Where does the Bible say that producing fruit is a condition of salvation?
How many fruits did the thief on the cross next to Jesus produce?
How could anybody upon accepting Christ as Savior have assurance that they are really saved, if there is some condition of future performance placed on it really being effective for them?
Perhaps I misunderstood you, but this almost sounds like salvation by faith + works.
Perhaps I misunderstood you, but this almost sounds like salvation by faith + works.
That's not what I meant to say...chalk it up to fatigue and thinking faster than I can type. I think it's safe to say that if one has truly received Christ, there will be corresponding evidence (fruit, if you will). The point I was driving at was that God in Christ had taken action and provided a way for man to escape the consequences of his sin and be cleansed from sin, and that man must respond in a receptive way to that provision, the veracity of the response being corresponding fruit (or, you could say evidence). To say that producing fruit is a "work" is similar to saying that an apple tree must work to produce apples. No, an apple tree produces apples because that's what it does. In the same way, someone who has received Christ will naturally show evidence of that, in the form of a changed life and conduct. Maybe not a huge change at first, but change nonetheless, the same as an apple tree does not produce a large quantity of fruit when it first begins to bear fruit, but it does more and more as time goes on. True conversion produces evidence as surely as rain makes things wet.
I did not mean to imply that salvation was in any way based on our own works, or even works naturally produced by the conversion. Works (fruit) are evidence of salvation, but do not produce or cause salvation. Works (fruit) always follow, never precede. Faith produces works, works do not produce faith. Salvation is based solely on faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His work on our behalf. The thief on the cross received by faith, and the evidence was his rebuke of his fellow sufferer, rightly saying that he and the other thief deserved what they got, but Jesus didn't. It wasn't much fruit, but it was evidence that he had received salvation. His salvation occured when he asked Jesus to "remember me when you come in your Kingdom". That was the moment he placed himself in Jesus hands. Not an eloquent prayer, not even the "sinner's prayer", but effective nonetheless, as Jesus' subsequent remarks proved. Even there, evidence was given of his conversion, almost at the point of death.