Whatever we may conclude about the nature of the Spirit as recorded in Scripture, if our personal lives are not transformed, our study becomes only an academic matter in which there is no spiritual profit. Contemplation of the blessings conferred through the indwelling of the Spirit is thrilling! While space will not permit an exhaustive treatise of the theme, I want to share with you some of the things we may read in the New Covenant letters.
Ephesians 1:13, 14 informs us that we are sealed by the Spirit, and the Spirit is God's guarantee that we shall come into our inheritance. These two verses are pregnant with hope for the followers of Jesus. The full text says, "In him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, which is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it."
Here we learn that only believers in Christ receive the Spirit as a seal. Only believers will share in the inheritance. This agrees with the words of Jesus, who said the world cannot receive the Spirit because it does not see Him or know Him (John 14:17). In the same verse He declares, concerning His disciples, "You know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you." Companionship and intimacy are indicated by this expression.
Belief follows the hearing of the word of truth, here defined as the gospel of salvation. In Romans 10:15, 16, the gospel is classified as good news, or glad tidings, and verse 17 says, "So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ." To preach Christ is to proclaim the historical facts related to what He did for men who were lost. Paul declares that the gospel he preached, by which men were saved, was simply that "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:3, 4).
The response of the honest mind to testimony rendered credible is belief of that testimony, faith in what is affirmed. The gospel of Christ is testimony about a Person. It is designed to establish the fact that that Person is the Messiah promised by the prophets. Faith in Christ is belief that He is who He claimed to be. It is more than an acknowledgment of the historicity of the facts, or mental assent to their accuracy. A detached intellectual admission of the factuality is not sufficient. Faith embraces a relationship with the object of belief. Those who receive the Spirit are those who have "believed in him."
The Spirit leads men to salvation by means of a message. It is a message preached by men, heard by men, and believed by men. No theory of salvation by direct operation on the sinner's heart, apart from the Word proclaimed, is given any credence in the Scriptures. There is no historical validation for any person's coming to Christ where missionaries have not taken the message. The Spirit has never created believers except through the announcement of the good news by "earthen vessels." When men react to the testimony by believing in Christ and pledging allegiance to Him, the Spirit moves into the heart where Jesus dwells by faith. There He takes up His abode to act as a seal. The word "seal" is from sphragis, a seal or signet that indicated ownership or authenticity. This is important and should not be casually dismissed. Sometimes a seal was in the form of a ring on which was engraved an initial or other identifying mark for stamping documents. We still speak of a "signet ring," which is one bearing the initial of the wearer.
In the days of the apostles, a seal was also used for branding slaves, often on the forehead and in the right hand. Such a brand identified the slave as the possession of the owner. Such a use of the word is found in Revelation 7:2, where an angel appeared from the east with "the seal of the living God." He halted all proceedings until he had sealed the servants of God upon their foreheads and thus marked them as belonging to Him. In Revelation 9:4 mention is made of the suffering endured by those who do not have the seal of God upon their foreheads.
The promised Holy Spirit abiding within the Christian is proof of God's ownership of his person. "But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God really dwells in you. Any one who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him" (Romans 8:9). The validation of one's claim to be dwelling on the spiritual plane is the indwelling Spirit. The proof that one belongs to Jesus is the seal of the Spirit. One who is conscious that the inner chamber of his being is occupied by this royal Guest need never feel lonely or forsaken. In a remarkable chapter devoted to our relationship to the Spirit, the apostle reaches the height of human thought in three tremendous questions: "What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him?" (vv. 31, 32).
The Spirit does not simply mark us as being the possession of God, but also acts as a guarantee of our inheritance. With a little thought the reason becomes apparent. The Spirit does not dwell in any except God's children. The Spirit within is proof that the person is a child of God, and an heir of the Father's bounty. In the flesh it is impossible to receive the full measure of the inheritance, but the Spirit is given as a bond of assurance that God will not withhold anything from us.
