hope of the gospel, the more we delight in the promises of God. It doesn't make this life less painful, but it makes it hopeful. God is promising exactly what we need, and that gives us a certain joyful confidence. It gives us a kind of courage and stability. We hang on, we can stay balanced in the midst of a topsy-turvy world because we are standing on the rock of truth. Truth number six, we are uniquely connected to other believers. Our hope connects us to other believers in a way we are not connected to the rest of humanity. The more we see that the central question of this life is learning to embrace the gospel, the more we see that people who share that gospel and are embracing it are our people. They are the people we have the most in common with. We share the same hope, the same Lord, the same need for grace and mercy, and we are on this same journey together. Despite all our differences, we share the most important thing in life in common. Truth number seven, our hope gives us a certain amount of freedom. Because we hope in God and we trust that He is in control, we can be patient with others. We don't need to be threatened or offended because we know God is in control. Because we know God will fulfill His promises and make everything right, we can react to hurtful situations with a measure of grace, forgiveness, and forbearance. The fact that we have this hope teaches us to wait patiently for God. We can rest, we can trust, we do not have to fight and grab for the stuff of this world. We know we will be okay because God is on our side, He is working everything together for our good. And if God is for us, who can be against us? So we can wait patiently and trust Him. And finally, truth number eight, our hope inspires us to love what is right and good. The world tells us that God's standard of goodness restricts our freedom, that it's binding, that we're missing out on the best things in life. But we understand that it is God's standard of goodness that fulfills us. To follow His perspective on things, to limit ourselves where limitation is appropriate is a good thing. It is the way to freedom. It is the way to real life. God is not hindering us, he is fixing and protecting us, he is making things better. I think those truths are the logic behind the list of this fruit of the spirit. The fruit of the spirit are those qualities that result from a deepening understanding of those truths of the gospel I just listed. The more these truths shape our worldview, the more these qualities of the fruit of the spirit will become part of our characters. I think that's what Paul is getting at. Now that confronts us with the question of the relationship between God's work and our work, between God's choices and our choices. If you've read Galatians, you know that Paul describes this as a fruit of the Spirit or a work of God, yet at the same time, he exhorts us to pursue the things on the list. Well, how do we put that together? How could it be a work of God and yet we are being told to pursue them? Well, in my opinion, there is a right way to reconcile that problem and a wrong way to reconcile it. The wrong way is something like this. God has placed all the resources of the Spirit at our disposal when we put our faith in Him. Now it is up to us whether we will make any progress. In this view, the ball is in our court, and you'll hear language like just let go and let God or appropriate the power of the Spirit or know the truth, reckon it true and yield to it. And once we figure out how to yield to the Spirit, these qualities will emerge. If we fail to appropriate the Spirit's power, then we won't grow. We'll still be saved, but we won't have these fruit because we haven't plugged into the right power source. When I was a new believer, I heard it taught this way. Some of us are pushing our cars around, and some of us are driving because we have recognized the secret of turning on the engine. Those who are pushing are sometimes called carnal Christians, and those who are driving, they're the real spirit filled Christians. In this scenario, if I find myself struggling with sin, the problem. Is I haven't plugged into the power of the Holy Spirit. I am still pushing the car. I need to jump in the driver's seat, get hold of the power of the Spirit, and then my struggles will disappear. Now that does explain how this is both a work of God, but something I am exhorted to do at the same time. Under this view, God has done his part and now the rest is up to me. In my opinion, Scripture teaches a very different view than that. I think Scripture teaches that the Spirit of God works in every child of God. There are no carnal Christians and no spirit-filled Christians. There are no haves and have-nots. There are only believers in whom the Spirit of God is working, and non-believers in whom the Spirit of God is not working. The Spirit works in all believers and this fruit will result. The Spirit gives us faith, and this fruit results from trusting and believing the promises of the gospel. We know that the Spirit is at work because we see our lives changing. Every day we are put in situations where we have to choose to follow God or follow the way of the world. And sometimes we choose right and sometimes we choose wrong. And when we choose wrong, we regret it and we repent because ultimately we want to follow God. These fruits are attractive to us. They