The fruit of the Spirit in our Saviour’s life  

In our July post we were thinking about the fruit of the Spirit in the lives of believers; in this we turn our thoughts to the Lord Jesus and to the fruit of the Spirit in His life.

We begin with the contrast noted at the outset of the July post between the works of the flesh (Gal.5.18-21) and the fruit of the Spirit (Gal.5.22-23). In even the best of the Lord’s people we find both sides of this contrast. There is the fruit of the Spirit as the Spirit does his sanctifying work. But we are not yet rid of our sinful natures. In a significant measure the power of sin has been broken. It no longer rules. But it does still manifest itself. That is why the Christian life is one of continual repentance and why confession of sin is invariably an element of our prayers. Yes, we bear the fruit of the Spirit. But to our shame we are also guilty of works of the flesh. Not so our Saviour! With but one exception Jesus was like us in our humanity. Unlike us he was altogether free from sin. And though he was often and sorely tempted that is what he remained. Never once did he succumb to the solicitations of evil. It means that in his case works of the flesh are completely absent. It is only ever the one side of the contrast that we see in him – the fruit of the Spirit.

Christ displaying the fruit of the Spirit   

It had been the plan of God from eternity to make the nature in which humans sinned and fell the instrument by which he saved us. Sin entered our world through a man, our first father Adam. It would also be through a man that salvation would come. That was the plan! It led as we know to the incarnation of the Son of God: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1.14).  We think about it every Christmas. Without ceasing to be what he had been from eternity God’s Son became one of us – a man among men. In our nature the divine Son lived among us. And he did so exactly as humans should live – by the power of the indwelling Spirit. From beginning to the end, from conception to the cross, there was a very special ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the man Christ Jesus.

It had been prophesied long before by the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the LORD will rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD” (Is.11.2). It is a prophecy of the coming Messiah. What would he be like? He would be a man on whom the Spirit of God would rest. And here is how it would be seen: in his wisdom, his understanding, his counsel, his power, his knowledge, and, most remarkably of all, in his fear of the LORD; in all the things, in other words, that made him a man of God, that made his humanity a godly humanity, that made his nature holy.

When we turn to the New Testament records of Jesus’ life we are able to trace out the details of this ministry. It is a large, important, but sadly rather neglected topic. We touch here on but one aspect of it, the Spirit’s fruit. Through the presence and ministry of the Spirit Christ’s humanity was a holy humanity. And that holiness showed itself in the very same way as it does in the lives of his people, namely, in the love, the joy, the peace, the patience, the kindness, the goodness, the faithfulness, the gentleness, and the self-control that the Spirit alone can produce. The qualities we exhibit in our humanity – if we are Christians – he exhibited in his. And it is to the presence and power of the very same Holy Spirit that we trace it.

Christ displaying all the fruit of the Spirit   

How badly has sin damaged us? How much of a ruin has it made of us? We see much how of a ruin enemy bombing can make of a city. What has sin done to us? One way of answering that is to say that sin has so damaged us that until the Spirit comes to live in our hearts we exhibit none of his fruit. None of it! We go back to something we noted earlier: the character qualities listed by Paul are to be found in those who do not have the Holy Spirit. It is also the case, however, that in the unbeliever each and every one of these qualities is defective. They lack what makes them the fruit of the Spirit. In our unconverted days we loved – but we did not love God. We had joy – but it was not a joy in God. We had peace – but it was not the peace of God. Apart from the presence and ministry of the Spirit in grace we did not display any of the fruit of the Spirit. Until we were born again all the things that make this fruit distinctively the Spirit’s were absent.

With Jesus, it was entirely the opposite. If we by nature lack all the fruit of the Spirit he by nature exhibited it all. The Spirit created his human nature holy – as he did in Adam’s case. And in his holy human nature all the Spirit’s fruit was present; none was missing.

Christ displaying this fruit to perfection      

We can take things a step further. Not only did Christ display all the fruit of the Spirit, he displayed it all to perfection. We return once more to ourselves and to the question we were asking earlier: what do we find when we look for the Spirit’s fruit in our own lives and in the lives of others? Unevenness! There are always some characteristics that stand out from the others. All of us are strong in some areas but not so strong in others. Not so Christ! He had all these things – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And at every stage of life he exhibited them to perfection.

That is not to say that there was no development. There was. We may think of him maturing in his love for God and man as his knowledge grew. We may think of him coming to have a deeper, fuller, richer joy both in God and in his gifts as he progressed from boyhood to manhood. But nothing was ever lacking. He never had to repent of the shortcomings with which we are so familiar. That is why we become more and more like Jesus the more of the Spirit’s fruit we bear. That is why when the Spirit has finished his work in us we will, like Jesus, bear the Spirit’s fruit to perfection.

Our need of the Holy Spirit 

We close with our absolute need of the Holy Spirit. A growing resemblance to the Lord Jesus in his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control is impossible apart from the Holy Spirit. We must first be born again. We must first have the Holy Spirit living and working in our hearts. We may look at the life of Jesus in the four Gospels and find much that is attractive. But that attractiveness can never become ours by self-effort. It is entirely supernatural. That is the way in which God created human nature. It can have no holiness unless the Spirit of God gives it holiness. “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor.3.18).

It is the Holy Spirit who made Christ’s humanity beautiful with the beauty of holiness. And it is he alone who can make us like him in his holiness. So we first must come to God in our need. We first must come to him with our desperately sinful hearts. And our cry must be that he would give to us a new heart, a clean heart, a holy heart; a heart that the Spirit will flood and fill with Jesus’ love and Jesus’ joy and Jesus’ peace and Jesus’ patience and Jesus’ kindness and Jesus’ goodness and Jesus’ faithfulness and Jesus’ gentleness and Jesus’ self-control. It was precisely so that we might have such a heart that Jesus suffered and died. It was so that we might have such a heart that the Spirit was afterwards sent into the world. And it is just such a heart that God, for Jesus’ sake, will delightedly give to all who seek his mercy.

Is that heart yours? And if it isn’t, will you not seek God until it is?