Fruit and Salvation

[JM]

Twin and I are theological twins.

I know he agrees with these quotes:

"Show your faith by your works, as God the Holy Ghost teaches us to do (James 2:18); but don’t ever attempt show your faith to men. They can’t see it."

"Let us seek grace to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present evil world, to live as sinners saved by the grace of God, to live for God and to the glory of God; but let us never attempt to show the world that we are Christians. The show of religion our Savior expressly forbids (Matthew 6:5-18)."

"Godliness is inward, not outward. Anything an unregenerate person can do to show is godliness is not godliness, but only an outward show of godliness."

"God enriches his saints by poverty, strengthens them by weakness, makes them healthy by sickness, and lifts them up by abasing them."

"The weaker we feel, the harder we lean. May God ever make me to know my weakness and give me grace to lean only and always upon Christ my Strength."

I think it is more important God's sees the fruit rather than the fruit inspector who is looking for defects.

Yours in the one who saves to the uttermost,

jm

 

[AMR]

We are told to examine ourselves whether we are in the faith not whether we have fruit. I am not saying that we don't have fruit but that it can never be a ground of assurance.

Where did I imply fruit is the ground of assurance?

It has been said before, but it is worth repeating, that it is a good sign of genuine faith when a person is concerned to have genuine faith. It is not an infallible sign, but it is already moving in the right direction.

The main concern is to ensure that our faith is in the Savior. The danger is in making a Savior of our faith. The ultimate reason why faith does not fail is due to the fact that the Savior prays that it will not fail. The strength of faith is in looking out of oneself for strength.

I believe assurance can be gained from our walk of faith via feeding our faith and starving our doubts by not neglecting daily Scripture study, rejoicing in hope, being patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer (Romans 12:12), fellowship with other believers, keeping stewardship of the secular and spiritual gifts God has given you, and with regular assembly with others to worship God, receive instruction, access the ordinary means of grace, and be subject to discipline (see also here, and Genesis 15:1-6; Prov. 3:5-8; Romans 5:1-11; Eph. 6, 1 Cor. 9:24-27; Hebrews 10:19-25, 35-39; Hebrews 11:1,6).

To borrow from the three components of "true faith" (knowledge, assent, trust) chair analogy...

- I can know the chair is there, I can appreciate its workmanship, and its function.

- I can assent that the chair will support my weight, and that it will be comfortable.

- But until I rest my body upon the chair, I have not really trusted it to hold me.

AMR