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The Axe at the Root: Fruit in Keeping with Repentance (Matthew 3:7–10) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking, where we take a deep dive into
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scripture and theology. Glad to be here.
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Today we're heading out to the wilderness, specifically the
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banks of the Jordan River. The air is electric.
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Really. Jesus is about to begin his
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public ministry. The first there's the
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Forerunner, John the Baptist. Exactly this.
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This powerful, almost alarming figure preparing the way.
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Yeah, not exactly subtle. Not at all.
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And our mission today is to really zoom in, do some, you
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know, careful work on just a few verses.
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Matthew chapter 3, verses 7 through 10.
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A short passage, but incredibly potent.
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It really is. It feels like a reality check,
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doesn't it? It just sort of rips away any
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false confidence we might have. It forces you to ask, is my
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faith, my religious life built on real change?
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Or am I just leaning on, you know, my background, my
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credentials? Right, so the goal here is
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clarity. What does true repentance
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actually demand? Why are things like ancestry or
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just looking pious totally useless as Shields against God's
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judgment? And how does John score message
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point us straight to the Messiah?
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Yes, because it all seems to pivot on this one sharp demand
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he makes, especially to the religious leaders who show up.
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What is it? He says.
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Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
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That's the heart of it. Matthew 3.8.
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OK, let's set the scene properly then, because understanding that
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command means understanding who John was and where this was all
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happening. This isn't some quiet seminar
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room. No, this is the wilderness, and
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the preacher himself is well, he's a sight.
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He really is a walking prophecy, isn't he?
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His whole appearance is making a statement.
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Absolutely intentional. The camel's hair clothing, the
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leather belt around his waist. Straight out of Two Kings 1
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describing Elijah. Precisely.
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And his diet, too. Locust and wild honey.
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This wasn't just, you know, personal preference or extreme
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fasting. It was a signal, a loud one.
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Yeah. He's deliberately echoing
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Elijah, the Tishbite. It's like shouting to Israel.
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Remember Malachi 4, The prophet who prepares the way?
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He's here. The prophetic silence is over.
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After 400 years. Right.
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And the message is the king is coming.
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Get ready. And the location reinforces this
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the Jordan River. Huge significance.
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It's not just any river for Israel.
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The Jordan means well. It means beginnings.
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Crossing into the promised land with Joshua.
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Their birth as a nation, in a sense.
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Exactly. So when John sets up shop there,
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baptizing people in Jordan, he's calling Israel already God's
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covenant people to a kind of national reset, a new exodus,
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but this time of the heart. In preparation for their king.
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And the response was massive. People were pouring out from
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Jerusalem, from all over Judea, the whole region around the
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Jordan. And doing what?
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Confessing their sins publicly and then being baptized by John.
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Which must have been jarring. Baptism was usually for who?
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For Gentile converts, pagans coming into the Jewish faith,
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into the covenant community, John applying it to Jews was
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radical. It's like he's saying your
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birthright isn't enough, your covenant membership as it stands
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isn't sufficient. You need cleansing repentance
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just like an outsider would. The whole nation needed a
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spiritual reset before the Messiah arrived.
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OK, so into the scene, crowds confessing a sense of urgency,
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national repentance. Into this walks trouble, or at
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least friction. Yeah, Matthew makes a point of
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telling us John saw many from 2 specific groups coming out for
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baptism. The Pharisees and the Sadducees.
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Right. And Matthew pairs them together,
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which is interesting in itself because these groups were, well,
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bitter rivals. They disagreed on fundamental
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things, didn't they? Absolutely.
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So why does Matthew lump them together here?
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He wants us to see something crucial.
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OK, despite their theological battles, they shared, you could
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say, a common spiritual disease. But let's quickly remember who
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they were. The Pharisees they were.
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More of a lay movement, right? Not necessarily priests.
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Very focused on personal purity, following the law.
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Yes, the written law, plus their extensive oral traditions.
