Having our sins washed away as a gift of grace from God is not all that God expects of us. Having our sins forgiven simply brings us from the side of the negative up to zero so that we can start walking a new life of righteousness on the positive side of zero. We are deluded if we think we can have our sins forgiven and then sit on the fenceline between doing the fruits of sin and doing the fruits of righteousness. And even if we could, we would not be fruit bearers and those who do not bear fruit are cut off and thrown into the fire.
We were created new creations in Christ when we are born again into his resurrection life and God has raised us up into this new life for a purpose: to bear the fruits of righteousness. If we do not bear the fruit of righteousness, we will be thrown into the fire.
Good Fruit of Righteousness
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:10.
Walk as children of Light for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth evidencing what is pleasing to the Lord.
Ephesians 5:9-10.
He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing.
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable,
full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And
the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. James 3:17-18.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there
is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23.
When the Spirit is poured into our hearts, the love of God is poured into our hearts. And this love is the power of God. In this love, the works of righteousness and bearing fruit to God is something we earnestly desire to do. We earnestly desire to love as God loved us and bearing fruit to God does not feel like the drudgery of performing tasks but the joy of loving God and mankind.
Failure to Produce Fruit
This is my commandment, that you love
one another, just as I have loved you.
John 15:13.
Whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart
against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children,
let us not love with word or with tongue, but in work and truth. 1 John 3:17-18.
What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no
works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without
clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go
in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is
necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
James 2:14-17.
Be doers of the word, and not hearers only deluding yourselves.
James 1:22.
But when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." Matthew 3:7-10.
So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Matthew 7:17-19.
I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. He also spoke this parable: "A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, 'Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?' But he answered and said to him, 'Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, good. But if not, after that you can cut it down.' "
Luke 13:5-9.
"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
John 15:1-6.
For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and being cursed is at hand, and it ends up being burned.
Hebrews 6:7-8.
