|
“When they were come from Bethany, He [the Lord Jesus] was hungry: and seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, He came, if haply [perhaps] He might find any thing thereon: and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves” (Mark 11:12-13).
Have you ever seen a fruit tree in summer with nothing but leaves, and no fruit on it? As I may have told you before, I grew up on a fruit farm, and occasionally we would have a tree like this: it would have plenty of leaves, but no fruit. This was disappointing, for the fruit was what we could sell and earn our money. A tree with plenty of leaves was nice to look at, but not much practical use. Sometimes the tree had a problem that we could correct, but sometimes we had to remove the tree, and replace it with another one.
This fig tree is a picture of what we are before God, if we are not saved. We may do a lot of things that we think are good, such as keeping many of the ten commandments, doing our work well, helping our neighbors who may be in trouble, and as this world would say, “being a good person.” But before God these things are just leaves; they are not real fruit for God.
To produce fruit for God we must have a new life in Christ, for it is only our new life that can do something that God values. He cannot accept the good works of those who are not saved. First of all, we must come to the Lord Jesus, admit that we are sinners before God, and accept Him as our Savior. Only then can we produce real fruit for God.
|