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These fence laws designed to make sure you didn't even get
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close to breaking commandments. Very meticulous.
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Very and they strongly believed in the future resurrection in
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angels spirits. Their influence was mainly in
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the synagogues with the ordinary people.
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And the Sadducees. Very different crowd.
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Totally different, more aristocratic, priestly families,
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often wealthy their authority, They stuck only to the first
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five books of the Bible, the Torah or Pentateuch.
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Which led to some major disagreements.
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Oh yeah, they controlled the temple, valued that status, and
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crucially, they flat out denied a future resurrection.
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No angels, no spirits in their view.
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It's amazing they'd even show up at the same event, let alone 1.
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Led by a wild prophet demanding repentance.
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They fought over whether you'd even exist after death.
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They show up, Matthew implies, because they shared that deeper
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problem, a confidence in their status and the structures they
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controlled in their outward appearances.
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OK, so the Pharisee trusted his rule, keeping his knowledge, his
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reputation for piety, his religious resume.
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Exactly. And the Sadducee.
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He trusted his priestly lineage, his temple connections, his
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political cloud in Jerusalem, his office, his pedigree.
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Both thought their external credentials somehow put them
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above the need for the radical repentance John was preaching to
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the masses. They assumed they were the
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standard, not the ones needing correction.
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And John just demolishes that assumption instantly.
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He doesn't greet them, he doesn't inquire politely.
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He hits them with some of the harshest language in the
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Gospels. He shouts.
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Right, you brood of Vipers, who warned you to flee from the
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wrath to come? Brood of Vipers.
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Let's unpack that gain in modetism.
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It sounds like just an insult, but you're saying it's more.
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It's a theological diagnosis, really.
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Brood implies family likeness. Offspring.
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Vipers are venomous, sneaky, dangerous.
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They blend in, then strike. So he's saying their outward
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religious appearance hides a deadly, deceptive nature.
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Precisely. They look like guides,
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shepherds, but internally they're poisonous, a threat to
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the spiritual life of the people.
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It's like he's peeling back the camouflage.
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It's shocking language aimed at the religious elite.
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A wake up call delivered with a hammer.
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It is and it's meant to be. It's a you could call it loving
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surgery. Harsh but necessary to expose
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the disease. And then the question who warned
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you? That seems to cut even deeper,
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questioning their motives. Oh, it's brilliant.
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He's basically asking why are you really here?
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Did God convict you? Did you genuinely hear the alarm
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and tremble or you just showing up because it looks like the
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right thing to do? Are you trying to get the
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benefit of repentance escaping wrath without the actual cost of
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repentance changing your life? Exactly.
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Are you here for a genuine turn to God or just for the public
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ritual? Are you trying to manage
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appearances while your heart stays the same?
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John demands reality. It feels like he's guarding the
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baptism itself, guarding the meaning of repentance.
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He can't let them treat it like a meaningless ceremony.
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He. Can't.
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If these leaders, the supposed models of piety, could just
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waltz through the water without genuine change, it would
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undermine the whole call to repentance for everyone else.
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It would make it seem like a superficial act.
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Right. By confronting them so fiercely,
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John preserves the integrity of the message.
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God's Kingdom requires a new heart, a radical turn, not just
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watching the outside of the cup. This sets up the urgency,
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doesn't it? Fleeing implies imminent danger.
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So this wrath to come, what exactly is John warning them
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about? This melisses O ghosts the wrath
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to come. This isn't speculation.
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It's presented as a certainty. It's on the schedule.
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OK, but what is God's wrath? People sometimes imagine God
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just, you know, losing his temper.
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And that's a misunderstanding. Yeah, Biblically, God's wrath
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isn't like human anger, arbitrary or vindictive.
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It's his settled, holy opposition to sin.
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It's his righteous, necessary response to evil and rebellion.
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So it's not optional for God. His own nature demands it.