don't seem old-fashioned or burdensome or restrictive. They are qualities we admire and want to have. They represent what we want in life and what we're shooting for. When Paul exhorts us to pursue these qualities, in essence, I think he's calling us to believe. The choice to pursue them is not a choice to find the power source. It's simply a choice to embrace the truth of the gospel more fully and to live like it's true. Remember the context of Galatians. In Galatians, Paul is not talking to Christians who have everything together. He's not talking to people who have faith and everything is fine, but they just need to get in there and tap into the power source so they grow faster. That's not the context. In Galatians, he's talking to people who have been listening to a false gospel. They are in danger of abandoning the gospel itself. They are turning away from the idea that they need the mercy of God that is found in Christ, and instead, they are embracing the idea that their obedience to the law will earn God's favor. Although they still have the name of Jesus attached to it, it's not really faith in Jesus at all. The gospel is this two-part picture. First, we have been forgiven so that we might have life. And that life is not just continuing to breathe, it is solving this problem of death, sin, corruption, and futility. The cross of Christ solves the problem of our guilt. Jesus makes it possible for God to forgive us instead of condemn us because he paid the penalty for our sins. But the second part of the gospel is the fact that I understand what Jesus has done means I now live my life differently. When you become a disciple of Jesus, you metaphorically crucify your old worldview. You metaphorically crucify all the desires and the passions and the selfishness of your flesh. Part of repentance and coming to faith is crying out to God, I don't want to be this kind of person anymore. I agree with you that I'm sinful. I agree I'm worthy of condemnation. I know my choices are wrong and I'm guilty. I am not the person I want to be. Instead, I want to be holy and worthy and good like you. I recognize I can never fix the problem by myself. I recognize you, Father, don't owe me anything. I am asking for your mercy and grace because of the blood of Jesus Christ. Paul is talking to people who are in danger of abandoning that gospel. They are facing this choice. They have been listening to the Judaizers. They have been listening to legalists who tell them the cross is not everything. The cross is not that big a deal. Now you have to keep the law. To the Judaizers, the cross is not such a big deal because why are they acceptable to God? They're keeping the law. Okay, yeah, fine. Jesus had to die as a legal necessity, but it wasn't enough. The really important thing is keeping the law. So to the legalists, the cross didn't solve the problem. What solves the problem is God has given the law and we need to keep it. So Paul is talking to people who are facing this choice. Do I believe the gospel that Paul preached when he was here, or do I believe the teaching of the Judaizers? Part of the fundamentals of the gospel is I have not been and cannot be the kind of person I ought to be. I cannot save myself from sin. Keeping the law is not going to solve my problem. I need to be forgiven through what Jesus has done on the cross. Understanding that truth opens up an entirely new set of beliefs. I can't look down on you anymore because I'm condemning myself. Humility, patience, faith, joy, all these fruits start to result from this new picture of things. Instead of being a person who minimizes the cross, exalts myself and judges other people, now I exalt what Jesus did on the cross. I recognize my own need for it. And instead of thinking myself superior, I recognize I am in no place to judge others. And that worldview shift starts bringing about the fruits of the Spirit. Paul is mostly concerned with the way the Spirit changes our worldview. He's not giving us a checklist to follow. He's encouraging us to embrace and believe the gospel and let that belief change us. The four core convictions of saving faith start changing our worldview. Let me review those quickly. Number one, I am a sinner who is guilty before God. Number two, God is not obligated to save me. Number three, I cannot save myself. And number four, I trust that God will forgive me because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Those four core convictions underline all the truths we've been talking about in this series that change our worldview and give us hope. The problem of the Judaizers is not unique. All of us are tempted at times to think that God is pleased with us because of something we've done. The Judaizers believe that faith in Christ was not enough. Gentiles must also keep the law. And today there's very little debate among Christians about keeping the law, but the problem still remains. All of us are tempted at times to think God approves of me because I got baptized the right way, or I take the Lord's Supper in the right way, or I go to the right church, or I study the Bible the right way, or I belong to the right denomination, or I serve the poor and do good works more than most people. That's the trap of a legalist, and we can all fall into it. And it all comes back to this shift in worldview. The legalist worldview of the Judaizers says the reason I'm okay is