How can we be sure that when Christ returns, we will have produced fruit worthy of harvesting to feed the world?
God’s firstfruits are not just called to salvation, but to do a work preparing for the final fall harvest of all humanity. In his booklet Human Nature: What Is It?, Stephen Flurry points out the reason for our calling: “That brings us back to the ultimate purpose of why man was created in the first place—to become God. God is reproducing Himself. He is calling out a select few at this point to assist Him in teaching others in the World Tomorrow. In preparing for that, they must overcome just as Jesus Christ did (1 Peter 2:21; Revelation 2:26; 3:21). We can’t overcome by our own power. It has to be Jesus Christ living again in us by the power of God’s Spirit (Galatians 2:20; Zechariah 4:6). God is creating something very beautiful in us. ‘[W]e are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,’ as Paul said (Ephesians 2:10).
“‘For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous’ (1 John 5:3). Real love—God’s love—is action. It is keeping God’s commandments. And unless our peoples stop talking about love and start obeying God’s law, the evils and moral depravity we see all around us will only get worse. Only when we make a stand, with firm resolve, and determine to live according to God’s way, will we ever eradicate the evil nature—actually Satan’s nature—which resides in the mind of man. Only then, when every human being rejects Satan’s way and seeks God’s Spirit-power, will we be able to solve the problems that plague mankind” (emphasis added).
The feast of Pentecost is all about that joyous time when God finally harvests His firstfruits and begins to usher in the coming Kingdom of God. We too can be there, right alongside Jesus Christ, if, during this lifetime, we are bearing fruit fit for harvesting.
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