Your Identity in Christ day 5 of 30

Stay Put!

Apart from faith that is rooted in Jesus, we are each like a spiritually dead tree that produces yucky fruit.

A tree can tell you a lot about the Christian life.

A healthy fruit tree will grow and bear fruit. But not just any fruit. A hale and hearty tree will bear fruit that you can pick and enjoy eating. A diseased tree, on the other hand, is quite different. It's likely that it won't grow any fruit. If it does bear fruit, it will taste disgusting. Unlike a healthy tree, a diseased tree can never grow good fruit.

Just as the fruit we harvest grows based on what the tree is, the fruit we produce in our lives grows based on who we are. Apart from faith that is rooted in Jesus, we are each like a spiritually dead tree that produces yucky fruit, what we call sin (see Matt. 7:15-20).

If you are in Christ, then you are a new creation, and over time you will produce good fruit, such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:16-24). These are known as the "fruit of the Spirit". How do we get them?

We abide in Christ.

Oftentimes Christians go to Jesus for forgiveness of sin so they can go to heaven, but they leave the gospel behind when it comes to living daily life. Yet Jesus says we must abide in Him (John 15:4). What does that mean? It means that we stay put! That we are fed by Him daily and that we flourish as we remain in Christ.

Read John 15:4-5

Our good works are not produced by our own efforts apart from Jesus. They are produced by God's work in you by abiding. Do you seek God's help in living for Him -are you abiding in Him - or do you try to do it on your own?

Prayer

Thank God that in Christ you are a new creation. Ask for his graceful empowerment to live for and enjoy him forever.

John 15:4-5 NKJV

4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

Matthew 7:15-20 NKJV

15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

Galatians 5:16-24 NKJV

16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.