There had always been a confusion in my heart as to the implication of the verse, “The righteous shall live by faith” on the effort a person has to put to live a godly life. My understanding of the verses improved as I meditated on Romans 7:14-23 and Matthew 7:15-23.
Mt 7: 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
Taking these verses literally, one can understand or infer a bit more about the tree and its fruits.
The constituents and hence the taste of a fruit is determined by the information encoded in the seed of the tree. (Something like the DNA that determines the information contained in the seed of the womb). If the seed does not have the information to produce a good fruit, it never will and never can produce a good fruit. Of course, a thistle cannot produce figs. Assuming the thistle doesn’t want to produce thorns, it can at the most produce blunt thorns or no thorns at all. But, it can never produce figs. So is the fallen state of humanity. There is absolutely nothing good in us.
Human beings are a spirit dwelling in a body, possessing a soul. Our spirit is dead, in the sense that there is no goodness in it. There is no communion with God. The body with the desires of the flesh is corrupt. As a common parable goes, when you squeeze the sponge, whatever is absorbed by the sponge is what will emanate. So, whatever is there in the heart of man is what he will give out. The flesh on its own can produce only evil (thorns). At the most, evil that doesn’t hurt too much (blunt thorns), or no evil at all (ascetic). There is no way though, none, whatsoever to produce goodness. The spirit of a man, in its fallen state is a slave to the desires and the law of the flesh. The spirit listening to conscience can try to suppress the evil law at work. But what can the slave (spirit) do to destroy the master (law of flesh). For there is no other option, no hope to look at. Human effort can do nothing about this. There is but one way. The only way. Jesus.
Jesus offered the perfect sacrifice, so that we could be forgiven of our sins. He also made a way for communion with God. The Spirit of God can now, once again dwell with man. This is what happens when we pray the prayer of salvation inviting Christ to dwell in us as the Spirit. We have life in us now. Life that has goodness in it. Now, as Romans 7 clearly describes there are two opposing forces at work within us. There is the law of God desired by the Spirit of God and there is the law of flesh. Now there is information of producing a good fruit. But as such, still the tree has the bad fruit indwelling too.
Here is where my understanding of the ‘human effort’ improved. Now since there is the spirit of man (or free will), flesh and Spirit at war, the spirit of man needs to choose who gets to win! There is another parable commonly said. ‘There is a good wolf and a bad wolf at fight in the heart. Which wolf wins? The one that is fed. The one that is alive”. These are the two ways in which we need to exercise effort. We CANNOT do good on our own. Our righteousness is disgusting to God. Our role is to KILL and PUT TO DEATH the flesh. We need to crucify it and allow it to die. We also need to feed the Spirit of God and not quench it. Only then, the Spirit can show forth itself as a fruit in our lives. We then become good trees producing good fruit.
It is wonderful to realize that the two major symbolisms in Christianity clearly indicates this. Baptism-signifying the birth of Spirit in us. Communion reminding us of the crucifixion of the flesh and the life giving body of Christ on which we feed and drink. It is also crucial to understand how the two commandments: Love your God and love your neighbour fits here. Only by our love for God which expresses itself in constant communion and abiding can we bear good fruits. And the good fruits we bear are always for our neighbours to taste and enjoy. For a tree never produces fruit for itself to eat.
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