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Exactly. Scripture talks about it being
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revealed already in part, but also stored up waiting for a
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final day of judgement. It's inevitable because God is
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just. So Jen isn't just recycling old
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threats, he's saying this future certain judgement is now near.
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Incredibly near the language to come points to the future, but
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the whole context screams imminence.
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The Kingdom is at hand, the king is coming, therefore the judge
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is at the door. Which means delay is fatal.
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Your status as a Pharisee or Sadducee won't shield you.
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Not for a second, and John uses this incredibly stark image to
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drive home the nearness and the severity.
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The axe. Even now the axe is laid to the
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root of the trees. Already laid.
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That's the key part. Yes, Eddie, already.
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It's not just coming soon. The tool is already in place.
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The verb kodo kitai suggests it's lying there, positioned
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ready. The woodsman has set the axe
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against the base of the tree. Judgement isn't theoretical.
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It's poised. The swing is imminent.
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That's the picture. The delay isn't indifference.
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It's a moment of grace before the stroke falls.
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And where is the axe laid? Not at the branches.
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Crucially, at the root, this gets right at their false
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confidence. How so?
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Well, if the axe were just trimming branches, you could
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manage that, right? Prune a few bad habits, improve
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the appearance, tie the decay within.
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That's what they were good at. Image management.
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Exactly. But the axe is at the root.
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God deals with the source, the heart, the fundamental nature of
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the tree, external piety, fancy titles, religious activity.
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None of that matters if the root is rotten.
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So cosmetic changes won't cut it.
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It points to the need for something deeper.
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It screams the need for new birth, a totally new root
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system. Only a fundamentally changed
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nature can produce the right kind of life.
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This image completely bypasses their credentials, their status.
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It levels the playing field. Absolutely, and John is crystal
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clear about the outcome for any tree that fails the test.
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What happens to the bad trees? Every tree, therefore, that does
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not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
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Every tree, no exceptions based on the type of tree or how old
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it is. It comes down to the individual,
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your connection to Abraham, your position in the Sanhedrin.
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One of it matters if your life doesn't show evidence of
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repentance. The fire is the final just
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consequence for fruitlessness. It's a binary outcome, fruitful
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life or fiery judgment. No third way, no neutral ground.
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John leaves no room for ambiguity.
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You're either alive in God producing fruit, or you're
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Deadwood destined for the fire. It's the ultimate reality check,
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really. There's no such thing as a
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genuinely saved person who remains permanently fruitless.
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That sharp confrontation in verse 7, calling them Vipers,
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directly leads into the command in verse 8.
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It's like, OK, I've exposed your pretense now here's what reality
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looks like. Yes, the therefore connects it
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directly. You brood of Vipers therefore
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bear fruit. Having stripped away their
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excuses, he gives the positive command.
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Their fruit in keeping with repentance, poisate garias
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metanas. And that verb poyae, sign, bear,
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or produce is an aorist imperative.
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The grammar here is important. Why aorist?
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What does that signal? It's not a command for ongoing
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action like keep bearing fruit. It presses for decisive,
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definite action. Now start producing.
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So it's not try harder or plan to do better, it's show me the
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evidence starting right now. Exactly.
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It cuts against their tendency to manage appearances or have
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vague good intentions. John demands a visible change in
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life direction immediately. If you claim repentance, prove
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it by your actions. The fruit karpos, the outcome
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has to be a zone axion worthy or fitting for the repentance, the
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manoi metanoia, the outside must match the inside claim.
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The visible life pattern must correspond to the claimed inward
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change of mind and heart. You can't say I've repented of
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greed while still cheating people.
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Which means we need to be clear on what repentance metanoia
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actually is, and maybe what it isn't.
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People often water it down. You do.
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Metanoia is a fundamental change of mind, a turning of the will
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away from sin and toward God. It's not just feeling bad.
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Judas felt regret right, but didn't repent in this sense.
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Precisely. It's not just a passing mood or
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a temporary sorrow because you got caught.