In our day the word "inheritance" is used for a patrimony received upon the death of a father, but that is not the meaning indicated in the New Covenant Scriptures. Here the word strictly means to receive by lot, and then to receive and possess as one's own. In Matthew 19:29 Jesus speaks of eternal life as an inheritance. This was the life made possible in the eternal kingdom of God, when all that offends or causes sin shall have been eliminated. It is more than unbroken existence. It is also unending joy or bliss.
In Ephesians 5:5 Paul lists certain characters who have no such inheritance in God's kingdom. Those who are walking in the Spirit have such an inheritance awaiting, but they cannot now enjoy it to the fullest because of the limitations of the flesh. The present life is material, subject to decay and mortification. "I tell you this, brethren: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable" (1 Corinthians 15:50).
The indwelling Spirit is the divine guarantee that we shall be changed and brought into the glorious experience of eternal existence. We are not going to be frustrated and defeated. We will not be forsaken. "But our commonwealth is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power which enables him even to subject all things to himself" (Philippians 3:20, 21).
The word rendered "guarantee" in modern versions, and "earnest" in the King James Version, is arrabon. It was a business term, probably used by Phoenician traders and pawnbrokers who introduced it among the Greeks. It referred to earnest money or other valuable consideration deposited by a prospective purchaser, and forfeited by him if he did not fulfill the agreement. Eventually it came to mean a pledge to carry out a covenant, and in the New Covenant Scriptures it is used only of God's assurance to believers, and never the reverse. In modern Greek "guarantee" is the word for an engagement ring.
From this it will be seen that, although God cannot bestow upon us the full blessing of eternal life while we are in the physical body, He has given us the Holy Spirit as an earnest or pledge that His covenant is certain. I need have no qualm or fear as to my inheritance because the Spirit is God's pledge of my eternal blessedness. As I now share in the Spirit, so will I share in life forever!
The ultimate purpose of human existence is to share in the glory of God. Peter wrote to the persecuted saints that the God of all grace had called them to His eternal glory in Christ. After they had suffered a little while, eternal glory would be theirs (1 Peter 5:10). He told the elders who were faithful in their responsibility they would receive "a crown that fadeth not away" (1 Peter 5:4; KJV). Paul wrote to the Corinthians that the momentary affliction they were enduring was preparing for them "an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison" (2 Corinthians 4:17). What a comfort to the believer!
To guarantee this culmination of the divine plan for our existence the Spirit abides within us. No one need go down under the burdens of life. Sickness pain, persecution--God knows about them all, and they will pass away, while for God's children there will be an eternal day. God is in us as the hope of glory.
All of us have known individuals who seem to possess an inner reservoir of strength that never runs dry. Perhaps it is a person against whose frail body all the storms of life have been directed. Poverty, ill health, loss of loved ones--all of these combine to defeat every plan for overcoming the negative forces of life. What is the secret of the overcoming life, the triumphant existence? It cannot be a superior education, for many of these persons have little formal education. It cannot be financial power, for they are often in the throes of penury.
Such people are a constant rebuke to those who talk about luck or fortune making the difference between success or failure. In his book, On Being a Real Person, Harry Emerson Fosdick discusses the need for organizing those factors out of which personality can be formed. He points out that we have these factors by nature. After mentioning the various things we need to overcome depression, he deals with the ultimate strength, telling his readers that those whose only method of coping with problems is to rely upon their own strength will eventually face up to a situation where such strength is inadequate and such a method inapplicable.
I know a man who illustrates this very thing. He was once a university instructor, honored and respected by his colleagues, well known for his brilliance. Before he was near retirement age, a series of reverses set in, and these would have ruined a lesser man. His wife was stricken with a lingering disease, and he was forced during a period of many months to watch her die. Left alone, he disposed of his home and moved into an apartment. While he was away on a trip, the building caught fire from faulty wiring, destroying everything he possessed, including his valuable books and manuscripts. These alone represented almost a lifetime of research and writing. Then he became aware of a nervous condition that affected his mobility and disturbed his memory. Finally he had to be placed in a geriatric center where aged patients all about him were awaiting death. Yet, when I went to see him, he was so cheerful and out-going that he actually helped me. He was alert and interested in what I was doing, and made it appear that all the things that happened to him were really blessings in disguise.
