1. When a believer lives in full awareness and realization of their oneness with Christ, that is, in understanding, and living out their union with Christ, the fruit of the Spirit is the result. Jesus prayed repeatedly in His “high-priestly” prayer contained in John’s gospel, chapter 17, for God to reveal the glory that He had with the Father from before the world was created (John 17:24). This glory also referred to by the Lord in verse 22, can be nothing else, and nothing less than “the words” given to Him by the Father. Jesus had previously, in the same gospel, in chapter 15:1-8, and in chapter 6:63 emphatically mentioned that His words are Spirit, and it is the Spirit that gives life. This glory is therefore the glory of the Promise and Gift of the Holy Spirit that Jesus assured His disciples in John’s gospel, chapters 14, 15 and 16, that the Father would grant Him to give to them so that they would be one, and not be orphans, and alone in the world.
2. The Spirit envelopes the Word. The Word when it is a “rhematos” brings about faith as it produces an inward conviction in the believer. And this is the victory that overcomes the world, the Apostle John said in his first letter, chapter 5, verses 1 to 5. No wonder Luther exults in justification by faith! For Luther, “in ipsa fide Christos adest“, means that in faith Christ is present. This was Luther’s rationale, and raison d’etre, of life, and the basis of all his works, and words. He said in his Galatian commentary, as well as his book on Christian Freedom, Faith made one lords and kings, as well as servants to all. Truly only faith enables the believer to be saint in the sight of God whilst recognizing their sin in the world. Thanks to Luther, and now modernized by the late Rev Dr Timothy Keller, “simul iustus et peccatore“, is the signal cry of victory for the believer united with Christ.
3. How then ought a believer to live so as to experience the Risen and Living Christ daily?
   • firstly, it is crucial for the believer to come to a realization that only the Holy Spirit of God and of Christ can bring this realization of heaven upon earth. Remember the account of Jesus with His disciples and the exchange between Peter and the Lord in the region of Caesarea Philipi recorded in Matt 16:13-26? From Jesus’s teaching in this passage, it is absolutely clear that without a word of revelation from God, it is impossible to know Christ as Savior. Peter demonstrates this stark reality for us when his sublime response to Jesus’s divinity is destroyed by his fleshly reaction to Jesus’s death that He predicts in Jerusalem.
   • the believer of Christ therefore must understand through the help of the Spirit, that it is NEVER about the physical, or natural outcome, or results, about whatever happens on an earthly plane that matters to GOD. What matters to God is fruit. Jesus made that abundantly clear in His final discourse to His disciples after the Last Supper and revealed in chapter 15, verses 1 to 8 in John’s gospel. Jesus was explicit that the Father is glorified when we-the followers of Christ who followed the Father unerringly-“bear much fruit“.
   • it is this fruit of union with Christ which the Spirit reveals through Gal 5 as Paul exegetes the outcome of the genuine gospel – Christlikeness. From an earthly point of view, one can see that the fruit which are all concomitant with love, are recognized as “instrumental values” with only one sole goal; that Christ alone may be glorified in and through His people.

Reflections:

I realize as I continue to meditate upon this glorious truth implanted in my heart by the Spirit’s revelation of the written word, that Jesus lives in His believers by faith. Paul, inspired by the Spirit says this in his prayer for the Ephesian believers in Eph 3:17, “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith“. This is the presence of the Spirit and the Son in union with the ones who receive the word of the Father granted to the Son.

The way of living this life of faith is as Jesus puts it, in John 7:38 Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him.’”

It dawns on me that this way of living by faith, in the Spirit, through His grace, is diametrically opposed to living by the “flesh”. At this point, the apostle James (Jesus’s human brother) helpfully clarifies these two ways through the two types of wisdom accessible by the follower of Christ in James 3:13-18. The wisdom from above is the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, the glory of God, accessible only by faith. Faith means a humble submission to the written word of God contained in Scriptures, and manifestly revealed by the Person and Work of Christ on the cross.

This way of living means to live in awareness that “walking by faith and not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7) means that I walk by the values of the kingdom, not keeping my focus or attention on human and fleshly results. That way, I am focused on letting Christ, by His mighty and glorious Spirit that dwells in my heart, to produce the fruit of love, faith and hope, regardless of human outcomes, even when suffering through tests and trials and adversities are involved.

Living from “the innermost being”, another translation uses the word, “belly” (Jn 7:38), means living and walking “in the Spirit”, which is living a lifestyle of grace and truth, which in turn is a lifestyle of faith. It is to walk as Jesus walked. And this is only possible by a moment-by-moment realization and awareness that without Him, we are nothing and can do nothing.