The Fundamentalist Orchard

Psalms 19:7-10 NASB

⁷ The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul;
The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
⁸ The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.
⁹ The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether.
¹⁰ They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.

The law of the Lord is spiritual. The Lord does not care as much about behaviors as he cares about the heart. Let me illustrate by talking about murder. If we have murder on our heart, we need a law telling us not to murder. If we do not have murder on our heart, than we are free from the law of sin and death. This is why the Bible speaks of a new birth, to cleanse our hearts from sin so that we might be free from the law.

Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. Matthew 12:33 NASB (words in red because they were said by Jesus.)

There was a man who went out to inspect his orchard. Some of his trees gave good fruit and some gave bad and the man wanted to get rid of the bad trees. One of the good fruit from a good tree had fallen onto a tree that produced nothing but bad fruit. This bad tree offered the good fruit up to it's master as if to take credit for it and say, "See, I have produced good fruit. So now my master will forgive me for all the bad fruit I produce."

But the owner of the orchard wasn't fooled for a second. He called for his servants and pointed at the tree saying "Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?"

There was a young fig tree that witnessed this and was terrified because the young tree knew in his heart that he could only produce bad fruit. But instead of looking to the master or any of His servants for help, the young tree did what looked right in his own eyes. He decided, "I will not produce any fruit. Then I will be known as a righteous tree because he will never find me to do anything bad. He will never find a single bad fruit coming from me."

So the young tree did nothing and even after the man gave the tree chance after chance to produce fruit, the young tree refused because it was afraid that any fruit it produced would be sin. So the owner of the orchard called for his servants and pointed at the tree saying "Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?"

⁶ And He began telling this parable: “A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. ⁷ And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?’ ⁸ And he answered and said to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; ⁹ and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’” Luke 13:6-9 NASB

So this parable is not original but then there is nothing new under the sun. What God showed me, hopefully, was away to illustrate a wrong thinking that some Christians can fall into. They define righteousness in terms of the fruit, the behaviors. But the heart is what matters. A bad heart cannot produce good fruit and cannot be saved no matter how good the person is at not sinning. A change of heart is required.

The trees in this parable were not cut down because they sinned. They were cut down because they were sinners who refused to let the owner of the orchard change their heart.