Luke 3:9 Commentary and Bible Study

John warns that a time of reckoning has come. The coming of the Messiah marked the beginning of the end of the period of special privilege for a nation that was largely unconverted. Great changes were afoot. No longer would it be enough to be born into the nation of Israel and yet remain a stranger to God’s grace. No longer could Jewish men and women go through the motions of religion without their hearts being engaged. God was calling them to worship him in spirit and in truth, and the time of purely ceremonial worship was coming to an end. The earthly privileges uniquely given to this one nation on earth were shortly to be withdrawn, and from now on only those with renewed hearts would be able to call themselves the people of God, the children of God. So John uses this powerful metaphor: ‘And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.’ Fruit – that is what was needed, and fruit would only come from a heart that was made new by the Holy Spirit. This fruit cannot be counterfeited. Yes, men may be deceived, but not the Lord. So the axeman is out and about, and every tree is being examined to see if it is alive and bearing fruit. This stringent test was something new. Up till now God had tolerated a mixed multitude among his people – believers and unbelievers mixed together. But the church of Jesus Christ was about to be formed, and it would be built on an entirely different principle to the nation of Israel. ‘Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: ³² Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: ³³ But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴ And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more’ (Jeremiah 31:31-34).