Kingdom Consummated Part 8

At Keys Vineyard Church, we are presenting a series called ‘Kingdom Consummated,’ which we post here on Online Bible Institute.

In our ‘Kingdom Consummated’ series, we have spent the past few weeks discussing the existence of our spiritual adversary, who seeks to steal, kill, and destroy. His plan is to twist God’s good intentions and lead us to live below our potential. However, Jesus came to offer us life, and not just any life, but life abundantly. The question, then, is how do we experience this abundant life that Jesus offers? The Apostle Paul points us to the answer in Galatians 5:22–26:

Galatians 5:22-26 (NIV)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

The fruit of the Spirit is not merely a list of virtues to strive for. These are the natural results of a life yielded to the Spirit of God. They describe what it looks like when God’s life flows through us. The fruit is evidence that we are no longer living under the old sinful nature but are being renewed by the Spirit. When Adam and Eve sinned, they died spiritually. That death, a separation from God’s life, became the condition of every person who came after them.

Ephesians 2:1-3 (NIV)
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

Ephesians 2:1–3 reminds us that before Christ, we were dead in our sins, following the ways of this world and the desires of our fallen nature. But in His great love, God made us alive with Christ. Through grace, not works, we are brought from death to life.

Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

Ephesians 2:8–9 stresses that this new life is a gift, not something earned by rule keeping or religious performance. Once we are made alive in Christ, we are called to live by the Spirit.

Galatians 5:16-18 (NIV)
16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

Galatians 5:16–18 shows that there is an ongoing conflict between the Spirit and our old nature. Life in the Spirit means learning to yield, to allow the Holy Spirit to lead, correct, and shape us. When we resist, our self-centered nature resurfaces, and the fruit fades. But when we surrender, the Spirit produces in us what we could never manufacture on our own. This daily surrender leads us to the full and abundant life Jesus promised. It is a life marked by freedom, not bondage, and by love, not selfishness. As the Spirit works in us, we begin to live for something greater than ourselves. We become conduits of God’s grace, serving others in love and reflecting His kingdom in a world still in need of His life.

This weekend at Keys Vineyard Church, we will discuss all this and more, so be sure to join us in person or online.

Steve Lawes is a pastor at Keys Vineyard Church and also the founder of the Online Bible Institute Network.