Luke 3:8 - Genuine Faith

Luke 3:8 (ESV)

Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

These were John the Baptist’s words to the crowds who came out to hear him. He was saying that an empty reliance on tradition, history, and genealogy does not connect you to God. Repentance turns from trusting those things to trusting God. Genuine repentance bears fruit. Dependence on tradition, history, and genealogy produces hypocrisy, dead orthodoxy, and meaningless ritual. Dead orthodoxy and meaningless ritual may produce feelings of peace and wonder, but they don’t last, and they are imitation. True faith connects us to God despite circumstances, settings, and situations.

John challenged his listeners to move beyond tradition, history, and genealogy to true faith that transforms lives. Recently I heard someone exclaim, “It’s been a hard year, but it has not been a bad year.” He then went on to explain the challenges he and his wife had faced this past year. It led to some good discussion about what the difference is between a hard year and a bad year. The primary difference, we concluded, had to do with whether you recognized the presence of God in the hard stuff. That’s real faith. That’s not faith that relies on rituals and circumstances to make you feel spiritual. May we truly trust God in the coming year.