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Pharaoh had moments like that. It's not just a private feeling
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either. Is it something you keep to
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yourself? No, John's demanding visible
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evidence. It has to come out into the
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open. Name the sin, turn from it,
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start new habits. And it's certainly not just
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stage contrition putting on a show of piety.
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Like acting sorry. Right.
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And crucially, repentance is not a cover up for continuing in the
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same old sins. The idea that you can claim
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God's grace but willfully keep doing what he forbids, that's
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exactly what John is attacking. That sounds like abusing grace.
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It is, and it's also not trusting in the ceremony itself,
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thinking the baptism washes you clean, even if your heart and
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habits don't change. That makes the ritual a magic
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charm, a Talisman. John won't allow that.
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So this demand for fruit, it acts like a guardrail, keeping
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us out of two dangerous dishes in theology.
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That's a great way to put it. It protects us from both
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legalism on one side and lawless grace or antinomianism on the
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other. OK, how does it guard against
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legalism? Legalism is trying to earn God's
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favor through your good works, your fruit.
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The legalist thinks my obedience makes God accept me.
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John makes it clear the fruit is the evidence you've been
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accepted by grace through faith, not the reason you're accepted.
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So fruit doesn't buy pardon. It proves pardon has been
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received. Exactly, if you think your good
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deeds are your ticket and you're basically doing what the
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Pharisees did, trusting your own resume.
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And the other ditch lawless grace.
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This is the danger of saying well I'm saved by grace so it
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doesn't matter how I live, I have my get out of jail free
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card. They might talk about repentance
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for initial conversion, but not as the ongoing reality of the
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Christian life. Like grace becomes a license to
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sin. Right.
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John slams that door shut. If the repentance is real, if
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the faith is genuine, it will produce a changed life.
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New life inevitably results in new obedience, new fruit.
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As James says, faith without works is dead.
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So the fruit proves the faith is alive.
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It's the vital sign, so the proper order, the grammar of
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salvation, as we often say in Reformed circles, is clear.
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Grace first, God's initiative. Always undeserved favor that
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grace enables faith, trusting in Christ alone for salvation.
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And that genuine faith inevitably leads to.
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A changed walk, Sanctification. Good works bearing fruit.
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The walk doesn't save you, but it demonstrates that the grace
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and faith were real. No fruit suspect.
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Root. That's the logic.
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John forces this choice. Either the axe falls because
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there's no lice, or there's new life producing fruit.
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You can't have it both ways. John is relentless.
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He's challenged their motives, warned them of judgement,
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demanded visible fruit. Now he goes for their ultimate
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safety net. Their ace in the hole, they
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thought. Their heritage.
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He anticipates exactly what they're thinking, doesn't he?
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What they're saying to yourselves privately.
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He does, He warns them. And do not presume to say to
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yourselves, we have Abraham as our father.
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That was the trump card, wasn't it, Being a physical descendant
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of Abraham. Absolutely.
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For many, it was an ironclad guarantee.
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God made promises to Abraham and his descendants.
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Therefore, they reasoned, we're in automatically.
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It was seen as covenantal security based purely on
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bloodline. Why was that belief so strong?
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Well, it stemmed from a reading or perhaps misreading of the Old
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Testament promises. God did choose Abraham's line.
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The promises were real, but they twisted it into an automatic
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entitlement. Regardless of personal faith or
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obedience. They.
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Thought maybe a Gentile needs radical repentance, but we are
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Abraham's kids. We just need minor adjustments.
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Something like that. They saw lineage as a shield.
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And John just shatters that shield.
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What's his counter argument? It's pretty stunning.
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It really is, he tells them. Lineage is a gift, yes, but it's
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not a get out of judgement free card.
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God is not bound by their expectations or their bloodline.
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How does he demonstrate God's freedom?
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He says, For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise
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up children for. Abraham from stones.
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Just the rocks lying there in the desert.
