“Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes…” Isaiah 54:1
In the book of Isaiah, chapter 53, we find perhaps the greatest, and most concise revelation of the suffering Servant of Jehovah, the Son of God, Christ Jesus, with regard to the price that He paid on Calvary. Coupled with the unimaginable suffering that He endured, is revealed the essence of His perfect work, taking the sin of the entire world upon Himself, and its judgment by the Father. It was in Mrs. Cousin’s great hymn, “O Christ, What Burdens Bowed Thy Head,” that she wrote: “Death, and the curse were in our cup, O Christ, ’twas full for Thee! But Thou hast drained the last dark drop, ‘Tis empty now for me. That bitter cup, love drank it up; Now blessing’s draught for me.” In her hymn, which was a combination of the meaning of Christ’s suffering, but also a prayer to God concerning it, Mrs. Cousins helps us to grasp something of what it cost Christ to make a sinner whole. The testimony of the unfathomable love of God cannot be denied. That everlasting love, which is the same today, should be the constraining element and reason for which we love God in return, responding to His appeal, and seeking His glory. One aspect of glorifying God is the producing of fruit, much fruit, both that which is the fruit of the Spirit, the manifest Life of Christ, in and through the heart of the believer, but also, the reaching forth, using the means that God has provided, and does provide, both physical and spiritual, to reach the lost for Christ. If there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, how much joy will there be for many which are saved?
In considering the matter of fruitfulness, there can be a problem, one which will stifle any endeavor, and cut short fruit’s fruition. The problem is not with God, but with man’s response to God. In Isaiah, chapter 55, we read where the Lord says: “…My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, Saith the Lord.” (v.8) God’s work can only be truly done according to His ways, and by the power of the Spirit of God, working in and through the believer. He does this in the measure that the believer trusts Him according to His ways. For example, the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers the following: “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the LIFE also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.” (2 Cor. 4:10) Mrs. Cousin, in her hymn, would explain this truth and principle by writing: “For me, Lord Jesus, Thou hast died, And I have died in Thee; Thou’rt risen; my bands are all untied, And now Thou liv’st in me. When Thou dost come to take Thy Bride, Thy glory then for me!” What is she saying? When we look at the cross and see the Prince of Glory dying for us individually, and collectively, we are moved and gripped by such selfless love. In that terrible glimpse of such suffering, but at the same time, such a total commitment of Himself to save us, we are constrainded to understand more. It is then that we discover the great message of the Gospel, that not only Christ died, but we have died in Him. God’s way has been paved, and established, so that by the work of the cross, and the power of the resurrection, the fruit of Christ’s life will be revealed in us and spoken of in the world. The messenger of Christ not only carries with him the truth of Christ’s saving work, but the manifest presence of His life in the heart.
Fruitfulness is thus first and foremost the manifestation of Christ in us, and secondly, the spreading of the Gospel throughout the world, where Christ’s truth and power transforms the lives of those who hear, look, and live.
Dear Father, Fill us with Christ. In Jesus’ name, Amen.