Fruit Inspection

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.”

Matthew 7:15-20

Faith in Jesus Christ is a decision, but it is much more than a decision. There are several things that happen at the exact same moment when a person passes from spiritual death to new life in Christ. Some of these are things that God does and others are our response. The Bible says when a person becomes a Christian he is born again. In other words, he was previously spiritually dead and insensitive to the things of God, but God worked in his life and gives the person new life. This is also called regeneration or as Scripture puts it, a heart of stone is transformed into a heart of flesh.

At that same moment a person is converted and justified. He sees the beauty of the cross and the awfulness of his sin and he turns from his sin (repents) and rests in the finished work of Christ on the cross (faith). The Bible says that this individual is also at the same time justified. He is declared “not guilty” because the penalty for his guilt has been paid by Christ. Simultaneously he is set apart as God’s possession (positionally sanctified), united with Christ, and placed into his Body the Church. This person is forgiven for his sin and adopted into the family of God becoming the object of the Father’s affection. All of this is accompanied at the same time as the Spirit of the Living God takes up residence in the person who has just been converted. This is what it means to become a Christian.

God also relentlessly begins transforming us to be more and more like his Son Jesus. Although we have passed from death to life, there is still indwelling sin that resides within the believer. We have genuinely become new creatures in Christ (2 Cor 5:17), but we are not yet TOTALLY new. We still reside in our fallen bodies, in this sinful world, and are still able to be tempted by sin. There is a battle in every Christian’s life to turn away from sin and continue to walk with Christ. This means a changed life and good works are the immediately, necessary, and inevitable result of genuine saving faith. God began his work of changing us the moment we came to Christ. Further, since we have truly been made alive and indwelt by the Holy Spirit there will be fruit. One cannot encounter the living God and remain unchanged. If he is in no way changed, his conversion is not genuine, and he has not entered a relationship with Jesus. So good works or fruit is inevitable. The change may be slow, but it will happen. It must happen.

This is why Jesus says that you can recognize a person by his fruit. Think of an actual fruit plant for a moment. An apple tree is an apple tree by its very nature, long before it produces apples. But because it is an apple tree you expect that there will be apples. The apples don’t make it an apple tree, but because it is an apple tree it will produce apples. In nature there could be a reason why it does not produce apples, but that is not the case with a person who has genuinely been converted. Someone may be able to fake it for a while convincingly, but in time the true reality of his spiritual state will become evident. It may take years or decades, but eventually you will be able to discern the true state of his heart by the fruit that his life produces. Because this is true we can examine a person’s life for evidence of true saving faith.