Advent Day 20 :: Fruit of the Spirit
“There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. [2] And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” (Isaiah 11:1-2)
There is so much that can be discussed about Jesus Christ from the book of Isaiah. A good majority of the prophecies about Jesus come from the book of Isaiah and more often than not any Old Testament passages quoted in the New Testament are from the book of Isaiah.
Here’s what Isaiah had to say about Christ the Messiah:
Messiah would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14; Luke 1:34-35)
Messiah would be Immanuel "God with us" (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:21-23)
Messiah would be God and Man (Isaiah 9:6; John 10:30)
Messiah would have the 7-fold Spirit upon Him (Isaiah 11:1-2; Matthew 3:16-17; Revelation 4:5)
Messiah would heal the blind, lame, deaf (Isaiah 35:5-6; Mark 10:51-52)
Messiah would be preceded by a forerunner (Isaiah 40:3; Luke 1:17)
Messiah would be a light to the gentiles (Isaiah 42:6; John 8:12)
Messiah would be despised by the Jewish nation (Isaiah 49:7; John 10:20; Matthew 27:23)
Messiah would be whipped and beaten (Isaiah 50:6; Matthew 26:67, 27:26)
Messiah would die as a guilt offering for sin (Isaiah 53:10, John 18:11)
Messiah would be resurrected and live forever (Isaiah 53:10; Mark 16:16)
There is a reason why Isaiah is referred to by many as the prophet for the New Testament. So, why did I hone in on Isaiah 11 as our passage for today? There’s a few reasons. Three to be exact.
The first is that we see the continuation of the story of God’s redemptive plan in Scripture. The Messiah would come from the line of Jesse, who was the father of King David.
For the second reason, we need to take a step back. We need to understand the purpose of Christ coming before we can talk about what it means to us. This is often the dark side of Christmas that we don’t ever really want to discuss or want to focus on. Up until now we have seen Christ foretold as a redeemer, a rescuer, a King, our scapegoat, our mediator, etc. That all sounds great, but why? Why did he have to come to be all those things for us? Because of our sin. Romans tells us that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (3:23) and that the wages of our sin is death (6:23). And so the purpose of Christ coming was to once and for all defeat death and become the payment for our sin. He willingly gave His life in place of ours so that we would have life and become co-heirs with Him for eternity. What other person would do that? None.
All we have to do in order to receive this gift, the salvation offered through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, is to confess with your and believe in your heart (Romans 10:9-10; 10:13). That’s it. Christ was born to save us from our sinful nature and defeat death so that we would not have to face the wages of our sinfulness. We are covered by the blood of Christ that shed on the cross.
Lastly, Christ ensures that we will always have Him by our side on this side of Heaven. Look at Isaiah 11. He will come from the stump of Jesse and will bear fruit. That’s no random choice of words by the prophet Isaiah. We see this picture of a tree with fruit all throughout Scripture. We see it in the Garden of Eden in Genesis. We see it in Psalm 1. We see it here in Isaiah. John uses the analogy in John 15. We even see it in Revelation. So what fruit do we see from Jesus’ coming? We see the fruit of sinners, saved from their sin by God’s grace. We see the Spirit come to rest on Jesus, for He is the “Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord'' (Isaiah 11:2). This is the same Spirit that is abiding in us at the time of salvation (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, 3:16). It is the Spirit that causes us to bear fruit in our relationship with Christ. The fruit of “. . . love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23). We see the fulfillment of this promise in our list above. Jesus is baptized and the Spirit comes to rest on Him (Matthew 3:16-17).
It is because of His birth that Jesus was able to come as a human, die on the cross for our sins, rise from the grave in victory over sin, and ascend to the right hand of the Father. He has made it possible for all who trust in Him to be forgiven of their sins and become indwelled by His Spirit. It is because of this that we have a change of heart and bear the fruit that only comes from a relationship with the Father. That’s how others will know we have accepted the Messiah. The same love that He has shone us will permeate all that we do as we serve Him (John 13:35).
This advent season, before you celebrate, have a moment to check your heart. Are there things you need to confess and deal with? He’s come to take away the sin of the world. We can only celebrate that once we have accepted him through confession as we saw in Romans. We don’t have to be afraid to deal with the darkness of our hearts knowing that there was One who came to deliver us into light and walk with us until the day of His second coming where we will be united with Him for eternity.
Further Reading: Psalm 1
Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash
