Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
West Lafayette, Ohio
March 24, 1985
Fruit of Salvation
Matthew 7:16-23
Since moving to West Lafayette I have discovered the enjoyment of raising roses. Until now I've never had a yard or lived long enough in one place. But last year Celeste and I invested in five rose bushes ($1.99 specials from K-Mart). Three weeks after I planted them they bloomed - once. Then the flowers dropped off and a few branches with bug-bitten leaves were left. I figured maybe they needed to rest a year. So I fertilized them and pampered them. I piled leaves around them for the winter. When spring came this year three of the roses were goners and the other two were frozen to ground level but they managed to send up straggly shoots.
Celeste, who likes to mow the lawn in the dark, ran over one of them and turned it into mulch. That left one final shoot. It grew, but it never produced a single hybrid. The flower producing shoot is grafted onto a wild root, which doesn't produce flowers. In my case, the hybrid had frozen and only the wild portion was growing.
A lot of Christians are like my roses. They're either completely dead or they put on the appearance of being genuine, but they're not. Not everyone who comes to church is saved. Not everyone who calls themselves a Christian is really a believer. Others may suspect these people are fakes but maybe not. They could even be fooling themselves.
One of the big concerns of every Christian group has been how to distinguish genuine Christians from fakes. Jesus himself says you can tell by the evidence of their lives, which he calls fruit.
Some groups get very picky about the correct evidence. For example, the Church of Christ teaches that baptism, in their church, is necessary for salvation. The Bible's basis on this is found in Mark 16:16. It says:
"Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned."
This sounds like baptism is necessary for salvation. (It doesn't say anything about the Church of Christ denomination but since they are the only ones who teach it, they claim this verse for themselves.) I would point out that this verse does not teach the necessity of baptism. The key idea is belief. Notice how lack of belief is what condemns you, not lack of baptism. As I see it, once we believe, we are saved and baptism is the next logical step to take in obedience to Christ's command.
Other groups have their own special evidence of salvation. The original Pentecostals say speaking in tongues is the necessary evidence. Mark 16 is also used to support this. Verse 17 says:
"And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues."
Each of these signs occurs in the book of Acts. However, they are considered the fruit of the church and not of individual believers. Paul himself stated that tongues will not be practiced by all believers but only some.
I can understand why some people want to make these signs into the proof you are a Christian. They are dramatic and easy to identify. A few years back some researchers studied a snake-handling church in Kentucky. They found that these people do not pick up snakes for fun. They are terrified of them. But they also figure if God can take away their fear they must be real Christians. And so they get up the courage to dance around with rattlesnakes.
The real fruit of salvation has two aspects in the Bible - it concerns what you believe and how you live. The first aspect could be called doctrine. Genuine Christians will believe certain fundamental truths -
1. They will believe God exists. (That's as fundamental as you can get)
2. They will also believe that Jesus is divine and is the only Savior for humanity.
3. Another necessity is to believe the Bible is God's Word, because it is the foundation of our knowledge about him.
I should add that genuine Christians can be wrong on some of the things they believe. I happen to believe Baptists have a good way of looking at things. I like our approach to the Bible, salvation, baptism and the way we run our church. But you don't have to be a Baptist to be saved - people from other groups will get to heaven too. Dozens of them.
We may differ on many points, as long as we believe the basics. Doctrine alone will not save you, however. Verses 21 to 23 in Matthew 7 describe people who claim to believe in Jesus, but he rejects them anyway. The way you live is just as important as what you believe.
I've often wondered about people who claim to have accepted Christ, act real excited and spiritual, then disappear. They know all the right words and do the right things but they don't stick to it. I used to think these people fell away because the church failed to meet their needs. Sometimes this can be the case especially since churches are so weak in discipling young believers. But more and more I have come to realize that people who fall away tend to have shallow commitments. They are happy being the center of attention and when it fades they move on.
To me, one of the fruits of really being saved is an attitude of persevering. Such people hang in there even when they have to give more than they receive.
Turning away from sin is another evidence you are saved. This is more than just trying to follow the Ten Commandments or staying out of the Coshocton Tribune police report. In the Bible, sin is a very pervasive thing, affecting you down to the core of your personality.
Avoiding sin is not enough! True Christians should also display the positive kinds of fruit mentioned in Galatians 5.
Is there enough evidence to convict you as a Christian, if you were so charged?
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Typed on March 31, 2005, by Sharon Lesko of Ledgewood Baptist Church, New Jersey
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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