The course of a person’s life is marked by specific and predictable seasons that, in broad terms, include birth, early childhood, pre-teen years, teenage years, young adulthood, adulthood and senior years. In each of these seasons, God expects us to bear fruit that is appropriate to our age and stage of life; fruit that is specific to our name as a son of God. For example, we note that the expression of a seven year-old son of God will be different from that of a teenager.

​

God makes the expression of our sonship ‘beautiful in its time’. Ecc 3:11. It is perfect for each season of our life. This is what Paul was referring to when he wrote that ‘as many as are perfect [mature]’ have the attitude of ‘forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead’. Php 3:13-15. He was not saying that we are sinless but, rather, that we should be continuing to grow as a son of God and bearing fruit ‘in its season’. Psa 1:3. This authentic expression of sonship is what it means to be a firstfruits Christian. Jas 1:18.

​

A firstfruits believer is the ‘good ground’ that Jesus spoke of in His parable of the sower and the seed. This person bears the fruit of righteousness − thirty, sixty and a hundredfold. Mar 4:20. Firstfruits Christians are able to hear, believe and obey the word of God because they are being delivered from another way of thinking and behaving, that the apostle Paul described as ‘another law’ within them. Rom 7:23. This ‘other law’ is the sinful propensity in our flesh which motivates us to go our own way. If we live by what we think is best for us, then we cannot be the son whom God wants us to be.