BULLETIN ARTICLE
26 January 2020
Produce Fruit In Keeping With Repentance
How does a Christian look like? Can you recognise them?
From appearance alone, some may look like John the Baptist. John lived in the wilderness, and his food and clothes were rough and unsophisticated (Matthew 3:4). Today, monks, nuns, and some lay Christians practice asceticism — self-denial, voluntary poverty, fasting, and living away from worldly pleasures. But this lifestyle alone does not make someone a Christian.
Others may look at a person’s family and upbringing. Their parents or grandparents were missionaries, church elders, pastors, or ministry leaders. Their family name could be well known in Christian social circles. They grew up attending church and Sunday School. They read the Bible, pray, and tithe. Having a Christian heritage is a wonderful thing, and spiritual disciplines are important — yet, these too are not sufficient.
In fact, John the Baptist directs his harshest criticism towards the religious people of his day. The Pharisees and Sadducees were proud to be Abraham’s descendants (v9), but John called them a “brood of vipers”, suggesting that they were evil and poisonous. John warned that God could create children for Abraham from stones, and that the Pharisees and Sadducees needed to produce good fruit or be destroyed. In other words, John was saying that no matter how impeccable their background or who their ancestors were, that was no basis for being right before God. One Bible commentary put it this way: “The piety of our upbringing cannot save us if we are not personally committed to Christ.”
What then must we do? We must turn to God in repentance (v2, 11). To repent means to confess our sin, turn away from it, and live a new life through the power of the Holy Spirit. This includes producing fruit in keeping with repentance (v8). We must allow Jesus Christ to bear his fruit through us — to exhibit God and his character, by his grace, through the work of the Holy Spirit.
It is tempting to think that keeping up religious appearances is “enough”, but God does not look at the outward appearance — he looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). You mustn’t be surprised that God will test your heart, if he hasn’t already (1 Chronicles 29:17). Michal, King David’s wife, despised him for dancing in celebration when the ark arrived in Jerusalem, and she remained childless for the rest of her life (2 Samuel 6). Even though he was the wisest man, Solomon’s heart turned away from God, and God tore the kingdom away from his son (1 Kings 11). There are consequences to our inner decisions, thoughts, and attitudes. But by remaining firmly in Jesus and praying as the tax collector prayed, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18), the Lord can change our hearts, and we will have the joy and peace of knowing and following Him.
