Sunday 15 April 2012

The Fruit of the Spirit (Part I): God's guidance to necessary works

In today's post-modern Christian groups the argument that we are saved by faith alone without works is discussed and debated among Apostolic and non-Apostolic faiths or reformed Churches. These issues will continue to be argued until our Lord's awaited return where we will all be judged by Him righteously. So if we want to faithfully prepare ourselves for Christ’s final return it is imperative for us to find out what God truly says about the necessity of works for our salvation.

In the times of the Prophets, God taught His people to live a righteous life that would clearly set them apart from the rest of the world by giving the written Laws that they were to follow (throughout Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy). These all involved good works that would stem from their faith and love for God and prevent them from choosing wickedness by their own free will when the Law was clearly teaching them to identify right from wrong.

Aphrahat speaks of the Laws that were instated by God and explains how they were purely dependant on man’s self-control alone. He quotes Jesus’ two commands which bind the whole Law “love the LORD your God with all your might and strength and love your neighbour as yourself”

When you begin to investigate both these commandments, upon which hang the whole strength of the Law and of the prophets (you will see that) if indeed both these commandments, upon which hang the whole strength of the Law and of the prophets, had been fixed in the heart and mind of human beings, then it would not have been necessary for the Law and the prophets to have been written down, as it is written, “The Law is not given to the just, but to the wicked” (1 Tim. 1:9). And the Law was given because of the wicked. If justice had stayed among human beings, the Law would not have been required. Again if the Law had not been set down, the strength of God would not have been known in all generations through all the wonders which He manifested. (Aphrahat Demonstration II  on Charity)

Clearly the written Law was not enough to prevent God’s people from wilfully straying into wicked ways that grieved God, and so God made a new covenant (promise) with His people saying: 33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 They will not teach again, each man his neighbour and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (Jeremiah 31:33-34)

This new covenant that God promised was facilitated by our Lord Jesus Christ; through His teachings, His life example, His death, resurrection and ultimate giving of The Holy Spirit. Before Jesus was arrested and crucified, He spoke of His fore coming death to His heavy hearted disciples (John 14:1-3) and at the same time He comforted them by assuring them that He would not leave them, but would ask the Father to send the counsellor (The Holy Spirit) to be with them and guide them 16 I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you (John 14:16-17). Christ was telling the Apostles what would happen when the Spirit would abide within them. These promises are also given to us when we receive the Holy Spirit through baptism.

Jesus speaks of the role of the Holy Spirit who would dwell within His disciples and subsequent believers, not in the people of the world. Just as God promised in Jeremiah 31 above; that when He puts the law within us and on our heart, we will “know Him”, so too Christ here tells His disciples that they will receive the Spirit of truth because they “Know Him” and He will be in them. Christ’s words indeed came to fulfilment upon the day of Pentecost, fifty days after Christ’s ascension, where the Apostles received the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4) and in turn baptised many believers including adults and children on the same day. (Acts 2:38-39).

Today, when we are born into a Christian family, our Holy and Apostolic Church teaches us that it is the believing parents’ duty to ensure their infant children also receive baptism and raise them up in the Christian faith and doctrines of the Church. So they in turn, will also receive the gifts of The Holy Spirit and treat their bodies as “temples of the Holy Spirit’ (1 Corinthians 3:16), by performing good and faithful works for themselves and others.

The main role of The Holy Spirit is to lead us, counsel us and teach us to live righteously in the Lord in a way that aligns with His will for our lives, as He dwells within us by His Spirit and teaches us, unworthy sinners to live a life of faith that is manifested in our faithful acts and good works. (James Faith without deeds is dead).

We see the importance of this in-dwelling relationship we have with God through His Spirit when we look to Jesus our Lord and learn from His example:

John 14:11-15 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. 12 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.

Just as the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son, so it is with us, who possess the third character or Qnuma of the Holy Trinity, God’s Holy Spirit dwelling within us.  As Jesus states above, you can tell that the Father is in Him because of the works we see Him perform. So too for us today, who have God’s Spirit dwelling within us, we also should perform righteous works, and even the works that Christ did by faith.

To further explain to those who believe that works are indeed not needed for our salvation, we should ask; why did Christ teach His disciples you will know a tree [or a person’s standing with God] by its fruits [works] (Matthew 7:19-20)?  Why did He say “not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven will enter’ (Matthew 7:21)? Why did He rebuke those who seemingly had faith and performed miracles in His name by saying to them, “I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.” (Matthew 7:23)? Why does St. James teach us “just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead? (James 2:26) Why did St. Paul teach us to “continue to work out our salvation in fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12)? And why did our Lord give us the Counsellor to help us, guide us and teach us to perform 'good deeds' to conform with the likeness of God’s righteous character (Galatians 5:22-25)?

Today, some ways we recognise that we are living in the Spirit is when we feel comfort in doing righteous works that are in step with His Spirit. We may also feel a personal conviction when we have committed an ungodly deed, when we have slipped up in sin, or are struggling with sinful thoughts; it is The Holy Spirit within us that is guiding our hearts and our conscious, enlightening us to fulfil God’s will in our lives. In times of these experiences we should thank God for His mighty comfort or conviction and repentantly choose to turn from our wicked ways, and turn to His ways and continue to glorify His name through the working of His Spirit in our lives. For right after Jesus spoke about the giving of The Spirit He said, “if you obey my commands (to love God with all your might and strength and love your neighbour as yourself) the Father and I will make our home with you (John 14:23). Clearly, good works stemming from our love for God and our love for others are indeed necessary to genuinely serve God through the help of His Spirit who abides in us.


Next week: Fruits of the Spirit (Part II) – Inheriting the Kingdom of Heaven.


This week’s song: Speak to me Lord – Rebecca St. James


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