Prove It!

John, known as the Baptist, is not concerned whether or how we can attain God’s favor. He’s not after being accepted by God, he’s focused on showing that you are of God. For him the objective of repentance is to be able to live right, not just get to heaven. Otherwise he might have been tempted to keep his converts under while he was baptizing them, sending them straight on.

I remember riding on a bus across the country from Missouri to North Carolina when I was a college student. On one long leg of the trip, another teenager sat next to me and we talked for a long time. Spiritual matters came up at one point and I asked him about his faith. He said something about having been to church, but that he wasn’t that active currently. So I asked how his relationship with Jesus was “these days.” Immediately a woman across the aisle jumped in and challenged him, “You’ve been to the altar, haven’t you? You’ve been baptized, haven’t you? (He nodded his head to each question.) Well, then you are saved.” Case closed.

The objective of repentance, John says in Luke 3:8, is in the result of having repented, what he calls the “fruit” of the effort, using the metaphor of a tree. The fruit of righteousness is
- being generous with the poor
- being honest in your work
- being gracious and fair
- assuming the best in people

John doesn’t care when or where you were “saved.” All he cares is that your life is now demonstrating the fruit of repentance and that fruit is not just going to church or even reading your Bible and praying. It is how you treat other people. Except for repentance and water baptism, he doesn’t even talk about what we normally think of as spiritual matters.

I’ve noticed something about people who get really involved with helping with the needs of others. They tend to be highly religious people. Not just your average Christian or Buddhist or Muslim or Humanist or Atheist. But your deeply devoted ones. Yes, even the Humanists and Atheists. People who are so-so in their commitments, whatever they are, are looking after Number One. People who have made their faith top priority evidence it by making a difference in the world around them.

So when the crowd asks John what they should do, he replies “share what you have with those who don’t have.” When the tax collectors, men who were known for extravagant dishonesty, asked him, he said, “Don’t collect any more than you are required to.” When the soldiers asked him, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely. And be content with your pay.”

You say you are religious, a later follower of Jesus known as James writes. Then prove your beliefs by your actions. Not just your actions in pietistic devotion, but your actions out in the work place, in the marketplace, on the street. That’s where the signs of true repentance are going to evidence themselves.

And, woe to those who don’t produce the evidence of repentance, John says in this passage, for wrath is coming for them and they’ll be cut down and burned up. Pretty strong words. To those who show no grace or mercy, grace and mercy are unknown to them.