I cannot tell you how many sermons I have sat through where Matthew 7:18-20 was used to scare the life out of people. The message usually goes like this: “A good tree bears good fruit… so if your life doesn’t look demonstrably changed every single second, you might be a bad tree.”

Pastors use this to demand “proof” of salvation through works. Instead of providing assurance and comfort, I would walk away drowning in doubts. “How much fruit am I supposed to bear?” “If I still struggle with sin, am I a bad tree?” “Is God becoming a lumberjack, waiting to cut me down because my fruit isn’t ‘good enough’?”

The “Bait and Switch” Gospel

Unfortunately, many believers hear about God’s love at first—that eternal life is a gift. But then, the Gospel gets replaced by sermons about “doing more” and “obeying as proof.” The finished work of Christ is pushed to the background, and suddenly, the road is narrow and hard, you need to “surrender all,” and “do your part.”

This is “Do Your Part” theology, and it forces Christians to live in constant fear. We end up putting ourselves back under the Law, striving for something Christ has already accomplished. We start judging our status with God based on our performance, and inevitably, we start doing the same to others. We become like the Pharisee in the corner, judging sinners for their behaviors instead of sitting at the table and sharing a meal with them as Jesus did.

Examining the Message, Not the Behavior

But here is the irony: That cold, judgmental attitude is actually the “bad fruit” of a Law-based message.

When Jesus talks about trees and fruit in Matthew 7, He is talking about false teachers, not your surface behaviors. In verse 15, He says, “Beware of false prophets…” Jesus isn’t telling you to obsessively examine your own fruit; He is telling you to examine the teachings you are sitting under.

Ask yourself: What is the fruit of the message you are hearing?

• Does it make you look at yourself, your obedience, or an extreme focus on spiritual gifts?

• Does it take your eyes off the finished work of Christ and put the burden of salvation back on your shoulders?

• Does it produce fear, lack of assurance, and condemnation?

Or… does the message produce life, joy, rest, and peace?

Out of the Abundance of the Heart

In Matthew 12, Jesus connects trees and fruit directly to words: “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” A Grace-filled heart speaks life, hope, and assurance. A Law-filled heart speaks accusation, pressure, and threat. Words expose which covenant a person is living under—the Old Covenant of demand, or the New Covenant of supply.

Rest in the Root

My friend, if you have believed the Gospel—that Christ died for you, was buried, and rose again—you are forgiven and completely saved. Period.

I had a friend ask me if he was still saved because he wasn’t “experiencing rest.” I told him: “Go back to the Root, which is Christ, and get your eyes off your fruit.”

Fruit can be subjective. It changes with the seasons of our lives. But Christ’s truth is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Whether you “feel” saved today or not, the Truth is still the Truth. Stop staring at your branches. Behold His unconditional, one-way love for you, and watch as His truth bears the fruit that only He can give.

A Prayer of Rest

Lord, I thank You that my security is not found in the quality of my fruit, but in the perfection of my Root—Jesus Christ. I confess that I have often tried  judging my branches and living in fear of the axe.  Today, I step out from under the heavy burden of “doing my part” and I step into the rest of Your finished work. Renew my mind with the whisper of Your Grace. Let Your love be the soil I grow in, so that any fruit in my life is simply an overflow of Your goodness and not the result of my striving. Amen.

Imagine, you are standing in a courtroom, guilty on every charge.  You know the sentence is going to be a lengthy amount of time in prison.  So you hear the verdict, the judge announces “paid in full.”  The entire record is stamped acquitted and then shredded.  Yet, instead of being grateful and living like a free man you keep trying to argue with the judge, “But I still feel guilty, please let me work this off.”  But the judge gently reminds you of the final verdict and that this case is closed, and will never be reopened. So, you go home and begin to start your new life but just in case, you sign up for some community service work and clock in about forty hours a week.  You report to the local precinct all of your hours working at the shelter.  The officer looks at you bewildered because you are not required to do anything but every week you keep walking with a limp thinking you’re still carrying that ankle bracelet that really isn’t there.  But isn’t that sometimes how we as believers live our lives?  Instead of just accepting the final verdict that we are truly free and fully forgiven we live our lives as if this is partially true.  Yes God did His part but we still have to do our part.  We tend to sometimes view God more like our parole officer checking on us to see if we are truly sorry for what we’ve done by working off our sentence.  But Hebrews 10:12-14 tells us a different story.  “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God…For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”  The cross was not a partial payment; it was a finished work.  Jesus did not cover some of your sins and leave the rest for you to manage; He dealt with all of them-past, present, and future-in one decisive act.  This means you never again approach God as a debtor, only as a child.  You never come to Him trying to get clean; you come because you have been cleansed.  You do not move in and out of fellowship every time you fail; you live in a permanent state of reconciliation because of Christ.  When you sin, you are not re-crucifying Christ or stepping outside of His blood; you are forgetting who you already are in Him.  The answer is not to climb back into God’s favor, but to remember that you never left it. 

Today, instead of examining yourself to see how badly you’ve failed, look at Jesus to see how perfectly He succeeded. Your standing with God is not measured by how focused your prayers were this week, how pure your thoughts have been, how strong your spiritual disciplines feel.  Your standing is measured only by the perfection of Jesus’s sacrifice and His unchanging righteousness credited to you.  You are not “on probation” with God; you are sealed, embraced, and delighted in. 

Let your heart exhale.  The pressure to make yourself acceptable is over.  Put down your legal defense and walk out of the courtroom free.  

Prayer 

Lord Jesus,

Thank you that your cross was enough for all my sin, for all my life.  Thank you that I stand before the Father not in my performance but in your perfection.  Teach my heart to rest in Your finished work, to see myself as You see me-clean, loved, righteous, and secure.  Let this grace reshape my desires and my choices, not because I fear losing You, but because I am sure I never will. 

Amen