What kind of tree would Jesus identify you as?
Matthew 7:15-20 (NIV)
15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
Listen to passage & devotional:
Belgic Confession of Faith, Article 24: The Sanctification of Sinners (Part 2)
Our good works,
proceeding from the good root of faith,
are good and acceptable to God,
since they are all sanctified by his grace.
Yet they do not count toward our justification—
for by faith in Christ we are justified,
even before we do good works.
Otherwise they could not be good,
any more than the fruit of a tree could be good
if the tree is not good in the first place.
So then, we do good works,
but nor for merit—
for what would we merit?
Rather, we are indebted to God for the good works we do,
and not he to us,
since it is he who “works in us both to will and do
according to his good pleasure”
thus keeping in mind what is written:
“When you have done all that is commanded you,
then you shall say, ‘We are unworthy servants;
we have done what it was our duty to do.’“
Yet we do not wish to deny
that God rewards good works—
but it is by his grace
that he crowns his gifts.
Moreover,
although we do good works
we do not base our salvation on them;
for we cannot do any work
that is not defiled by our flesh
and also worthy of punishment.
And even if we could point to one,
memory of a single sin is enough
for God to reject that work.
So we would always be in doubt,
tossed back and forth
without any certainty,
and our poor consciences would be tormented constantly
if they did not rest on the merit
of the suffering and death of our Savior.
Summary
As He teaches here near the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus makes His point twice: His disciples are easily recognized by the things they do. "By their fruit," Jesus says, "you will recognize them."
Just as you would never expect to have a patch of weeds produce any good fruit, someone who is not rooted in Christ cannot live like Christ, which is the ultimate goal for us as Christians (Rom. 8:29). Jesus seems to state the obvious here, when He says that "Good trees bear good fruit, but bad trees bear bad fruit." This seems like a tautology.
But Jesus' point is quite profound. When you take an apple tree, plant it in good soil, keep it well watered and expose it to lots and lots of sunshine, it will bear apples. It has to. It's in its DNA. If it's not bearing apples, then it's not really an apple tree.
The point here isn't a lesson on apple tree biology but on who you are as a Christian. You've been reborn, and if you're in a healthy church you're planted in good soil; as you read God's Word and hear it proclaimed, you're getting a huge infusion of sunshine, so to speak. If all these conditions are ideal, you will bear fruit.
If you're not, something's wrong and you better diagnose it quickly, before you're thrown into the fire and burned with the other weed trees. Either you're not really a Christian (your "root of faith" is compromised, as our Confession put it), or you're growing conditions are so sub par it's stunting you.
Dig Deeper
We lived for 25 years in the heart of the world's best apple growing region in Central Washington State (although we also have some fine orchards here in Southwest Minnesota!). Orchards there grew dozens of different apple varieties, with better and better ones developed over the years.
Yet despite all of the improvements incorporated in the newer varieties, there is still strong commercial demand for the old Red Delicious apples. Reds only have one thing going for them: they're really beautiful on the outside. But on the inside they're mealey and have no taste.
You'll notice lots of people who aren't Christians who seem to be doing really good things; bad trees which seem to bear good fruit. Sometimes (often?) their good works seem to outshine the good works of Christians!
First, it's not that this other fruit is so good, it only looks good because so many modern Christians are planted in such poor conditions that their fruit has become dull by comparison. But apart from that, this non-Christian fruit is like a Red Delicious apple: it looks fantastic from the outside, but it has very little substance.
Take a moment to remind yourself what we learned last year, that truly good fruit arises out of true faith, conforms to God's law, and is done solely for His glory (Heidelberg Catechism QA 91).
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who created and redeemed us to bear good fruit;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you and the other 'trees' planted alongside you will all bear good fruit for our Lord;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: Luke 24
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