because I do things the right way. And we all face that temptation. The gospel tells us the reason we're okay is because we found forgiveness and mercy through the cross. If we finish the sentence, the reason I'm okay is with anything other than the cross of Christ, then we are in danger of sliding into legalism. That's why Paul's letter to the Galatians is so continually important, because we all face this temptation to legalism. All of us are tempted to start priding ourselves on how well we practice our religion. But the gospel says, apart from Christ, I have no hope. I need the mercy of God, Christ secured the mercy of God for me. Now I have this great hope because of the mercy of God and the cross of Christ, not anything I've done. And when we recognize that, we live our lives differently. Let's run through the list of the fruit of the Spirit one last time and list the key concepts. The fruit of the Spirit are not feelings. We are not instantly transformed and given the items on this list. Rather, these qualities emerge through the change in our worldview as the Spirit teaches us truth. Love. Love is acting for someone else's benefit. Once we understand our place under God and next to our neighbors, realizing we are equal before Him, we become willing to act for the benefit of another. And we recognize we share this unique bond with other believers who share our hope. Joy. Joy is the natural response we have when we realize something good is coming our way. We rejoice even in our trials because we understand the hope of the gospel in a real and practical way. We know that God is in control and He is working everything for our benefit. Peace. Peace is both a personal lack of anxiety because we understand God is in control and a lack of strife among believers because we stand on the common ground of the gospel. Patience. Patience is long suffering endurance because we believe God will fulfill his promises. It is enduring with hope, joy, and expectation. Kindness. Like love, kindness is an action. Kindness is treating someone well regardless of whether they deserve it or how they respond. And kindness is grounded in understanding God's kindness toward us. Goodness is the pursuit of that which is right, holy, and good as opposed to that which is evil, corrupt, and against God. Goodness sees the truth of who I am as a creature, who God is as my creator, and what it means to follow Him. It rejects the lie of selfishness and self-centeredness and embraces the truth. Faith or faithfulness. Faith is believing the gospel is true and living in light of those truths. It's not a one-time event. It is an understanding that deepens and grows and matures in us as the Spirit teaches us truth. Gentleness. Gentleness or meekness is that quality of not putting yourself forward or being presumptuous. It is the humility of accepting whatever God has given us and not trying to grab for more. And it all begins with understanding we are sinners in need of God's mercy. Self-control. Self-control is the recognition that just because I want to do something doesn't mean I should do it. It is choosing to follow what God says is true and rejecting the lies of the world. Because these are fruits of the Spirit, we can rejoice and be grateful that the Spirit will produce these fruits in us. We don't need to manufacture them. We don't need to create opportunities to demonstrate them. We will learn them as God takes us through the journey He plans for our lives. You may look at your life and think, you know, these things don't describe me. And you may be right. But if you are a child of God, you can rest assured that they will describe you one day. Not perfectly or consistently in this life, but this is the trajectory God is taking you on. So what should you do in response to this list? You don't need to try harder. You simply need to believe. The exhortation to pursue the fruits of the Spirit is fundamentally an exhortation to repent and believe the gospel. If that's what you want, then I have very good news for you. Jesus tells us that everyone who asks for faith receives it, everyone who humbly knocks on the door will be forgiven, and those who seek the kingdom of God before everything else will find it. In short, ask and you will receive. You've been listening to the Wednesday in the Word podcast. My mission is to explain not only what a passage means, but how we figure it out. The blog post version of this podcast is at WednesdayInTheWord.com slash fruit dash spirit dash twelve. I do not accept advertising on my website and I don't ask for donations. Your subscriptions, your ratings, and reviews are the advertising for this show, but it really does encourage me to hear from you, especially at the end of a series. Please leave me a positive rating on your favorite podcast platform. And if you can, drop me an email with your questions, comments, or just tell me what you learned. I do read every email and I try to answer as many as I can. But most importantly, tell a friend what you learned. And if you can, tell them where you learned it. Our theme music is graciously provided by Reggie Coates. You can find his music on heartfeltmusic.org. If you want to find other Bible studies like this one, please go to Wednesdayintheword.com. I have over 500 podcast episodes, all of them Bible studies and free for you. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.