Genesis 1:11-12 “Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so. (12) And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”
We all know that in the natural, a seed contains everything that the seed will eventually become. For example, the seed of a fig tree, once planted and watered, will eventually grow into a fig tree and it will produce the fruit of figs. It cannot produce anything else. In other words it cannot grow into an orange tree and then start producing apples, for as the above quoted passage of scripture declares, God has created each seed to produce after its’ own kind. This same principle also applies is the realm of the spirit, for it is the same God who has created both realms.
1 Peter 1:23 “having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit through the apostle Peter tells us that we are born again of the incorruptible seed of the word of God. In other words because it is our spirits that are born-again, our spirits are born of the incorruptible seed of God’s word. That simply means that our spirits cannot be corrupted because they are incorruptible. And so we see that the spirit of the born-again believer has no capacity for sin, for just as a fig tree cannot bear apples so a spirit that is incorruptible cannot produce sin, it can only produce righteousness. Our Lord put it this way, “a good tree cannot bear bad fruit” (Matthew 7:18). The question is then asked, if the born-again spirit cannot commit sin why do we still see Christians committing sin? The apostle Paul answers that question for us when he encourages believers to walk in the spirit, for he says “if we live in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit” (Galatians 5:25). In other words being born-again in spirit is one thing, but it is another thing entirely to walk in the spirit. Most believers do not walk in the spirit and continue to walk in the flesh, and it is for that reason that they continue to walk in sin. Nevertheless the more we learn to walk in the spirit the less sin we will commit and the more righteousness we will walk in, because our spirits remain sinless for they are born of the incorruptible seed of God’s word.
Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (23) gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”
We have seen thus far that God has created both the seed and the fruit which the seed produces. We have also seen that our spirits are born of incorruptible seed. So what fruit has God designed the spirit of the born-again believer to produce? The Holy Spirit lists nine fruit of the spirit in the above quoted passage of scripture. The spirit referred to in this passage of scripture is man’s born-again spirit and not the Holy Spirit, for our Lord Jesus taught us that as the branches, that we are the ones who bear fruit in the kingdom of God (John 15:2). And so we see that within the seed by which we have been born-again, is the fruit of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, and it is these fruit which our spirits, given the right nurturing, will produce. These fruits are in fact God’s description of the nature of our born-again spirits. And so as our spirits grow then this is the fruit that will be produced in our lives, and the more mature we become i.e. the stronger we become in spirit, the more fruit we will produce. You can now see why the apostle Paul encourages the saints to walk in the spirit, because in doing so they will walk in righteousness and in all nine of the fruit listed in this passage of scripture. In other words they will begin to display the divine nature of God in their lives.
Michael E.B. Maher
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