“But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” — Galatians 5:22-23 NASB
Now I know this is likely a common passage that we all know, many of us memorized this in Sunday School, probably in the King James Version. And many of us might even say we understand it. All we need to do is a word study into each one of these character traits. But I want to pull out something about these traits that is often ignored.
For those of you that don’t know me well or at all, I’m a truck driver during the week. I drive a big rig, it’s how God pays my bills. My career is one that I enjoy. I get a lot of time to myself, just me and God and the slow drivers on the highway. One of my favorite things to do on the road, especially if I need to leave on a Sunday, is listen to sermons. Voddie Baucham, John MacArthur, and Justin Peters are just a few that I keep going back to.
In one of Dr. Voddie Baucham’s sermons, he pointed out how many Christians get confused about the gospel. Namely, we mix up what the gospel requires and what the gospel produces. The gospel only requires two things of us; faith and repentance.
“that if you will confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” — Romans 10:9 NASB
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” — John 3:16 NASB
All that the gospel requires is faith in God and repentance from sin. That’s it.
Dr. Voddie also pointed out that we often think we, as Christians, don’t need the gospel anymore. I needed the gospel when I became a Christian, but now I’m a child of God. I don’t need the gospel anymore. Brothers and sisters, that shows a misunderstanding of what the gospel is, and I’ll try to open that can some other time. Christians need the gospel at every moment of every day. That faith and repentance is not just a one time thing, it’s constant and continuous. I’m not saying you can lose your salvation if you stop repenting of sin and stop trusting God. That’s false and it is not at all what I’m getting at. A true Christian relishes in the gospel for the rest of his life.
Back to my original point here, many people mix up what the gospel requires and what it produces. Look at the first three fruits of the spirit in Galatians 5. “…love, joy, peace,….” These three are the ones we tend to worry about the most. “Oh, I don’t love so and so as much as I should.” “Oh, I don’t feel very joyful most days.” “Oh, I don’t have any peace in my heart about anything.” We take these internal complaints and we work on them ourselves. “I need to be more loving. What can I do to be more loving to my wife, or whoever it is?” What activity can I participate in to make myself more joyful?” “If I could just get a three hour nap every afternoon, I think I’d be more at peace about a lot of things.” We take matters into our own hands believing that it’s our job to develop these things in our own lives.
Friends, can I make an argument? It’s not your responsibility to be more loving and joyful and at peace. It’s not your job. The gospel does not require you to be these things. This is what the gospel produces in you.
If you’ve ever seen the movie “Fireproof”, I think the Kendrick Brothers got it right. I’ll set the scene. Caleb’s father, a strong Christian man, is trying to teach his son how to love his wife and save the marriage. He’s doing so by showing him the gospel of Christ, and he says the phrase. “Caleb, you can’t love her, because you can’t give her what you don’t have.” The unsaved world does not have true selfless love like Christians do. Why? Because true and selfless love only comes from God through the Holy Spirit.
God’s love comes directly from God through the Holy Spirit, not from anyone else.
God’s joy comes directly from God through the Holy Spirit, not from anyone else.
God’s peace comes directly from God through the Holy Spirit, not from anyone else.
God’s patience comes directly from God through the Holy Spirit, not from anyone else.
God’s kindness comes directly from God through the Holy Spirit, not from anyone else.
God’s goodness comes directly from God through the Holy Spirit, not from anyone else.
God’s faithfulness comes directly from God though the Holy Spirit, not from anyone else.
God’s gentleness comes directly from God through the Holy Spirit, not from anyone else.
God’s self-control comes directly from God through the Holy Spirit, not from anyone else.
These things don’t come from you, not from your best friends, not from your church family, not from your home family. It all comes from God.
“Well, brother, I don’t have any peace in my life. What’s wrong with me?”
Have you been reading your Bible lately? Have you been spending time with God, one-on-one, fellowshipping with Him, letting Him teach you and guide you? Have you been basking and relishing in the gospel? Or have you been sort of absent-mindedly going through the motions so everyone thinks you’re a good Christian? Have you been trying in your own strength to find joy and peace outside of God? You’re not going to find it out here. It doesn’t exist out here. Only the gospel can produce these great character traits in us. So why do we avoid the gospel like it doesn’t have any effect on us anymore? Why do we keep looking in the wrong places when we know where it is?
This is what the gospel and the Holy Spirit produces in us. So let’s go back to where it comes from, and God will grant us more of it.
“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, of who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to Him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” — Romans 11:33-36 NASB
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