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Think about that. God can create covenant children
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out of inanimate objects if he chooses.
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His power and sovereignty are absolute.
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He doesn't need their lineage if their hearts are.
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Hard so if God can make errors out of rocks, he certainly
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doesn't owe salvation to people just because they have the right
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ancestor, especially if they're resisting him.
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Recisely it demolishes their sense of entitlement.
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The real point, then, is that true membership in God's family
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was never just about physical descent.
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Never. Solely about that.
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It was always about faith, like Abraham's own faith.
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And that faith, as we've said, shows itself in obedience, in
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fruit, in the reality of new birth.
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The badge of belonging isn't your family tree, is the fruit
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on your branches. OK, let's bring that forward.
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What are the modern equivalents of we have Abraham as our
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father? What are the false shelters
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people rely on today that John would expose?
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Oh, there are plenty. Yeah.
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The principle applies directly. Yeah.
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Anything external we trust in instead of a changed heart
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submitted to Christ becomes a false shelter.
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Like what? Give us some examples.
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Well. Confidence and religious
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credentials. Saying I was born into a
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Christian family, or I grew up in the church, or my parents
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were elders, or I belong to the right denomination.
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Assuming those things automatically make you right
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with God. Replacing personal faith with
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family history. Yes, or relying on ceremony as
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cover, Thinking that because you were baptized or because you
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take communion regularly, you're safe even if your life is marked
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by unrepentant sin. Using the ritual to soothe the
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conscience without changing the will.
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That's common, isn't it, Going through the motions.
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Very common. And then there's our piety or
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image management. Maintaining A respectable
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Christian reputation, maybe being very active in church,
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serving on committees while secretly indulging in hidden
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sin. Looking good on the outside
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while the root is diseased. John's message cuts through all
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of that. It says none of those external
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things can protect you from the axe if the heart isn't right.
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None of them. The warning seems harsh, but
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there's mercy in it, isn't there?
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It's designed to shatter the illusions of the self satisfied,
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the Unbroken who think they don't need a radical change.
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To show them that only a new route given by God can actually
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save them. Exactly.
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OK, so John demands fruit. Real visible evidence fitting
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for repentance. We need to get practical.
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Now. What does this fruit actually
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look like day-to-day? Right.
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And 1st, let's be clear again, this fruit isn't something we
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manufacture to impress God. It's the natural organic result
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of the new life He gives. It's.
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The crop that grows because Christ is united with the
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believer, right? Yes, it's proof of union with
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Christ. You can't staple apples onto a
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dead branch and call it an apple tree.
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The fruit grows from the life within.
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And the presence of some fruit, even if it's imperfect, even if
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it's mixed with ongoing struggles and weakness, that's
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the sign. That's the decisive sign.
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It proves the trees alive, not dead.
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Perfection isn't the standard in this life, but the direction of
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life changes and the evidence begins to show.
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Thankfully, John didn't just leave it abstract when people
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asked him, OK, what should we do then he gave concrete examples.
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Luke's Gospel helps us here. Luke 3.
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Yes, very practical to the general crowds, he demanded
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Generosity, basic sharing. Whoever has two tunics is to
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share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do
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likewise. Straightforward, it hits.
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Greed, selfishness, repentance means your wallet and your
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pantry are affected. You start thinking outwards.
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Then the tax collectors came. These guys were despised, often
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corrupt. They collected Roman taxes and
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usually patted their own pockets.
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What did John tell them? Quit your job.
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No Interestingly, he told them to practice financial integrity
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within their job. Collect no more than you are
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authorized to do. Wow, so don't exploit people.
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Do your job honestly, even if the system itself is flawed.
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Exactly, it shows repentance isn't about escaping the world
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but living righteously in it, and implied in that is making
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restitution. If you've cheated someone,
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genuine repentance means paying it back.
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Like Zacchaeus later promising to pay back fourfold.