When I could stand it no longer I bluntly asked him what was behind his cheerful attitude. (One of the doctors had told me that this man had transformed the hospital by the radiance of his faith and hope.) He told me the story himself.
He always had been a believer in God, but when he came to the realization that he was alone, sick, and would have to make a complete change of life, he decided to approach the problem with the dynamic of faith. He chose a day to fast and prepare his mind for God's will. He sat down to read the entire book of Psalms to let the courage and hope in these ancient songs of praise seep into his being. He underlined Psalm 121:7, 8: "The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and for evermore." He chose this for his motto.
Having walked through the aisles of the book this once-famous university professor got down on his knees and began to supplicate for God's care. He prayed that God would grant him inward power great enough to overcome every obstacle and enable him to be resigned to the divine will. These are his words: "As I prayed I began to sense a new strength in me that was not my own. I felt a kinship with a force from outside, beyond myself. I retired and slept soundly. I awakened refreshed, confident that the Spirit of God would supply my every need. I believe that during that day of reading and meditation I actually made contact with the power of the Spirit to sustain."
I became convinced that I was seeing a living demonstration of that for which Paul petitioned in Ephesians 3:14-19. Accordingly, the passage took on a new and fuller meaning for me, and I have been helped immeasurably by thinking about it seriously and often. Here it is for your contemplation, and the best way to share in its wonderful meaning is to savor each clause slowly and carefully:
"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fulness of God."
The human mind is staggered when it seeks to embrace the meaning of this remarkable statement. Who possesses a vocabulary rich enough to describe what it means to be filled with all the fullness of God? Paul has just written that the faithful are built into the holy temple of the Lord, for a dwelling place for the Spirit, and now he assures them that they are recipients of the divine fullness. All that is God's belongs to the saints while they are here, on the conditions enunciated by the apostle.
The first item of the petition is that believers may be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man. No one who accepts the Scripture as a divine revelation can doubt that the human being consists of both an outer and inner man. In Romans 7:22, 23, Paul identifies the inmost self with the mind or heart. It is possible for one of God's children to grow stronger in the faith even as he grows weaker in the body. The Spirit does not abide in us to keep the flesh always youthful. The passing of years takes a toll of the flesh. The promise is that though our outer nature wears away our inner nature is being renewed every day (2 Corinthians 4:16).
The versatile Greek language was especially endowed with words for "power." Two of these are found in the terms "strengthened" and "might." The first is from kratos, power that is manifested or applied. The root from which it is derived means to perfect or complete, and was connected with creative ability or energy.
"Might" is from dunamis, familiar to us in such English words as dynamic, dynamo, and dynamite. When used in contrast with other synonyms, it generally referred to inherent power. In this instance it signifies the power that is natural to the Spirit of God.
With these facts before us, it is apparent that the apostle was asking God to manifest the divine dynamic, the spirit of creative energy and power in the lives of the saints and to do so on the basis of the riches of His glory. This means nothing less than the fact that believers in Christ Jesus, filled with the Spirit, are furnished the power to do all that God expects of them in the universe. Instead of being weak, vacillating creatures, battered by the winds of fate, they are more victorious than conquerors, through Him who loved us.
Sometimes we speak in awe of the Christian heroes who have arisen in times of crisis to leave their marks upon the world and the church. Almost invariably, these were common men reared in humble circumstances. They met the needs of the hour when they realized that God dwelt in them through His Spirit, providing them the power to offset the evil forces that confronted them. The same Spirit abides in us all. We are not all called to become reformers like Luther and Zwingli, but we are called to serve in our localities and according to our capacities. For this, God provides an inner dynamic that cannot know defeat.
The tragedy of our generation is wasted lives because of late awakening. We discover the royal provision too late to employ it effectively. The creative energy that framed this majestic universe dwells in us and is ours to use. A remarkable statement is found in Ephesians 1:19, 20, in which Paul asserts that the same power God used to raise Jesus from the dead is ours now: "And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the working of his great might which he accomplished in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him sit at his right hand in the heavenly places."
