When we cease resisting Christ and let him into our lives to begin his work, we start changing on the inside. Fruits are a result of Christ's work, not visa-versa. If we take a step back and look at our or others' lives, then we can see how the person slowly changes; inside to outside.
Ephesians 3:16-17.5 says, "I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith."
See that? Inner being! Dwell in our hearts! Change starts on the inside, and moves to the outside.
John 15:5 says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
Once again, He remains in us. But right before that, you see, "If you remain in me" so this isn't a one-way relationship. Once we are a Christian, we are saved forever, and cannot lose our salvation. (Romans 8:35-39, John 10:27-30, Timothy 2:19) So it is up to us to keep up our relationship with Christ by submitting to his will and learning about him.
Submitting to his will? What do I mean by that? First, I want to say that free will is the mind choosing. The mind and the will are inseparable. Also, everything we do has a reason and purpose. Humans ("free moral agents" according to R.C. Sproul) always act according the strongest inclination they have at the time of decision. What gives us our inclination?
Well going back to what I said earlier, the mind and the will are inseparable. What is our will? When we are non-Christians, our will is our sin nature. When we are Christians, our will is Christ's will. So when our will is connected to our mind, then either our sin nature or Christ's will is connected to our mind. What our mind chooses is therefore based on either our sin nature or on Christ's will.
Someone remind me to write more on this. I'm not done.
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