The Two Aspects of the Most High's Grace Part 2

Psalms 104

We are walking in today:  The Two Aspects of the Most High's Grace Part 2

The Fruit of Righteousness
As in any planting operation, our Heavenly Planter has a purpose in mind for planting the seed of Righteousness within His people. Just as we would plant peach seeds in order to obtain the fruit of the peaches; so The Most High has a purpose in mind for the seed He plants in our heart. The Most High plants the seed of righteousness — Yahushua Himself — in our heart, in order to obtain the fruit of righteousness that He, living within us, wants to produce within us.

Now if we understand that Messiah within us is the Seed; and Messiah within us is the Tree — then what is the nature of the fruit that Messiah would produce in us? Let's notice the following verses:

He watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works. (Psalms 104:13)

Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates. (Proverbs 31:31)

That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; (Colossians 1:10)

The more we study The Most High's Word, the more it becomes clear that the fruit The Most High desires to produce within us are works of righteousness. This fruit, however, is not produced by man — it is produced by Yahushua Messiah, living within us:

Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:11)

The fruit of righteousness does not consist of dead works initiated by ourselves. True works of righteousness can be produced only by Yahushua, the result of Himself being planted within as the Seed, at the moment we becomes 'Born-Again.' Since the Seed is the Word of The Most High (See Luke 8:11), the fruit of that Word of The Most High must be works of obedience to His Word.

Again, we must state that the true fruit of righteousness is not the result of man's own effort to obey The Most High's Word — but it is simply Messiah, living within, providing His grace and ability to obey His own Word. From what we have seen, we may safely conclude that the fruit of righteousness is that which Messiah Yahushua produces within us, by His grace, and with our cooperation, as He lives within us.

The Most High's Goal: The Harvest
Before we home in on our main theme of our being prepared for Messiah, let us first summarize what we have seen. Most today have been long familiar with the first aspect of grace — our forgiveness while we were yet sinners. Likewise, most are familiar with the corresponding first aspect of righteousness — Yahushua's own righteousness He has imputed to us, by our faith in His shed Blood. We have seen the that there is a second aspect of The Most High's grace, and of His righteousness — that of springing up in order to produce fruit.

We have seen that The Most High's goal is that the Seed He plants in our heart should be allowed to sprout, or spring forth, and mature, so that it becomes as a 'Tree of Righteousness, the planting of The Most High.' We have seen that The Most High's purpose for this Tree of Righteousness ("Messiah in you," as the Apostle Paul puts it) is to bear the Fruit of Righteousness — for the tree is known (identified, or named) by its fruit.

We might say that The Most High's purpose and goal is that the Seed of Light is to be sown in our heart, in order to harvest the fruit of Righteousness, which consists of works of righteousness done by the life of Messiah-in-us, living within.

We have seen that both righteousness poured out, and righteousness that springs up from the earth, are both claimed by The Most High to be His creation, hence they are both by His grace. We have seen also in the same passage in Isaiah 45:8 that salvation and righteousness spring up together. This would tell us that our salvation is not in the planting of the seed, but in the springing up, or sprouting of the seed.

We might say also that this Fruit of Righteousness is the 'precious fruit of the earth' for which the husbandman waiteth! (James 5:7.) Likewise, we might say that God's grace is the seed that yields the fruit of obedience, as seen in (Romans 1:5).

We will now go on to see how the fruit of Righteousness reveals the two-fold nature of The Most High's Grace.

Works Produced By Grace

We are told in the letter to the Philippians the following:

"...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Php 2:12b-13)

In the above passages, we see that what we must 'work out' is that which The Most High has already 'worked in.' We might say that the Righteousness The Most High has worked in, we must work out. The Fruit of righteousness, springing forth from the seed planted in our heart, is what some have called the out-worked righteousness — the works of obedience that Yahushua produces within us.

Again, we must be reminded that it is not our own works that qualify as Fruit of Righteousness; these are mere dead works. The true Fruit of Righteousness is simply the works that Yahushua, as He lives within us, produces on His own initiative, with our cooperation, in obedience to His Word! (Philippians 1:11)

We found that these works of righteousness are the fruit produced by the Tree of Righteousness, by Messiah-in-us; which tree had been sprouted and grown from the Original Seed, the Living Word of the Gospel, planted in the garden of our heart. It was by His grace that we were forgiven, and by His grace the seed (Messiah) was planted in the earth (our hearts) by the Gospel.

It is also by His continuing grace that He enables us to walk with Him. Thus it is Yahushua living out His own obedience in us, ("Messiah in us") that produces the Fruit of Righteousness — the "Works of Righteousness" which He has done, living in us.

The writer to the Hebrews, in encouraging and admonishing us, speaks of this second aspect of grace, as bringing forth fruit:

"...looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God..." (Hebrews 12:15a).

Notice the context of the above passage (from verse 11 onward) is that of a garden, and of 'Grace' as a crop that could fail. We see from the above passage, along with its context, that we should be diligent to receive The Most High's grace that He gives us to produce the crop of obedience to His Word — the works produced by "Messiah in you" — the second aspect of The Most High's Grace!

Fiveamprayer, we must come to the retaliation that Messiah in you is not only your hope of glory, but is your only hope of glory — and your only hope of obeying, of pleasing and of delighting the Father. It is only Messiah-in-us that can do any of these things, so we must allow Him to produce the fruit of obedience within us!
One might ask, "Just how do we allow Yahushua to produce fruit in us?" We might answer that question by considering how we may have been actually preventing the Master Yahushua from producing this Fruit of Righteousness within us. We must come to the realization that the great majority of Believers within the Body of Messiah on earth today, including ourselves, have been preventing Yahushua from producing this Fruit of Righteousness within them. This is 'crop failure' of massive proportions, even a virtual plague against us. Let's see how this has happened, so that we, as King David, might stop the plague. Let us see what Yahushua would do.  Join us tomorrow for part 3 and the conclusion of this teaching on grace!!!
Shema Selah what is it that the Most High has placed in you--that you have to work out??