Hearts Readied for Christ’s Coming
Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ (Luke 3:8a)
Among those who heard these words were the Pharisees (Matthew 3:7). The Pharisees were willing to stand up to anyone who threatened the Old Testament teachings and their way of life. Hearing that John the Baptist was preaching a new kind of teaching, they went to see and listen to him.
In 1917, James Ferguson was the governor of Texas. He was the son of a preacher, and he was fighting the public schools’ movement to introduce foreign languages, particularly Latin. He repealed the law with the reasoning, “If English was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for the schoolchildren of Texas.”
Sorry, Governor Ferguson, but Jesus didn’t speak English. Jesus spoke the common language of Aramaic and the Scriptural language of Hebrew.
The Pharisees who went out into the desert had the exact same attitude as Governor Ferguson. “If the Old Testament teachings and traditions are good enough for Abraham, they are good enough for us.”
What’s the problem here? The Old Testament teachings were good enough for Abraham, but Abraham wasn’t good enough for them. He sinned.
By faith, “it was credited to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3). Abraham never stood on his own merits but on the merits of the coming Christ, and the fruit in Abraham’s life showed it. He showed it by packing up and moving out to wherever the Lord led him, and then later when he was willing to sacrifice his only son Isaac.
Ready for Christmas? Nothing gets us ready more than repenting, and then showing the fruit of repentance in our lives. Maybe the best way that we can show this fruit is to proclaim the gift of God, “A Savior is born to you,” praising God in your heart for repentance, because it, too, is a gift of God (Acts 5:31).