Luke 6:43 Commentary and Bible Study

If you have never been converted, your condition is far more serious than you realise. Fallen human nature is not capable of producing anything acceptable to God, because even the best that we do as unbelievers is spoiled by sinful motives, sinful goals. What needs to be done to us? As well as having all our sins forgiven and purged away, and Christ take the eternal punishment for what we have done to satisfy the justice of God, we also need to be radically changed. We need a new heart with new desires, and a new readiness to obey God that is not just a grudging and reluctant compliance, but a response full of gratitude. That is so far from what we are by nature. The fallen human heart is not capable of giving sincere obedience to God, just as a thorn bush is not capable of producing figs. There are lessons to be learned from the different kinds that God has created which all reproduce according to their kind. It is among other things a spiritual lesson because it points to the way in which spiritual nature produces fruit according to its kind, good or bad. How many solid lesson Jesus Christ derived from the created world around him! He puts this both ways round: ‘a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.’ In the same way a spiritual nature does not produce evil fruit, the fruit of the Spirit, and a carnal heart does not produce fruit to God. Then why does a child of God have to confess their sins, and why is a child of this world capable of giving good gifts to his children? The first happens because the believer has two natures, not one. At the new birth he received a new nature, but the old nature is still there while we are in the body and will not be removed until physical death. Both natures are still operating to some extent and although the Christian mortifies the flesh and denies ungodly lusts, he does not succeed completely until the moment of death, which becomes death to the old nature. The new nature should be growing stronger as it is fed by God, and through the ministry of his word. The two are at war with each other, and the believer experiences the perplexing struggle between them. The second happens because while the old nature is corrupted, God has preserved it from complete and utter decay, so that this world is still capable of being lived in and is not given over to complete anarchy. The Lord puts instincts of protection and care in the parent for their children, even though the parents do not know him or possess his salvation. There is also love in this world, because God wishes to have a language with which he can communicate his grace and mercy to fallen mankind. If he was to remove all human kindness from the world, there would be no way that we could understand what God meant when he spoke of loving the world by giving his only begotten Son. But this is due to God restraining hand, and is not to the credit of man. But none of those acts towards their children are able to earn God’s favour, or contribute to righteousness before God. When Abimelech took Sarah, Abraham’s wife, and God came to him in a dream and warned him, Abimelech protested that he was innocent because he did not know, but God told him that it was he who had restrained the king and prevented him from sinning against God (Genesis 20:3-6).