Just Let it Grow

Emphasizing life change and holiness after someone is saved is admirable. It's hard to imagine that someone could say they are "in Christ" and have been made new then do not have a subsequent life change. This is biblically inconsistent. This is why many emphasize looking for "fruit" in someone's life to validate a profession of faith. Let me be sure to say this: if you are saved, you can, should, and must bear evidences of salvation, not to be saved but because you are saved.

But I'm also concerned because I think our emphasis can easily slip off base. While strongly affirming faith alone and grace alone, we can fall into a practical legalism in our sanctification efforts. This was exactly the Galatian problem. Flesh isn't always nasty stuff like lust, anger, greed, and jealousy. Flesh is also self righteousness that can look unsuspectingly like "fruit."

What am I saying? To just "let go and let God?" No.  Simply this: the emphasis shouldn't be on fruit, it must be on the source of the fruit. Affixing a bushel of apples to a dead tree doesn't fix the problem. You need a new tree or you need a miracle to occur in the old one. You can't just go adding fruits.

If you are not a fruit bearing Christian, it's not because you're not working hard enough at bearing fruits. It's because you are not walking in the Spirit (Gal 5.16 - note this is BEFORE the fruit of the Spirit is laid out in 5.22). You are not bearing fruit because you are not focussed on Christ and your redemption.  Peter gives us a glimpse into this reality in 2 Peter 1. He walks through various virtues that should be present. If these things are not here, it's because you've become shortsighted, and forgotten your purification from sins (1.9) or you are not redeemed at all! (1.10)  You have little reason to be assured of your salvation if you are not walking in newness of life.

Perhaps an illustration may help. My daughter recently came home from AWANA with a little cup of dirt with grass seeds planted in it. They were doing some type of object lesson showing how God made stuff grow. She wanted to dig up the seeds everyday to see if they had sprouted and if it was "working." I tried to explain that you just can't dig it up everyday. Likewise, fruit will be produced on a healthy and mature believer. We do what we can to fix our minds on Christ, remember our redemption, walk in the Spirit, obey what we know to obey, and the Spirit produces His fruit. Remember it's the fruit of the Spirit, not the deeds of the flesh.