Life In The Vine

The Fruit, Not the Root

As Christians our good works are the fruit, not the root, of our salvation. Understanding this truth will help save the believer from many unnecessary struggles and ideas. Fruit is important, necessary even. Yet fruit is the result, not the cause, of our being reconciled to God in Christ. Fruit then is the necessary and natural result of our conversion, evidence one is (or is not) saved.

The analogy to fruit is enlightening, and replete throughout Scripture. Our Lord has said “I am the vine, and ye are the branches“. Truly then without Him we can do nothing. He is the root of our salvation, the cause and source of our new life (John 15:5) and it’s fruit of righteousness (Philippians 1:11). Since our Lord has said we are to bring forth fruit (John 15:16), and since the Scripture confirms that faith without works (that is complimentary and resultant works) is dead (James 2:17) we are given to know that no man calling himself a Christian who fails to produce the fruit of the Spirit is saved, and every man who does is without doubt saved (Matthew 7:17-18). In this way we know the children of God from the children of the devil (1 John 3:10). It is indisputable then that our works, our fruit, is the evidence of our salvation. Without it one has no hope or basis for confessing Christ, their works, such as they are (or are not), thus testifying against them.

The question then is not if fruit is the evidence of salvation, but if any who have been saved can become unfruitful (John 15:5-6), and what result such barrenness has with regards to being in Christ.  Our Lords describes just that possibility (John 15:2).

It is obvious that works being our fruit cannot be taken to support any licentious view of grace. Besides the clear contradiction of such in Scripture (Romans 6:1-2), the analogy itself will not support such a conclusion. Having no fruit, or at least a sustained lack or absence thereof, gives evidence one is not abiding, or else has never had part with, the living root (). So the truth expressed by this maxim “Our works are the fruit, not the root, of our salvation” actually denies any antinomian ideas of salvation. “Easy believism” and “cheap grace”, as they have been called, are actually thereby flatly denied. After all, our Lord did say (john 15:8-9):

Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.

What though of eternal security itself? Does this analogy have any bearing on our understanding of that notion? And if so, what? It seems historic eternal security tends to deny those “cheap grace” variants so popular in modernity. In this respect the historic doctrine has more validaty than it’s perverted kin and agrees with the “fruit, not the root“ motif. Furthermore, since this motif asserts that fruit is the resultant evidence of salvation, not the cause, the lack thereof evidences one is not saved. Eternal security then (properly understood and taught) agrees as well that the fruitless are not saved.  Obviously then not all adherents of the doctrine assert a licentious view, excusing known sin in the name of grace. Quite the contrary. In this way I have come to realize that both camps (those affirming and denying eternal security proper)  are not so far apart as we imagine.

No Fruit, No Root

The question remains; what of one who has born fruit, but ceases to do so? What is their condition? Where they ever saved? Some have assumed that since our works are the fruit and not the root of our salvation eternal secuity is thereby affirmed. However, is it rather the opposite? Let us consider.

It is true we do not earn our salvation. It is also true that if we are saved we will produce the right fruit in heart and life. After all, again, the tree is known by his fruit (Matthew 12:33). One might say then that those who bear no fruit are not actually saved. This would agree with Scripture and the analogy in the maxim quoted above. If it is true that our works are the fruit, not the root, of our salvation then it also true that those who are fruitless have not the root.  One might further conclude then that the fruitless, whether ever so or not, never were saved. This would mean one who has born fruit, yet now has reverted to barrenness, never really was converted. It is this point we contest.

It is true such are not now saved, but is it true such were never saved? Can a saved person effectively lose their salavtion? That is the real and underling question. Jesus, teaching on the nature of fruit relative to our being “in” Him, clearly affirms that they can (John 15:5-6). How? By failing to abide in Him who is the vine — the source of faith, righteousness, holiness and life eternal. Being in Him we share His life and produce fruit accordingly (John 15:5, Galatians 5:22-24, & Ephesians 5:9). Naturally we grow and mature in our production of that fruit (2 Peter 3:18). We even need guidance and pruning at times (John 15:2, & 1 John 3:3), nurture and care(1 Corinthians 3:6-7). Truly we are God’s husbandry (John 15:1, & 1 Corinthians 3:9). Nevertheless, if we abide in the vine then the life of the vine abides in us (John 15:4-5), and the fruit will consequently manifest, and mature, in out hearts and lives.

Jesus further clarifies that every branch in Him that does not bring forth fruit is severed from the vine, dried, and cast into the fire (John 15:6). Severed from what, or from whom? Why from Christ of course, who is our vine. Clearly, in order to be a branch in the vine one must have been converted. How then can those once in Christ be taken out of or away from Him? If they can then eternal security, even properly and historically understood, cannot be true. Christ is emphatic, failure to produce fruit results in our being severed  from Him. What is that but the loss of one’s salvation? Yes friend, one can be saved and yet again become lost.

No friend, our fruit is not the basis of our salvation. That is not our contention. Do not misunderstand. Rather, it is the evidence of it. Therefore to fail of the necessary and natural fruit of conversion is to evidence one is lost. A fruitless condition has the pronounced fate of eventually being cast into the fire. And at that, in this passage (John 15:1-14) Christ is speaking specifically of those who have been in Him, sharing His life, who are or have become fruitless. These, if they remain so, He condemns to the flame. I trust I need not explain the implication nor intent of our Lord’s use of that expression.

Cause and Effect

So does one lose their salvation by failing to maintain good works? While that would seem to be the conclusion, and is a practical application thereof, it is not the true cause itself. The cause of one’s loss of standing in Christ is their failing to abide in Him. As a result of that failure there lives are left unfruitful, a condition which if not remedied results in their relationship to Christ being finally severed. You see then that it is their failure to abide in Christ, to sustain a living and vital relationship with Him, nurturing (and being nurtured by) the faith that saved them, that results in unfruitfulness and (for lack of a better phrase) the loss of their salvation. Their sinfulness, corrupt (Luke 6:43), or unfruitful works (Ephesians 5:11 & Romans 6:20-21) merely evidence they are not, or are no longer, in Christ — the same as our fruitfulness evidences we are in Him. In neither case is the fruit or works the cause, properly speaking. Rather it is the evidence.

How’s your fruit dear one? Be sure you abide in the vine, staying connected to Christ. Truly in Him is life, and that life immortal (1 John 1:2). As we abide in Him, and He abides in us, we are made partakers of His nature (2 Peter 1:4), of His life (Galatians 2:20). To know Him is indeed life and salvation (John 17:3). To deny or reject Him, even by works (though our lips may profess otherwise), is damnation (Titus 1:16 & Matthew 10:33).

Let us then abide in Him and be fruitful, to the glory of the Father, as His indwelling presence works to make of us the same (Galatians 5:22-24, & Philippians 1:6).