Fruit part 4
Let's get into the law of first mention today. The time in the Bible that a word or concept is first used, which then goes on to define how it will be used. Genesis 1:11, "And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so." Two important things there. 1. Yielding fruit after his kind. An apple tree can only make apples. You are what you eat. You can't expect to absorb one thing and be able to have output of another. What's inside (what you believe is inside) is what comes out. 2. Whose seed is in itself. Look at 1 John 3:9, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." That incorruptible seed. That seed of life. Of love. That seed that grows into a tree... after it's own kind. "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8:29). When Jesus was lifted up from the earth on the cross He drew all men into Himself. And He planted Himself in all men. Took our corruption and gave us His incorruption. Brought us out of death and into life. We were swinging back and forth from branch to branch on the tree of knowledge of good and evil--the tree of death--trying to be "good" but always falling short of the mark. So Jesus cursed that entire tree. He saw the fig tree couldn't bear fruit so He got rid of it. It withered and died. So that we could stop messing with it. We didn't need to turn over a new leaf, we needed to get plugged in to an entirely different tree! The Tree of Life. And when you go from the garden of Eden in the book of Genesis, in which there are two trees, all the way to the Kingdom of God in the book of Revelation there is only one tree. Look at Revelation 22:1-2, "And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." One tree. That has everythign we need. Fruit--singular--for every occasion. Because love comes in all shapes and sizes, but it is all love. Love is the fruit (again, singular) of the Spirit. A fruit for every month. For every season. For every situation. And when that incorruptible seed is planted in us--Jesus identified Himself... and us... as the light of the world. The same light. The same love--it yields fruit after it's (HIS) own kind. We have been conformed into the image of Jesus. The literal image of God in the flesh, love in a body. God in our flesh. Love in our body. The firstborn. The firstfruit. The pattern. The example. So that we know what love looks like. So that we know what WE look like. When you look in the mirror you can, and should, and ought to see Jesus. That's your true identity. That's the seed that grows within you. That's the fruit that you bear. That's why, on this side of the cross, now that the Lamb of God has taken away the sin of the world... we can't sin. Sin is unbelief. A believer, by defintion, cannot sin. So stop worrying and focusing on what you did wrong. On what you're not. And just accept and embrace what you do right. Who you are. Who you are in Christ. Which is who Christ is in you. God's love filling you to overflowing and coming out of you as you simply know it and believe it. Receive it and release it!