Lord’s Day, Vol. 8 No. 32

Fruit Unto Holiness

Romans 6:22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

When Jesus saves us, He sets us free from sin. This is our status before God. In the sight of God, we are made clean from the filth of sin,  Christ had borne our sins on the cross. Because we have repented of our sins and by faith in the finished work of Christ, we are acquitted from God’s judgment for sin which is eternal death in hell fire and accorded the privilege of eternal life in heaven – Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

(1) Our Status before God

We stand before God, a free man, freed from the bondage of sin, and given newness of life through the resurrection of Christ. The Apostle Paul articulated well the mechanics of our salvation when he illustrated in Romans 6:3-5 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. 

We are given the power by God to overcome sin, to choose not to sin. Thus, protected from the misery of sin – for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness(Romans 6:19b). Iniquity is the outworking of sin in our lives, the word “iniquity” means “a bending”, a crooked life.

In other words, we are set apart by God to be a holy people, to live an honest life, as He is holy. Our hope and desire is to be like Him, we live for His honour and glory. We become servants to God. The word “servant” means “to bring under subjection”. We serve God, Christ is our Master. Whereas before we are saved, we serve sin. After we are saved, we live unto God (v10). 

How is that possible? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. (Romans 6:17-18) We do so by being obedient to the commandments of God, from the heart to the hand, a consistent testimony. This is the purpose for which we are set free. 

(2) Our State before God 

The adversative “but” is to jolt us to understand our new privilege as God’s servants so that we live in the light of that privilege. By doing so, we bear the fruit of holiness – But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness … We are to constantly examine our lives to ensure that we are bearing the right fruit in our lives, not the fruit of sin but the fruit of holiness – Romans 6:21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. 

This is the exhortation that we live in the light of our new status in Christ. We are called to make a spiritual stock-take. We are to cultivate a life that brings holy fruit. How can we do so? The psalmist in psalm 1 tells us by separation from ungodly company – Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful (v1) and by satisfying our soul with the nourishing goodness of God’s Word – But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night (v2). The fruitful life of holiness is well illustrated by the psalmist – And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper (v3). It must be noticed that fruit comes in his season. In other words, there is a time of cultivation unto fruitfulness. 

We have begun the Read the Bible in One Year Program at the beginning of each year for the past 5 years. Recall, this note of thanksgiving – 

Thank God for the launch of 365-Day Devotional Bible Reading Programme using the Andrew Murray Devotional Bible on 1 January 2016. Let us persevere in our daily devotion and study of God’s Word with prayer. As God has promised, fruit will come in its season. Let us be not weary in well-reading for in due season we shall reap if we faint not!

Let us also cultivate the blessing of a consistent public worship life bearing the fruit of holiness.

The word of encouragement from the prophet Isaiah to the Israel of God is worthy of our meditation – Isaiah 58:13-14 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, fromdoing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine ownwords: 14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

The fruit of “holiness” may be understood as the fruit of “sanctification” as we appropriate the means of grace to live holy lives – Romans 6:11-13 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

(3) Our Stature before God 

And the end everlasting life. This is the eternal benefit that we will enjoy. Life with God on earth and life with God in heaven. The rewards of godliness will be “out of this world”, as one late theologian puts it. We are exhorted to persevere till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:13). May God speed us on to spiritual maturity. Amen.

Yours lovingly,

Pastor Lek Aik Wee