The Fruits Of repentence

June 19, 2022

Devotions:

          “Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” ‭Luke‬ ‭3:8‬ ‭KJV‬‬

        Here John the Baptist is calling the Jews to turn back to their covenant with God. Though they had a covenant they were not walking in that covenant and so by their own devices were trying to live their lives. When we try to live our lives without God we have no moral foundation. We are morally fluid and floating. Whatever seems right to us at the moment we morally justify.  John was saying that there was a standard that they should try to govern their lives by. This standard was the Ten Commandments. They could not keep the Ten Commandments because they had the wrong nature. But God was calling them to look to Him. They were to look for a Savior. If they thought that they could please God by keeping the law then they would not need a Savior. John then came to prepare the way for Jesus to come as the Savior of the world.

        In the New Testament our repentance is turning to Jesus, believing that He died for our sins, that God raised Him from the dead and declare Him Lord of our lives. The fruit of this repentance is not us trying to do better.  The fruit of our repentance is believing on the finished work of Jesus in us. It is us embracing our new identity in Christ. At the new birth a radical miracle happened and we were given the life and nature of God. The fruit is us yielding ourselves to the new nature within us, the new me, and putting down the old way of living, out of the brokenness of the sinner who we use to be.  This happens when we get our mind renewed to who we are as a new creation in Chris.