Good fruit

When John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus Christ appeared on earth, God's people had been under the law of Moses for fifteen hundred years. No wonder John and our Lord looked for fruit among them.

When the hypocritical religious leaders came to join John's growing audience and asked to be baptized, John called them a "brood of vipers" and told them to "bear fruit in keeping with repentance" (Matt 3:7-8).

The next verse (v 9) regarding "we have Abraham for our father", refers to the common teaching of that day that said Israel participated in the merits of Abraham, which made their prayers acceptable, helped in war, expiated sins, appeased the wrath of God, and assured a share in God's eternal kingdom. So the people were quite startled when John the Baptist (and later Jesus Christ) preached the necessity of personal repentance, with fruit to prove it; "baptizing them with water for repentance" (v 11). (Before John came on the scene, baptism was usual for Gentiles converting to Judaism, but to baptize Hebrews was unknown.) They should have, but didn't, understood that John fulfilled the OT prediction of a type of the coming "Elijah" before the Day of the Lord (Matt 11:13-14; Mal 4:5).

True fruit-producing repentance was the basic requirement of the kingdom. This is evident from John's declaration in verse 10: The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Christ Jesus also looked for fruit among His people (Matt 7:16-20; 21:33-43). We know, however, that John the Baptist was beheaded and Christ crucified. The fruit produced under the Law was meager indeed.

But what the Law requires, grace provides. The apostle Paul's "preaching of the cross" (1 Cor 1:18) tells us that Christ had not died an untimely death, but in infinite love had come into the world to die for us so that we might be saved by grace, through faith (Eph 2:8-9).

God's grace in Christ, when accepted in true faith, always produces good fruit. This is why Paul wrote to the Colossians that "the word of truth, the gospel" was going forth into all the world, adding: "it is bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in your also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth" (Col. 1:5-6 cf. Rom. 6: 21-22).

If we accept God's message of grace, trust in Christ as our Savior, and allow the Holy Spirit (1 Thes 5:19) to work within us, we will produce good fruit.