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That's tangible fruit. Painful, even.
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Very tangible. Then the soldiers asked him
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Roman soldiers or perhaps local forces who had power and often
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abused it. John demanded contentment and
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justice from them. Do not extort money from anyone
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by threats or false accusation and be content with your wages.
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So no bullying, no false charges to get bribes and stop grumbling
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about your pay. Right.
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Use your power justly, not for personal gain or malice.
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Be content with what you have. Looking at these three examples,
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crowds, tax collectors, soldiers, there's a common
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theme, isn't there? Definitely.
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It's self denial, denying the old impulse toward greed,
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dishonesty, abuse of power, discontentment and replacing it
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with the opposite generosity, integrity, justice, contentment.
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And this extends beyond money and power, presumably, to how we
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speak, how we handle conflict. Absolutely.
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Repentance means a change in speech and honesty.
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You stop lying, stop exaggerating, stop flattering.
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You speak truth plainly. Your word becomes reliable.
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It means a new way of handling conflict.
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Instead of holding grudges or seeking revenge, you pursue
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peace. You become, as Paul says, kind,
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tenderhearted, forgiving others as Christ forgave you.
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And certainly purity in thought and deed, yes.
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Turning away from sexual immorality, honoring marriage,
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dealing radically with secret sins.
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Confession replaces concealment. The fruit needs to be evident in
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private life, not just public. When we gather all this up, it
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sounds a lot like the list Paul gives later, the fruit of the
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Spirit. It does.
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Galatians 5 Lovejoy, Peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
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faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
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These aren't things we achieve by gritting our teeth.
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They are the character traits produced by the Holy Spirit
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dwelling within the believer. They are the natural outgrowth
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of the new heart Christ gives. They are.
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They don't earn God's mercy, but they're absolutely the fitting
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qualities for someone who has received God's mercy and been
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rescued from his wrath. And their absence, even allowing
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for weakness, is a serious warning sign about the state of
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the root. John's message is severe.
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The axe, the wrath. But you said it's not meant to
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end in despair. It's clearing the ground for
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something or someone. Exactly.
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The severity serves a purpose to drive the center away from false
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hopes and toward the only true hope.
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John's entire ministry points beyond himself.
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To the mightier 1. Yes, John is very clear about
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his own limitations. He baptizes with water, a symbol
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of repentance. But the one coming after him?
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Will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
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That's the key difference. John can call for repentance,
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demand fruit, but he can't produce it in people.
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Only Christ can give the new heart, the new root, through the
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gift of the Holy Spirit. This is the fulfillment of those
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Old Testament promises, isn't it?
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Like in Ezekiel. Ezekiel 36 Yes, I will give you
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a new heart and put a new spirit within you.
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Jeremiah 31 Writing the law on their hearts only Christ through
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the Spirit gives the inner transformation that makes
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obedience possible and even desirable.
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The command for fruit depends entirely on Christ's gift of
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life. So Christ provides the source of
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the new life, but John's big problem was the wrath to come.
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How does Christ provide the answer to that?
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Through the cross, specifically through propitiation, OK.
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That's a big theological word, Propitiation.
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Break it down for us. It means satisfying God's just
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wrath against sin. Because God is perfectly holy,
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He must punish sin. He can't just ignore it or sweep
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it under the rug. His justice demands a penalty.
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Christ on the cross stood in our place.
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He took the punishment we deserved.
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He absorbed the full force of God's righteous anger against
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our sin. John the Baptist pointed to him
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as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, Paul
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says. God displayed him publicly as a
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propitiation. He satisfied God's justice.
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Yes, He bore the curse for us, and because he did, God can
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justly forgive sinners who trust in Him, delivering them from the
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wrath to come, as Paul puts it in First Thessalonians.
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So the only refuge from the axe, from the wrath, is hiding in
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Christ, who took the blow for us.
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That's the gospel. He is the only safe place.
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The Christ isn't just the Savior offering refuge.
