Joel M Bradshaw

7He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 9Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”–Luke 3, with emphasis

Picture your life as a tree with branches. And on those branches grow fruit. To follow Christ you must first have confessed your sins to God. This means that you agree with God that you have sinned and that his standards are the ones you will follow. As you confess your sins, you trust that he is indeed faithful to forgive you (1 John 1:9).

You then repent. Repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change of life. It becomes the great turning point of your existence. I like to picture those Christmas gift tags that have TO and FROM on them. You like seeing your name by TO, because you know that gift is yours. Well here your name goes with the FROM. To repent involves actively turning FROM yourself as the master of your life and turning TO Jesus.

Enter John the Baptist and Luke chapter 3. If you have repented, your life should be producing fruit from that repentance. Your repentance should be daily as you take off the old you and put on the new you in Jesus (Colossians 3:9). Therefore your fruit should be in every season of your life. How do I know I am right with Christ? I look at my branches. Or rather, I have my wife do so. I submit also to another guy who helps to keep me accountable. I must remain intentional about the things to STOP in my life and others to START or to CONTINUE.

This repentance fruit is necessary. We know this because of the second line I underlined above. This is serious business. John the Baptist wasn’t messing around, and neither should you. Following Jesus requires change. And that change should always produce fruit. When you aren’t producing fruit or if you are producing bad fruit, start over with confession and repentance. My favorite fruit comes from Galatians 5:16-26. The first part is bad fruit you repent from and the second part is good fruit you should want to see on your branches. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and ESPECIALLY self-control. What fruit hangs on the branches of the tree that is your life?–JMB