(19) Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, (20) Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, (21) Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (22) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, (23) Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. (24) And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. (25) If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (26) Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
The great improvement, as appears to me to be intended by the Holy Ghost, from this relation, of the different properties of flesh and spirit, is from them to consider, the different sources from whence they spring, and the cause, why they mark the different characters in which they appear. Let the Reader carefully observe, how the different expressions are worded. The one is called, the works of the flesh. The other, the fruits of the Spirit. In both instances, they are intended, to describe, what is, and must be, the result of the opposite state of unrenewed nature, and that which is quickened by grace. But the great object (if I do not err) intended, is to lead the child of God to trace effects to their cause, by beholding the distinguishing love of the Lord in the appointment.
The Reader will bear with me, while I say, that those sweet portions of Scripture, which mark the difference, between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not; are not properly used by the Lord's people, when looked at chiefly as our evidences, instead of being looked at as God's testimonies in Christ. It is not what we observe, or suppose that we observe, of fruits, and effects, which become the foundation of hope; but what Christ is, as our Head, and Representative in God's esteem. Experiences, are very well in their way; but they are never well, nor ever properly in the way, when we put them in Christ's way, and in the place of Christ. And whoever sends men to form a judgment of their state, as they stand before God, by consulting what they call the gracious dispositions of their own hearts, instead of sending them to the enjoyment of God's perfect approbation of the Church in Christ; is sending them to the shadow instead of the substance: so that, when at any time an intervention takes place to the substance, the shadow is instantly lost.
To make application of this doctrine, to the present statement of the Apostle. He gives the Church an awful catalogue of the lusts of the flesh, in the state and circumstances of every unregenerate man, born in the Adam-nature of original corruption, and remaining in it, uncalled, unsanctified by grace. These works he describes, are as naturally the production of our fallen state, as the sparks which fly upward from fire. They do not appear in equal violence in all, no more than the natural diseases of the body. But the root of each is in all; and proves an equal state of corruption in all. And, consequently, living, and dying in this unrenewed state before God; such characters cannot, as the Apostle decidedly speaks, inherit the kingdom of God. And the reason is obvious. All causes, must produce their own effect. And this is the natural effect of such a cause. And, awful as it is, when we see men sitting under the Gospel, and yet living regardless of all the truths they hear, while it serves to enhance to the Church the sovereignty of God's grace, it manifests no less the impossibility of anything rising above its source. The works of the flesh are manifest. They prove the state of an unrenewed nature. And men left in this state, are only left to the fruit of their own works. The cause here, as in every other instance, naturally produceth its own effect. He that soweth to the flesh, will of the flesh reap corruption. Galatians 6:8
On the other hand, the fruits of the Spirit; these as plainly are the result of an opposite principle: and they define the character of those born of God. But they differ widely from the works of the flesh, not only in their very nature and property, but also in their source and spring. The works of the flesh are a man's own. They arise from himself, and his own fallen nature. But the Apostle words his expression, when describing the productions of the Spirit, by calling them fruits. Hence, therefore, the child of God, though by distinguishing grace, he is made a partaker of the unspeakable gift; yet there is nothing of his, which he can call his own, in it. It is all received; and all free, unmerited, and on his part wholly undeserved. And hence, (to return to the original observation which I offered), the child of God who looks at those fruits, more than as fruits, and overlooks the cause in the effect, taking comfort from evidences, instead of Christ alone; is by so much going off the ground, of real firmness in the faith. It is looking at Christ second-hand, when we look at him through our evidences. It is like what Paul elsewhere calls rudiments of the world; for they are rudiments of our out hearts, and not Christ. Colossians 2:8. In a word, it is very blessed to trace the fruits of the Spirit as the Apostle hath here described them, in our daily walk and conversation: but all these, and ten thousand more, are not Christ. Precious Lord Jesus! thou alone art my portion, for time, and for eternity!