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John also presents him as the judge who carries out the
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separation implied by the axe image.
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Absolutely. The Mightier 1 doesn't just
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bring the spirit, he also brings fire.
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Judgment, John says. He arrives with his winnowing
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fork in his hand. Another agricultural image.
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What does the winnowing fork do? After the harvest, you use it to
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toss the crushed grain into the air.
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The wind blows away the light, worthless chaff, the husks and
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straw the heavier, valuable grain.
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The wheat falls back down to be gathered.
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It's a separation process. A final separation.
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Christ will do this. He gathers the wheat, the truly
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fruitful, those whose lives show the reality of the new birth
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into his barn, his Kingdom. And the chaff, the fruitless
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trees, the Vipers, those who relied on appearance.
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He will. Burn the chaff with unquenchable
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fire. It mirrors the fate of the
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fruitless tree thrown into the fire.
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This really brings us back full circle to that careful balance
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in reformed theology, avoiding those two ditches.
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It does. It holds both truths together
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perfectly. Justification.
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We are declared righteous solely because of Christ's work, His
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blood received by faith alone. That guards against legalism.
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We are not saved by our fruit. But sanctification, the process
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of becoming holy, necessarily results in fruit.
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Real faith changes us. That guards against lawless
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grace. The fruit is the evidence, the
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proof that the justifying faith is real and alive.
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Saved by the root known by the fruit.
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That's a good summary. The purpose of John's warning
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the axe isn't ultimately to make us try harder to staple fruit
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unto ourselves. It's to make us check our
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foundation. What route are we actually
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trusting in? Exactly.
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If judgment falls on the fruitless, the urgent need isn't
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just for better behavior, but for a new source of life.
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And that comes only from Christ. We're judged according to our
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fruit, but we're saved only by the Savior who gives the life
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that produces the fruit. That distinction, fruit as
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evidence versus fruit as payment, seems absolutely
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critical to understanding John here.
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It's everything. So as we wrap up this deep dive
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into just a few verses of Matthew 3, it's clear that
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John's message is just as relevant now.
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God isn't impressed by religious games or family trees.
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No. The certainty of his holy
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opposition to sin remains. The uselessness of relying on
26:51
anything other than Christ remains.
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And the absolute necessity of genuine repentance, evidenced by
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decisive action by fruit, in keeping with that repentance,
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that remains too. It's the unavoidable sign of a
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changed. Route.
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It feels like John's call echoes down to us today, doesn't it?
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Lay down the resumes, the credentials, the excuses.
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Confess what God already knows. Come to Christ with empty hands.
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Trust his sacrifice, his propitiation alone.
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Because the divide is stark. Living trees bearing fruit, even
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if it's small, even if we struggle.
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Or dead trees destined for the fire, no matter how impressive
27:26
they look to the world. And that warning of the axe
27:28
poised at the root reminds us the judgement on barrenness is
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real and unavoidable. So maybe a final thought to
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consider a provocative question based on John's urgency.
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OK, if that heiress imperative bear fruit demands decisive
27:43
action now, what's one small concrete step you could take
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today, right now, to actively confirm that Christ has indeed
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planted a new root in your life? Not to earn salvation, but as
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evidence of it. Exactly.
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Maybe it's confessing a specific hidden sin you've been clinging
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to, perhaps to God and a trusted Christian friend.
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Maybe it's finally making that phone call to offer restitution
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for something dishonest in the past.
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Or maybe just starting one small new pattern, like committing to
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honesty in a particular area where you tend to fudge the
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truth. Or consciously practicing
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contentment instead of complaining today.
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Small steps, but decisive ones. Actions that show the new life
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is present and active, even if imperfectly.
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The axe is set, judgment is certain, but the good news John
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points to is that the Savior is also present.
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Ready with mercy, ready with the Spirit, ready to give the very
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life he demands. The time to run to him, to trust
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him for that new route, is always now.