Inner Healing Is the Fruit of the Spirit

Years ago, when I came to the Lord, my primary reason was to get inner peace. Everything I saw in the Bible pointed to being anxious for nothing and casting all of my care on the Lord in order to arrive at this state. I never viewed freedom from worry, anger, unforgiveness and addictions as a special healing that occurred apart from a relationship of unconditional trust in the Lord. How can you be highly charged emotionally if you cast all of your care on Him? Peace seemed like a natural result of unconditional trust.

When I surrendered myself to the Lord, it happened. I had inner peace beyond my wildest expectations. Since then, I have been trying to understand the theology behind the process. I have never accepted the idea that peace is something you pray for and then receive without humbling yourself before God. Inner peace is an integral part of our salvation, not the result of some special healing.

I concluded that the things that keep us bogged down emotionally are the results of the “law of sin” Paul speak of in Romans 7:14-8:2. He describes this as our tendency to do the things we don’t want to do and not do the things we should do. We all fall under the law of sin, and it is the reason our willpower is insufficient to deal with our emotional issues.

But the Holy Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-24) give us victory over the law of sin. All of this is perceptible in our emotional life. We experience it psychologically in a very real way. Spirituality isn’t something theoretical. If going to church on Sunday is the extent of your spirituality, you are living way below par in terms of what is available in Christ.

Jesus Christ made inner healing available to us, and His Spirit provides the boost we need to be overcomers. The last Adam (Jesus Christ) became a life-giving Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the comforter (parakletos), or one who comes alongside to help us. This is the primary difference between Christianity and other religions which do not acknowledge the biblical God and His Son.

Without those two persons of the Godhead, we are on our own and without strength. The Son, as the Word incarnate, has the human component that made the redemption possible. Without that, there could be no shed blood (required for the remission of sin), and there would not be His human faith in the Father that brings to Him the graces He shares with us. Without the Son’s divinity as the Word, we would not be allowed to trust Him as God and receive His Spirit. Both of Christ’s natures are essential for salvation.

Christ’s glorified humanity works for us in interesting ways of which most of us aren’t aware. Seated at the right hand of the Father, Christ is our heavenly High Priest who intercedes for us. He is our one mediator with the Father. Without this human function, we would have no access to the Father. Because the Father abides in the Son, we also have the Spirit of the Father when we have the Spirit of His Son within us. This is why we are complete in Christ. When we have Christ, we have the total Godhead within us. Father, Son and Holy Spirit all reside in His humanity.

Jesus, the last Adam, became a life-giving Spirit made available for us at Pentecost. Another aspect of Christ’s humanity that continues to this day is His human faith in the Father. This is how He was able to perform miracles when He was walking on Earth, and His humanity is essential for us now, because without it, we could not have justification by faith.

In Galatians 3:16, Paul says the promises were made to Abraham and his singular seed, which is Christ. The question is: How do they reach us? Christ shares them with us when He abides within us. This is the only way we have access to them. They don’t come to us from a distance, but from the indwelling Christ. He also shares His justification by faith with us, which He has by His human faith in the Father.

Our faith in Jesus Christ brings us His Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit flows from the Father through the Son into us for our inner healing. For this reason, we cannot bypass faith in the Son in order to have faith in God and justification by faith.

The Father views us through the prism of His Son. This is why we are adopted sons of God. No one comes to the Father without Jesus Christ.

Peter Aiello is the author of Hidden Treasure. Visit http://www.hiddentreasure.website/ to get your free book download.

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