Christians Bear Fruit

I was grieved recently, while listening to an online sermon in which the pastor claimed a person could “get saved,” live exactly as he had before his supposed conversion, bear no fruit, and still go to heaven.

Jesus never once offers assurance to those bent on continuing in sin.

In fact, false conversions show up in fruitless living.

If you are sitting beneath live-however-you-wish-after-you-have-raised-your-hand-and-repeated-this-prayer-after-me type of preaching, run.

Your soul is in danger.

---

Early in our marriage, my husband and I struggled to find a church. There is much more to that story, but the bottom line is that while we brought to our marriage some long-held, unbiblical patterns, God loved us so much that he began to eradicate everything displeasing to him. The Lord, in his magnificent kindness, awakened us to truth.

By the time we moved across the country, ten years into our marriage, I was a young mother with four children–and a woman displaced. In hindsight, I see the grace of God in transplanting me to a barren land, bringing me to the end of myself.

One ho-hum, homeschooling Friday, I met a man named John Piper in the library (albeit through the pages of his book) as I bounced my baby daughter in her stroller with three little boys at my side. The Pleasures of God led me straight to the Bible, in its wondrous entirety. I spent months of my children’s afternoon rest time with Piper’s book in one hand and my Bible in the other.

A.W. Tozer said it best: Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian.

My soul became a house on fire, as I guzzled God’s Word. No more shallow thinking, tinkering around in the kiddie pool.

This awakening prompted us to find a church that preached the whole counsel of God. Our new pastor preached about the wretchedness of sin, the immeasurable grace of God in sending a Redeemer, and the profound truth that only an authentic Christian can be filled with genuine, lasting affection for the things of God. The new man, woman, and child, he reminded us, will always bear spiritual fruit.

My flesh was offended week by week, sermon after sermon, as I was repeatedly admonished to kill my beloved sin, deny myself, and learn to suffer with joy as I followed Christ.

Such an ongoing offense proved magnificent, as I was shaken to life.

In fact, I could hardly wait for the following Sunday to dawn.

---

Repeating a sinner’s prayer in the same manner you might read the ingredients on a cereal box means absolutely nothing. Being baptized apart from God’s miraculous work of regeneration means you succeeded in getting wet.

Giving a nod or tip of the hat to our Creator is not salvation. Even the demons believe, and they are destined for eternal damnation. Faith without works is dead, reminds James. There is no such thing as a non-fruit-bearing Christian. (1 John 3:6, Matthew 7:16, Romans 7:4)

Indeed, the healthy heart soil of a regenerated soul always produces a crop, even if it is a teeny tiny one. (Matthew 13:22-23) Jesus never once taught that a person unwilling to forsake their personal sin is eternally secure. (Matthew 7:19) He did not mince words: to be his disciple, we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him. (Luke 9:23)

Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)

Do not remain in a church that champions the lie that you can profess Christ with your lips, have a cavalier attitude regarding Christ’s lordship, remain in unrepentant sin, warm the pew, live however you wish, toss some change in the offering plate, sign a card, and be saved.

Listen to Apostle Paul:

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Titus 2:11-14

Hermeneutically, it is impossible to biblically conclude that one can coast along with worldliness, embrace sin, and simultaneously be well with God. All who abide in Christ will bear fruit.

Remember when Nicodemus asked Jesus how it is possible to be born again?

Jesus likened the moving of the Holy Spirit to the wind. We cannot see the wind come and go, but we bear witness to the effects of its movement. The grass bends, leaves and branches sway, the dust kicks up. Things happen.

So it is when the Spirit of God smashes the hardened, self-serving heart, making it soft, tender, and brand new. When the Holy Spirit sweeps through a soul, the result is a visible change resulting in visible fruit.

As Christians, we have been saved for good works that God has prepared for us. The proof is in the pudding, so to speak.

Claiming Christ as your Savior while happily sinning is a foreign language our Heavenly Father neither speaks nor accepts.

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (Romans 8:12-14)

---

As we enter this year, may I encourage each one of us to take some time and comb through our tangled hearts, deal honestly with spiritual matters and indwelling sin, and reflect on the Spirit’s fruit in our own lives?

As our inboxes fill with fancy financial and fitness plans for 2026, would it not be prudent to pause and take inventory of our souls?

Eternity is coming.

---

If a person claims to have faith yet brings no fruit of obedience whatsoever, it is proof positive that the claim to faith is a false claim. True faith inevitably and necessarily bears fruit. The absence of fruit indicates the absence of faith. We are not justified by the fruit of our faith. We are justified by the fruit of Christ’s merit. We receive his merit only by faith. But it is only by true faith that we receive his merit. And all true faith yields fruit. – R.C. Sproul