What a startling difference it would make in our Christian witness today, if we actually believed in the dynamic strength of the indwelling Spirit. Sermons would catch on fire. Churches would march with zeal. Homes would be transformed. How sad it is to see men and women living in spiritual poverty when the Father has deposited a great treasure to our account out of the riches of His glory. We need not beg for this power. It is ours now! We do not have to plead with God to do what He has already done. Having power available in a house will not provide light until we plug in to the power. That is all we need to do now through faith and absolute trust in God.
The apostle prayed "that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." The word "dwell" is used of abiding relationships. Another word is employed for one who drops in for a casual visit. "Dwell" is used to signify one who moves in as a permanent part of the household. Jesus seeks to become one with us, to establish himself as the guiding factor in life. Faith is the reaching out of the human heart to seal the relationship by which Heaven becomes real to us.
Paul also would have those who are in Christ possess the ability to grasp the potential of that love which is the most powerful force in the universe. In order to do this they must be rooted and grounded in love. Although both of these have to do with foundational matters, they regard the life of the disciple of Christ from different perspectives.
"Rooted" makes us think of our lives as growing and developing plants. This is a common metaphor throughout the Bible! Men are often spoken of as trees planted by the divine hand. Often the trees used in such symbolism are fruit trees, and the kind of soil in which they are planted will help to determine the quality of fruit produced. It is essential that we put down the roots of faith into that love which can stand against all erosive forces. "Love bears all things and endures all things."
"Grounded" makes us consider human life as a building or structure. This picture also occurs frequently in Scripture. A building is as secure as its foundation, and no foundation is more solid than enduring love. The love here mentioned is not an emotion or sentiment, but an act of will. It is never accidental or incidental. It is purposeful and voluntary. And it is always active, never passive.
We must start out with faith and love, and we must never outgrow or abandon either. Everything that is said must be spoken in faith and love. Everything that is done must be performed in faith and love. We must begin by going down into the soil of love. We must continue by growing up in love. The Spirit dwelling within us is a royal guest in a temple making all of this possible. Indeed, the Spirit is the very source of that love, providing a hope that will never end in disappointment or disillusionment. "And hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us" (Romans 5:5).
God's love is not our love for God; it is rather the love that God is (1 John 4:16). The testimony is plain: "Love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love" (4:7, 8). If we would be like God, if we would give evidence that we have been born of God and know God, we must manifest the love of God. We cannot develop or generate this love while we are caught up in the human predicament. The fleshly nature--selfish, egotistical, and egocentric--rebels against genuine concern for the involvement in the needs of others. It always asks, "What is in it for me?" Its philosophy is, "Let him get his like I got mine." The fleshly nature (or selfishness) is the attitude of the priest and Levite, not that of the good Samaritan.
To turn over a new leaf is not enough. We must turn up with a new life. This means that there must be a change from the human nature to the divine and this is the work of the Spirit. "His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:3, 4).
If you open your heart and life to the ministrations of the Spirit of God, your changed life will be one of the greatest blessings that you have ever known. You will become more like Jesus, and the divine love flowing through your personality will touch and change and cleanse those around you. Members of your own family, the people with whom you work, your friends and neighbors--all will recognize that you are living on a different plane, and that life has taken on a new perspective. God made you and He wants you to be a vessel fit for the use for which He designed you.
If you are a physician you must become God's practitioner. If you are a truck driver you must become God's truck driver. The Bible knows nothing about "professional ministers." It recognizes the work of "ministering professionals." College teachers, farmers, dentists, taxi drivers, nurses, and housewives must all have the same vocation or calling: the calling of God. What they do to make a living is not their vocation, but their avocation. God calls you to serve where you are, but He does not call you to flounder around helplessly. He furnishes the power by which you can fulfill your purpose.
You do not need to quit what you are doing to "enter the ministry." You entered the ministry when you came into Christ. The power to perform that ministry was yours from the moment Christ, through the Spirit, entered you. Recognition of this will produce a sense of happiness and wellbeing you never knew before. Open your life to God's will and purpose. Tune your personality to vibrate in unison with the divine. You will find that life will take on a completely new dimension, and your feet will be planted on higher ground.
