Producing Fruit

“But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” Matthew 3:7-10, ESV

What a hardy reminder to start the new year with… the production of fruit is an outpouring of my repentance, not merely a stagnant security that I am elect and have nothing else to concern myself with. No, works do not save, but the fruit that is of righteousness bears witness to our salvation. Amen, that our God longs for our edification, and not only that, but that our works would shine before men and that they would glorify our Father in heaven. I don’t want to just rest in the security of my salvation, I want to embrace it wholeheartedly, daily remembering the rotting fruit of death that I could only bear outside of Christ, remembering I am nothing good without Him. May today, tomorrow, this week, this year and always be a continued growth of fruit, only by the possibility that our Savior is the perfect and everlasting fruit bearing tree. Amen that He is our tree of life, and His Spirit grows the fruits of life within us, and The Father who sent His Son is glorified by our good works that are not born of us. Such magnitude, such grace, such goodness.

Happy new year, beloved.