If we analyze this line of
reasoning, we find it to be in contradiction to the scripture. It is not as if
scripture indicates we are to do nothing, and that is not at all my argument.
To the contrary, Jesus himself stated, “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… Thus you will recognize them by
their fruits.” (Matthew 7:17-20 ESV) I think we often assume that the church is
full of a bunch of trees which have been made healthy by knowledge of
salvation, yet refuse to bear fruit. As such, we want to ‘encourage’ them to
bear fruit by continually cajoling them to good works. This is a common-sense,
knee-jerk reaction which fails to recognize the underlying spiritual problem
that leads to church apathy. As Jesus says, a diseased tree cannot bear good
fruit. We should not be assuming that healthy trees are simply not bearing
fruit or are bearing bad fruit, but that the lack of good fruit is an
indication of disease in the tree.
Part of this problem stems from
the fact that we have taken the doctrine of eternal security somewhere it was
never meant to go. Once saved, always saved is true in the sense that through
faith in Christ alone we are reconciled to the Father, and that reconciliation
is permanent and eternal. But we have expanded the idea to include things which
it never was meant to include, such as the idea that we are somehow given perpetual
‘super-powers’ at salvation. We might say that we assume ‘once a healthy tree,
always a healthy tree’, as if being saved and being healthy are one and the
same. We are led to believe that we are enabled by one act of saving faith to
fulfill the commandments of God by some portion of His power which is given us –
forgetting that God’s power is His alone and never becomes ours except by faith
in Christ which must be continually renewed through the hearing of the gospel.
We stagger along for a while doing good by our own will to ‘be Christian’ until
we experience sheer burnout. Then the good fruit stops, and we wonder why we, as
presumably healthy trees, have no ability let alone desire to bear good fruit.
Our churches attempt to drive us to produce good fruit by any and all means,
including guilt and condemnation, asking the same question of us – if you are
healthy trees, why are you bearing no good fruit? – as if the bearing of good
fruit is the cure for the disease at the root.
All of this becomes a downward
spiral. The church, thinking that the lack of good fruit among its members is a
result of laziness on the part of capable people, preaches a ‘do more, try
harder’ message out of frustration. The people do more and try harder for a
while and then burn out, begin to feel more incapable than ever and eventually
begin to doubt their salvation. Many fall away. We are told we must be driven
by a purpose (good works) without being watered by the promise (good news).
The apostle Paul tells the
Galatians, “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all
wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully
works within me.” (Colossians 1:28-29 ESV) He worked hard at bearing good
fruit in the proclamation of the gospel, not by his own energy, but by God working
powerfully through him so that he never burned out. The question is ‘how’? I
think it was because he was immersed in the promise of the good news. He knew
he had nothing to prove to a God who was satisfied by faith in the proof-giver
(Christ) alone. This was the ongoing cure to the disease at his root which
demanded that he satisfy himself at the expense of God and others. And as a
sinner who was being renewed day-to-day by the grace of God in his life, he
bore good fruit naturally without the need for guilt or condemnation to drive
him to it. He lived as a free man who bore good fruit freely.
Here’s the thing; diseased trees
cannot bear good fruit. If we concentrate on the symptoms we should be able to
make the simplest of diagnosis – the tree is healthy or the tree is diseased
(you will know them by their fruits). Assuming that non-fruit bearers are
healthy trees which do not require gospel fertilizer today because they once prayed
‘the sinners prayer’, were baptized, taught Sunday school, served as deacons,
etc. is just plain foolishness. This does not mean they are not saved – the truth
was planted and flourished at one time in their lives. It means simply that
disease has crept into a healthy tree and destroyed its ability to bear good
fruit. The cure for the disease is none other than Christ – the continual feeding
and watering of faith by the hearing of the good news of the gospel. Until the
tree is healthy again, no amount of guilting, encouraging, condemning or
bribing will cause it to bear good fruit. But if the tree can be brought back
to health and that health maintained by continuous gospel immersion, the result
will be good fruit in great abundance, 30, 60 or 100-fold! That is the gospel
truth.
God Bless
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