Perhaps nothing is more detrimental to the cause of Christ than the idea that some of God's people should be urged to enter "full-time service." The very term suggests that the great majority are only part-time servants. This has led to the concept that those who volunteer "full time" must have a greater degree of dedication and commitment than others. Even their behavior and style of life must be different. They must deny themselves certain things counted as luxuries, while others can pile them up. They are expected to live dynamic and energetic lives for Jesus while those who support them can exist in a powerless spiritual condition.
This is foreign to the Scriptures. It is not only unscriptural but antiscriptural. The idea of asking Christians to volunteer for full-time work for Jesus after they have been in Him for ten years is absurd. No one can enlist for part-time work in the kingdom of God. No provision is made for goldbricks or fill-in laborers. In Christ, life is service, and service is life. One who does not enlist full time is preparing to be dead the greater part of the time!
The Spirit dwells in every child of God and dwells in all of them for the same purpose, though not for the same function. The function of each is determined by his ability, talent, or gift, coupled with opportunity. The purpose of the Spirit is to furnish each one the dynamic to accomplish the work for which he is adapted. There are no useless members. God has added each to the body as He pleases.
A mistaken view exists about making a witness for Jesus. Some persons feel they must quit their employment in order to obey God's Word for their lives. If one is working in an endeavor that is sinful in itself, or in which his conscience condemns him, he should get out of it. But one who makes his living in a legitimate business is working for God. The same Word that urges faithfulness to God also says, "Study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; that ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing" (1 Thessalonians 4:11, 12; KJV).
This is the instruction of the Spirit, and surely He will empower those who heed it. Some may feel called to leave an occupation and preach the Word of God to those who have not heard it. This is good. Others who may not have the ability to do that may remain in the shop or office. One is no more a minister of God than the other. They simply serve in different places, but all must serve in the Spirit.
Closely akin to this is the teaching of God's revelation on the fruit of the Spirit. The word for fruit is karpos, defined as that which is produced by the inherent energy of a living organism. In a spiritual sense, W. E. Vine says that it is "the visible expression of power working inwardly and invisibly, the character of the fruit being evidence of the character of the power producing it."
In His dissertation on the Spirit as a helper, Jesus inserted the metaphor of the vine and the branches (John 15:1-10). In this appropriate illustration God is the gardener, and Jesus the true vine. The branches are His followers. "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples" (John 15:8; KJV). Some things are made clear in the metaphor. One is that the branch is helpless to bear fruit of itself. Jesus said, "The branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine" (v. 4; KJV).
A branch does not produce grapes, but becomes the channel through which fruit is borne. It is the inward strength derived through union with the vine that makes fruit possible. As Jesus put it, "Without me ye can do nothing." The will of God for a human life can never be carried out separated from Jesus Christ. Men deceive themselves when they think they can achieve righteousness on their own. Just as the sap enlivens the vine and produces fruit, so the Spirit results in the fruit that pleases God in a human life.
As recorded in Philippians 1:9, Paul prayed that the love of the brethren would grow ever richer and richer in knowledge and insight of every kind, bringing upon them the gift of true discrimination. By this means they would be able to produce the full fruit of righteousness through Jesus Christ.
One need not be barren and unfruitful. A life of uselessness is a reflection upon God who created us to produce fruit and will make it possible for us to do so if we remain in Him. Jesus once condemned a fig tree, for it had "nothing but leaves." Our excuses are generally attempts to escape from reality and responsibility. We seek to make it appear that everything depends upon ourselves, when it is God who works in us to will and to do His good pleasure if we allow Him to do so.
A farmer taking care of a rock-strewn, hilly acreage in the Missouri Ozarks was reading his Bible one day while his team rested in the shade. For the first time in his life the message got through to him that every Christian had a responsibility to call others to the side of Christ, and that God would work in and with one who boldly testified of his faith. At noon that day he told his wife they must sell out and move. She was startled by this hasty decision. He explained that he had but little formal education and could not do a great deal among local people who knew more than himself. He reasoned that somewhere there were those more ignorant than he, and he could teach them and earn their gratitude.
