The Barren Tree's Delusion About Grace and Fruit

A parable of repentance as metanoia (transformative turning). Walking through an orchard one summer morning, I encountered a tree bearing neither leaves nor fruit. "You poor, lost tree," I said. "What are you doing here?"

The tree bristled: "I am neither poor nor lost. A great Saviour came, and I believed His gospel. I am saved by grace—a free gift."

"But you have no leaves, no fruit," I replied. "You are only a dead tree despite your talk of grace and redemption. True salvation means becoming living and fruit-bearing. Life itself is salvation. When I see you laden with fruit—even showing signs of leaves—then I shall say, 'That tree is saved at last; it has received the gospel and is made free from sin.'"

As I departed, the tree called after me: "You do not understand the gospel."

Yet herein lies the truth: so it is with men. Many imagine that grace and salvation are commodities Elohim keeps external to themselves, never understanding that he who is truly saved—he who takes Christ fully and rests on His atoning work alone—"is made free from sin" and "has his fruit unto holiness" (Romans 6:22). Repentance is not mere sorrow; it must permeate the entire constitution of man, producing the karpos (fruit) that evidences transformation.