Fruit Defines the Man

Fruit Defines the Man

“A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things" (Matthew 12:35).

This passage is often quoted, and often misquoted.  When Christ cried out, "Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree corrupt and its fruit corrupt," He was telling these men that there had to be a radical change in their lives.  They had not been born again.  They possessed only an old nature but they were seeking to adorn it with a substitute righteousness.  Men can be deceived by this outward appearance, but God looks upon the heart and is not satisfied with its condition.  Men must have a miraculous work performed within their lives so that there will be a tree of life within on which good fruit may grow, or they must recognize that the fruit which God demands cannot grow upon the old dead wood of the human life apart from Christ.

Why will men persist in taking such a passage as this and using it to contradict all the rest of the teaching of the Bible?  Did Christ mean that the righteous did not need saving and so announce that He had not come to call the righteous?  Of course not!  Such a thought is to contradict all that God teaches about the sinful heart of man.  The truth is that Jesus Christ was telling men that there is no such thing as a righteous man so far as God is concerned.  "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance," means that if a man will persist in thinking that the kind of righteousness which he can produce could ever satisfy God, that man is in such a perverted state of mind that there is no salvation for him.  But if, on the other hand, he will come to the place where he admits before God that he is a lost soul, deserving the condemnation of the just wrath of God, then he has put himself in that place where the grace of God can flow upon him, full and free, and provide him with a righteousness which is none other than the righteousness of God in Christ.

It is precisely the same thought that is in view here.  These Pharisees were dead wood masquerading as living trees, just as though a man should tie green branches to a dead stump.  God can never be satisfied with such a masquerade.  Christ is asking that the mask be removed.  Either come to the place where the miracle of regeneration is wrought within so that there will be good tree and good fruit or else stand openly as the children of Satan, enemies of God and capable of bringing forth only evil fruit.

Dr. Barnhouse warns that God only accepts fruit from regenerated trees.  Anyone trying to bring their own “righteous fruit” is condemned.

Further Reading: Matthew 12:33-37