Each day he prayed for God to show him where he should go. Two years later he found himself in the far north in an Eskimo fishing village. He purchased a boat, staffed it with natives, and on their first trip led them all to faith in Jesus. In a few brief years the people in two villages had become believers and had been trained to carry on for Christ and tell others the story. The one-time farmer now felt the urge to go to "regions beyond."
He entered the African bush country where missionaries had seldom appeared. He and his wife denied themselves the finer things of life to share with others. Although he could never speak the native tongues, he found willing, if sometimes inept, translators who could get the gist of the message through while the teacher drew diagrams in the dust with a stick. He often went into remote villages and leaned against the wheel of an ox wagon and talked through the entire day as his students squatted about him. His wife ministered to the sick and distressed. As a result, they adopted and reared two native babies whose mothers died in childbirth.
I met the aged couple in London while they were en route to the United States on their first visit back home in more than twenty years. I spent several days with them, and my own faith was deepened by this encounter. These saints of God were quite uneducated and would have been turned down by any examining committee or screening board for missionaries. Yet they had reached thousands of persons for Christ and converted whole villages. The work was being carried on in their absence by the two black children they had reared. These children were so thoroughly trained in the Scriptures that, even though hardly sixteen years of age, they could supervise the effort for Christ.
The aged and wrinkled missionary told me that it seemed almost by chance that, on the day his life was transformed into a worker for Christ on that Missouri farm, he connected in his mind two passages from God's Word: "Without me ye can do nothing . . . I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (John 15:5; Philippians 4:13; KJV). He never forgot these, and they remained his motto all of his life. He has long since gone to be with the Lord, but his fruit is still being gathered. "I knew that somewhere there were people more ignorant than myself, and if I could find them I could teach them." He found them on two continents and brought forth fruit among them. In spite of my own firm confidence in the Word of God, I always find myself greatly humbled by those who achieve so much regardless of educational handicaps, through simple, trusting faith.
The real productivity of the Spirit is best evidenced in a remarkable statement to the Galatians, in which the apostle contrasts the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. You will find the record in Galatians 5:1-16. Although several items are listed under each category, the term "works" is plural, while the singular form is used for the fruit of the Spirit. Life in the Spirit does not consist of the exhibition of certain virtues, but of a unified and harmonious existence under God's marvelous grace.
Verse 16 urges the Galatians to "walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." It is essential that "the flesh" here be properly identified, because there is a tendency to think of it only in connection with sexual sins. This is encouraged by the use of the word "lust" in the Authorized Version. Such a limitation is not justifiable in this chapter. Many of the "works of the flesh" have no connection with sensuality or sex. One may walk in the flesh by engaging in "envy, fits of rage, selfish ambitions, and party intrigues," as certainly as if he indulged in fornication and indecency.
"The flesh" is simply "the lower nature," and the word is so translated in the New English Version. The flesh is man pursuing his own stubborn way, rejecting the guidance of the Spirit, and resisting the lordship of Jesus. It is life undisciplined and unrestrained by the power of God, asserting itself without reference to the divine will or purpose. Men who never committed an act of sexual impropriety may be walking in the flesh as certainly as the most flagrant adulterer.
It is not necessary to list all the things that enslave men and make them victims of the material and perishable. Paul does not consider the catalogue complete, seeing that he closes with the words, "and such like." Of one thing he is certain: Those who do such things will never inherit the kingdom of God. The Spirit is the key to the inheritance, and "they that are Christ's have crucified the (lower nature) with the affections and lusts" (Galatians 5:24; KJV).
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. The heart pulsates with spiritual vitality in its contemplation of these noble attributes. They are the result of a transformed personality, and they could transform the world. No law exists to rebuke these. They can never be had in excess. There can never be too much love, joy, patience, or kindness. One need not limit goodness or faith. The more gentleness and self-control one has the better he will be and the greater blessing he will be to those about him. The Spirit will produce this fruit in all who are committed to His power and strength. God be praised!