What does it mean to produce fruit in keeping with repentance (Matthew 3:8)?

In Phil. 1:22 Paul speaks of "the fruit of my labour". The Scriptures speak of fruit in various senses. For instance, Paul wished to go to Rome that he "might have some fruit among you". In Matt. 3:8 we read of fruits meet for repentance. This no doubt referred to the general walk and behaviour. The fifteenth of John speaks much of fruit: and we do well to give good heed to it: yet at the same time remember the subject is fruit-bearing, and not Eternal Life. Then we have the fruit of the Spirit: "Love, Joy, Peace," etc., Nine lovely graces, yet only spoken of as "fruit", not fruits: for they all have one Source. In John 4:36 we read, "He that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal". This fruit would appear to be souls for their hire.

But some may ask, What is repentance? Let us turn to scripture to find out. It is not a mere change of mind on certain points (this will confound it with faith); but the Lord preached, "Repent ye, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15). It is not simply a conviction of having done wrong; for, when the multitude were pricked to the heart, Peter exhorted them to repentance (Acts 2:38). It is not sorrow for sin, "for godly sorrow works repentance to salvation not to be repented of" (2 Cor. 7:10). Nor is it synonymous with conversion; for Peter tells the Jews to "repent and be converted" (Acts 3:19). But it is a change of mind, a judgment of self, ways, and sins, which is evidenced by a change of life. It is God's gift (Acts 11:18; 2 Tim. 2:25) bestowed by the risen and ascended Christ (Acts 5:31). It is fruitful; for there are works meet for (worthy of) repentance (Matt. 3:8; Acts 26:20). It gives God His right place in the conscience of His creature, so it is "towards God" (Acts 20:21); and it is "to life" and "salvation" (Acts 11:18; 2 Cor. 7:10).

Observe here, that the only good fruit recognised by John, as the way of escape, is the sincere confession, through grace, of sin. Those only who make this confession escape the axe. There were really no good trees excepting those which confessed that they were bad.

I should expect him to "bring forth fruits worthy of repentance." It is useless for anyone to say that he repents of his sins while he continues in them. A man that is genuinely repentant not only confesses his sins, but forsakes them (Prov. 28:13).

Amongst other signs of true repentance we shall observe a willingness to make restitution to anyone who has been wronged.

We see this in the case of Onesimus. He had wronged his master, Philemon, by running away. After his conversion he seeks to make compensation, as far as he can, by going straight back to his master. In Zaccheus we have another instance of this. When the Lord Jesus responded so graciously to his desire to see Him, and brought salvation to his house, Zaccheus said, "If I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold" (Luke 19:8). That is a case of bringing forth fruits worthy of repentance.

When there is a genuine and powerful work of God, men do not like to be apart from it, especially if they are religious leaders: consequently we find both Pharisees and Sadducees coming to John's baptism. He met them however with prophetic insight. He unmasked them as having the characteristics of the serpent, and warned them that wrath lay before them. He knew that they would boast of being in the proper Abrahamic succession, so he knocked that prop from beneath them, showing that it would not count with God. Nothing would do but repentance, and his baptism was with a view to that; but it must be genuine and manifest itself in fruits that were suitable. James, in his Epistle, insists that faith, if it is real and vital, must express itself in suitable works. Here John calls for just the same thing in regard to repentance.

Having received these instructions, Paul had been faithful to his commission, and beginning where he was and widening out to the nations, he had showed to men everywhere what their response to the Gospel should be. They should repent; they should turn to God; they should do works in keeping with the repentance they professed. Repentance involves that coming into the light which enables one to see and judge one's own sinfulness, and then the confession of it before God. Now the more we see our own sin, the more we distrust ourselves; the more we distrust ourselves, the more we learn to trust in God: consequently turning to God follows this turning from ourselves. All this is an inward process of mind and heart of a more or less secret nature, but if it is real it soon produces actions and works in keeping with it. If there be no "works meet for repentance," we may be sure that the repentance professed is not the genuine article. Paul insisted on all three things, and he knew of course that not only are they God's appointed way in which the blessings of the Gospel are received, but they are themselves produced by the Gospel, where it is received in faith.

Let us look at our three truths backwards—“Works meet for repentance.” In these works we find the fruit growing on the tree. Anyone can tell that the tree lives and is healthy, because of the crop it is bearing. Its life is developed in fruit. If there were no fruit the tree had better be out down as a cumberer of the ground. But there is fruit. It is the necessary evidence of the life. The fruit does not produce the life, but the life the fruit. You might decorate the tree with fruit, but that would not give it life.

Then as to the second truth—“Turning to God.” This is an act of the soul that, though subsequent to repentance, is yet prior to the production of works meet for it. It is the outward and upward glance of faith that lets in the sunshine. It is the completion of repentance—the obverse of the coin, whilst the works are the music of its ring and the witness of its genuineness. “Turning to God” implies not only turning to good works, for that is found in “works meet for repentance.” In them you have morality, sobriety, honesty, truth, holiness, separation from the world, devotedness to Christ, &c.; but in turning to God it is confronting a living Person.

John accordingly is found outside the religion of man, as well as outside his profanity. He was not in Rome, but he was also away from Jerusalem; and this, in the predicted messenger of Jehovah, was a most solemn feature. "Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" Here is a part of that truth which is exceedingly startling, when we reflect upon it. The Pharisees were, religiously, the most influential in Israel. The Sadducees were the loose, secular, self-indulgent class; the Pharisees, those who stood very firm for what they considered the truth. Yet when John sees them both coming to his baptism, he says, "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance" — fruits of a kindred character. He maintains that the day of ceremonialism, or of birthrights, was completely past. The Pharisee might rest upon his religion; the Sadducee upon the fact that he was a child of Abraham. The desire to escape wrath and to have part in the kingdom might be no more than nature. Humbled souls suit the kingdom. Descent from the fathers, the law, the promises even, may be turned into a right against God, who will not allow it, and can raise out of the stones children to Abraham. But there must be, if they would draw near to God, ways of a nature morally suitable to God. "Bring forth, therefore," he says, "fruits meet for repentance." He is not explaining here how a sinner is to be saved, or how God remits sins; but that, if persons take the stand of having to do with God, there must be what becomes His presence. So the apostle says to the Hebrews, "Follow peace and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." He is not speaking there of what is imputed, but of holiness as a practical thing. This is written to Christians; and the Holy Ghost does not hesitate to insist upon it. So strong is the tendency to reaction in human nature that the very baptized Jews, who had been pleading for the law, might fall into the opposite extreme and think that sin is compatible with the salvation that God gives through grace. But God never allows that His nature can coexist with sanctioned iniquity.

Here then was evidently a stern rebuke for the leading Jews. But, more than that, John adds, "And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees" — that is to say, judgment is just at hand (ver. 10) — "therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance" — he does not go beyond this. The remission of sins that he speaks of appears to have been rather a question of the government of God than of that complete putting away of sin which was the fruit of grace when the work of atonement was done. But even so, it was in view of Messiah's advent.

Accordingly they did works meet for repentance; not to purchase immunity, but to show that their sorrow and alarm were real.