Scripture:
Luke 3:8-9 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Observation:
John the Baptist had begun his ministry in the wilderness. The people came out to see him and to be baptized by him as a symbolic cleansing from their sins. This was a mikveh, a cleansing immersion that accompanied conversion to the Jewish faith. But John’s preaching did not end with that, but invaded the daily lives of his listeners. It was no longer enough to be once-cleansed, but metanoia – repentance – was called for, a change in one’s moral life. Like all people, the argument of inherited salvation arose, citing their lineage going back to the righteous patriarch Abraham. John debunked that, for these were no more the spiritual children of Abraham than the rocks on the ground. Indeed, John’s ministry was signaling the beginning of the end of the Old Covenant with its reliance upon the Law and its precepts and sacrificial system. Jesus would soon come on the scene and personally inaugurate the new way to salvation. So for these people, a reckoning was at hand. They would either decide that the system wasn’t working for them and allow the deepest touch of God to invade their lives or else fall back into tradition and it unproductive practices. It’s not that the basis of this inspection was foreign to Jewish tradition (see this verse), but that the personal ramifications of being God’s people had never hit home. And now the ax was cutting down the tree of dead faith, both for individuals and the nation.
Application:
Do I fall back on my heritage of faith as a way to wiggle out of repentance? That is a step towards death if so. I am accountable if I am a believer; it’s that simple. If I sin then I must turn away from that sin. If I turn then I must not turn back when the coast is clear. My legacy means nothing – God has no grandchildren. Trained under some great pastor? Prayed for, prophesied over and otherwise spiritually distinguished? Good, and may those acts resonate inside and going forward. But they do nothing for me where the rubber meets the road in my own life. I need to own my pride, my lust and my thievery everywhere it pops up and put it to death by the power of the Holy Spirit. God can raise up good looking church people, smiley folk with a wink of knowing the Bible. But He desires much more of me and for me. If I was baptized – and I was – it stood for both and end of something and the beginning of something else. Let me never go back on my word, but press on even as Paul did. Did my old life really end? Did I really forsake its misguided passions and grubbing acts of self and flesh? Or did I just think those were not quite as good as holiness, for a season at least? No, metanoia – repentance – is a radical turning that remakes the person. It’s God-inspired and –powered or it’s not real. And I should hold no other view of a future without repentance than that of destruction by fire. Say I’m God-fearing, it’s all right. Say I’m God-loving, and you have the heart of things. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him.
Prayer:
Lead me in the way everlasting, O God. Let me repent in sackcloth and ashes or repent in bright flowing garments of joy, only let me turn to Your way alone. Grant my heart the knowledge of my sin and grant my will the strength of resolve to turn away. In Jesus’ name, amen.
